MES Temperatures

[misterbill]

I just got my smoker today and I am currently seasoning it as the instructions say, however the Maverick Remote Thermometer is reading 350 degrees and the MES is reading 270 degrees. Do I have a faulty Controller or is this normal for the first use?

I confirmed the remote thermometer temperature by sticking a Oil Thermometer in the vent and it reached around 330ish.

 

[SmokinAl]

They are always off, yours is off more than most, but be happy it's not the other way around. As in the MES say's 275, but the grate is only 225. You can get your smoker up to the kind of heat that will make crispy smoked chicken & turkey (300 degrees). I would leave it alone & be happy. As long as you know the true grate temp. the factory setting doesn't matter.

 

[gotarace]

x2   Al gave you some great advice there....enjoy your MES and post many q-views

 

[mikeh]

Yes, what the others said.  My MES40 shows 275 on the controller, but my thermo shows its actually 225-230. So you are going in the better of the two directions in my opinion.  I do have a new controller on its way to help out with my situation (thanks Darryl) but you should be in great shape..  enjoy your new MES....

Mike

 

[Bearcarver]

Give it some time, it should simmer down.

If I run mine straight up, non-stop, from Ambient temp to 275˚, it will shut off at 275˚, but it will continue to get hotter in the smoker, because it has momentum. It gradually comes down, and settles in around 290˚ or 295˚ (on my Maverick).

It's better that way, than having one that goes up to 275˚ on the MES control readout, but is really only 240˚. One guy had that, and had to get a new control unit.

OOPS, didn't see MikeH's post.

Bear

 

[misterbill]

Thanks guys for the info, I just hope  my Maverick is working correctly (defective Probe?)

How about the location of the smoker thermometer? I have it dangleing off the top most grill rack. Is that a good spot for it?

Right now my MES says 160 my Maverick says 231 and a conventional thermometer says 175.....

 

[Bearcarver]

Did you check the Maverick in boiling water, to read 212˚?

Usually the hottest place in both of my MESs, other than right near the element, is the top 8" to 10" on the right side, from the mid point to the back.

This being because the heat from the element goes straight up from the element to the exhaust.

You can also check the dual probes, by switching them from left to right on the unit.

Bear

 

[gotarace]

Make sure your probe isn't touching a rack...it will give you a false high reading. Also i put my chamber probe through a 2x3 inch piece of wood that i drilled a hole through so it sits above the rack. Some folks take a potato square and stick their chamber probe though that, then sit it on the rack to get a good reading.

 

[porked]

All of the above, I know you'll get different readings if you move it around.

 

[SmokinAl]

As long as you have checked your probe in boiling water & it reads 212, and you place it on different racks in different areas of your smoker so you know the temp differences from what the controller says you will be fine. In other words you will find that the right rear of your MES is hotter than the left rear, so if you were smoking a rack of ribs you would put the thick end on the right side & position them towards the front of the smoker. After a few smokes you will get a feel for it, and it will become very easy to use your new MES.

 

[misterbill]

Did you check the Maverick in boiling water, to read 212˚?

Usually the hottest place in both of my MESs, other than right near the element, is the top 8" to 10" on the right side, from the mid point to the back.

This being because the heat from the element goes straight up from the element to the exhaust.

You can also check the dual probes, by switching them from left to right on the unit.

Bear

I thought I read not to put the probes in water, I guess I am mistaken, I will try the boiling water method to verify, thank you.

I cooked the bacon wrapped chicken that was in one of the newsletters by Jeff and it came out delicious... Bacon was not crispy though, I guess i should of ran the heat a bit higher than the suggested 230 degrees.

Btw: When do you know to add more wood chips? I had the smoke running 2 hours for the chicken and I only used 1 cup worth of chips. It filled the wood chip holder and never turned to ash as i expected it to so i could not add any more.

 

[Bearcarver]

I thought I read not to put the probes in water, I guess I am mistaken, I will try the boiling water method to verify, thank you.  Don't let the part where the cable joins the solid probe get in the water---Only the end of the probe.

I cooked the bacon wrapped chicken that was in one of the newsletters by Jeff and it came out delicious... Bacon was not crispy though, I guess i should of ran the heat a bit higher than the suggested 230 degrees. I'm not into chicken, but it is usually made at a higher temp.

Btw: When do you know to add more wood chips? I had the smoke running 2 hours for the chicken and I only used 1 cup worth of chips. It filled the wood chip holder and never turned to ash as i expected it to so i could not add any more. Were you getting smoke, or were you only getting steam? If it just got black & didn't turn to ash, you might not be getting smoke either.  Seeing steam coming out the top can fool the best of us. I quit trying to figure out when to add chips & how many to add. I got an AMNS, and everything got sooo much easier. 

Bear

 

[misterbill]

I'm pretty sure I did get some smoke atleast, the chicken is definitly smokey. I did soak the chips for 30 minutes prior to smoking, so I'm sure there was steam as well. Is there anyone here that still uses the woodchip method rather than the AMNS? I probably will eventually go to the AMNS but for now I would like to use the wood chips since I did buy a big bag of them.

 

[jwneural]

I've had my MES 30 for about a year. On my first few smokes (briskets, shoulders, chuckies) I noticed that the meat was reaching final internal temperatures way too fast. they were powering through the expected temperature plateau where the collegen and connective tissue liquifies. Result? tough, dry meat.

I checked the calibration of the built-in temperature probe on the MES and found it was way off. It was reading low, so the controller was making the smoker much hotter than I desired. I checked the calibration by using another digital meat thermometer that I knew was correct. (I poked the comparison probe through a potato and set it on the grate at the same height as the MES probe). I ran the MES setpoint up and down comparing the two measurements as the smoker ran through two heating and cooling cycles. I then averaged the results and did a quick linear regression on the data.

I found that both the span (slope) and zero (intercept) of the calibration was bad. But I now can set the exact temperature I want on the grate by plugging the desired setpoint into the y = mx + b formula for a line (see, 8th grade Algebra does have real world applications).

I set my MES Temperature setpoint = (Desired Temperature * .898) + 5.8

So if I want 225 F in the smoker, I set the controller to 208 F.  Now my smokes come out more like you'd expect 'low and slow' would.

FYI... here's the averaged and regressed data:

digital	MES	Regression
240	220	221.2
257	238	236.5
268	248	246.4
276	255	253.5
285	260	261.6
293	266	268.8
299	272	274.2
210	192	194.3
208	190	192.5
226	212	208.7
239	221	220.3
250	233	230.2
219	207	202.4
195	181	180.8
183	167	170.1
176	163	163.8
177	165	164.7