Maverick Help

[venture]

I'm still recommending the boiling water test adjusted for your altitude and at a rolling boil.

I would bet that MAV is within 1 or 2 degrees?

Therms in different locations can give very different readings.  Fortunately, pit temps don't have to be within a degree.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[sb59]

 
OK. So on my model of smoker - Masterbuilt Pro Dual fuel Gas - where do you recommend for me to try placing the Maverick BBQ probe? I get the walls and door side run higher, but I thought I was a step ahead by putting the Mav in the center.

ribssmkr.jpg

• jomadav
• Sep 20, 2014

Sorry for the late reply! I try to put mine away from direct air flow from heat source ,hanging near the product being smoked but at least 2 inches from the product so that the meat or fish temp.does not affect the therm. reading. You're trying to get a general air temp. reading within a few degrees in you're meats location. I don't use the probe clip because the rack temp. is conducted thru the clip to the probe and you still aren't getting an air temp. I simply suspend the probe from the cable near the meat.

 

[daricksta]

 
Sorry for the late reply! I try to put mine away from direct air flow from heat source ,hanging near the product being smoked but at least 2 inches from the product so that the meat or fish temp.does not affect the therm. reading. You're trying to get a general air temp. reading within a few degrees in you're meats location. I don't use the probe clip because the rack temp. is conducted thru the clip to the probe and you still aren't getting an air temp. I simply suspend the probe from the cable near the meat.

Are you sure about the clips conducting the rack temp to the probe? I know nothing about physics but I understand what you're saying--but,. wouldn't the racks temp and the air temp be the same? Why would Maverick include clips if they had this defect? Seems to me that if you're suspending the probe like that at some point the connection point where the wire is attached to the probe will fail. This is all guesswork, though.

I tried suspending the Food probe yesterday since I was smoking racks of baby backs and got a much higher air temp reading than the Barbecue probe. I inserted the probe into the ribs and immediately got the correct temp.  I'm still experimenting where the best spot is in my MES 30 to place the BBQ probe.

 

[venture]

When I first got my Mav, I wondered about the clip too.

I put it in with a clip, and a put another wired probe next to it.  The second probe was thru a piece of wood with the sensing portion well away from the wood.

Acu Rite Probe View.jpg

• venture
• Sep 29, 2014

The Mav probe in the metal clip gave the same reading as the Acu Rite probe in the wood holder.

So....I stopped worrying about the metal clip heating the Mav probe.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[daricksta]

 
When I first got my Mav, I wondered about the clip too.

I put it in with a clip, and a put another wired probe next to it.  The second probe was thru a piece of wood with the sensing portion well away from the wood.

Acu Rite Probe View.jpg

• venture
• Sep 29, 2014

The Mav probe in the metal clip gave the same reading as the Acu Rite probe in the wood holder.

So....I stopped worrying about the metal clip heating the Mav probe.

Good luck and good smoking.

This is great to know. Thanks.

 

[sb59]

I just figure metal conducts heat so why chance it. Also the rack temp is affected by the cold meat working as a heat sink when you first start out. Eventually as the smoke progresses and the meat temps rise every thing will be closer to equal but at the onset I'm trying to get a better read on the actual air temp to set the smoker. Luckily a diff of 5 or even 10 degrees either way in air temps are not as important as actual temp of finished product, both for safety and taste. 

 

[jomadav]

 
I just figure metal conducts heat so why chance it. Also the rack temp is affected by the cold meat working as a heat sink when you first start out. Eventually as the smoke progresses and the meat temps rise every thing will be closer to equal but at the onset I'm trying to get a better read on the actual air temp to set the smoker. Luckily a diff of 5 or even 10 degrees either way in air temps are not as important as actual temp of finished product, both for safety and taste. 

I'm on the fence with the "metal conducts" thing. I work with electricity so I get how metal conducts. If anything, it should be a heat sink. I like the wood block idea from Venture's post earlier but also see that it made no difference. I feel that when up to temp ( 1 hr ? ) the clip on the probe should be the same temp as the rack > which should be the same temp as the air. I used to use the "tinfoil potato" for my old probe and never had any problem with that method.

 

[jomadav]

 
Digital thermometers use software algorithms to convert the electrical impulses from the probes into a readout.  Plus or minus 3-4F is what Maverick considers accurate.  My chamber probes are right on while my food probes read 2 degrees low.  I'm basically at sea level. 

Additionally, the programming in digital thermometers will average the readout over time.  Therms from different manufacturers will use different software.  The Maverick has a rather short averaging period.  My BBQ Guru has a longer averaging period.  The chamber probes will read quite differently for a while but eventually the two match up.  Not so with the food probes.  The Guru food probe tested at 212F but reads 5 degrees hotter than the Maverick when stuck in the same piece of meat right next to each other.   

For consistent results pick one make of thermometer and cook/smoke "to" it.  I learned with the Maverick so that's what I go by.  If I had to use the Guru exclusively it would take a little while to adapt my timings and final temps, but not long.  If I had to use the lid thermometer exclusively it would take longer still to develop the "feel" for doneness since it gives the temp at the lid, not the grates, which in the WSM will have different temps than the lid. 

Talk about OCD!  I'm quite analytical about mine.         

I like you OCD problem as well !....I think I am just going to have to "just roll with it". It drives me nuts not being able to dial it in completely but then again I get some parts of this hobby are NOT an exact science. ( referencing avg. air temps not thermometer software - that does have science

 

[sb59]

 
I'm on the fence with the "metal conducts" thing. I work with electricity so I get how metal conducts. If anything, it should be a heat sink. I like the wood block idea from Venture's post earlier but also see that it made no difference. I feel that when up to temp ( 1 hr ? ) the clip on the probe should be the same temp as the rack > which should be the same temp as the air. I used to use the "tinfoil potato" for my old probe and never had any problem with that method.

I also think rack & air will be about same once the external of the meat also equalizes. But at the onset both are affected by the temp. of the meat in the immediate area.

 

[daricksta]

What I find interesting is that while the MES is a mass-produced "assembly line" item so they should conceptually all be the same (and I understand there could be differences based on each individual component and the person who assembled the smoker), all of us have different experiences with them. Some of you have felt the need to mod your smokers to achieve better results because you feel the default setup isn't sufficient for your needs.

For me, my smoker works fine as is and it's enough just to learn to learn and work with its existing idiosyncrasies let alone experiment with mods. I approach using mine very simply: I use the AMNPS for my smoke source and I use my Maverick ET-733 to monitor air and food temps. I don't worry about clips and rack heat and such because I've found over the hours I'm smoking the Mav is very accurate. Reading comments about the software used in the different therms and how they each cycle is very instructive because I have no knowledge of any of that.

 

[sb59]

Since I have the analog model the mods. I did were so I could achieve smoke at lower temps. required for fish, jerky,& sausage. As a hot smoker for butts,turkey etc. it was fine.

 

[daricksta]

I keep forgetting you have the analog model which is a completely different animal from the digital.