New MES 30 temp differing by 20 degrees

[chapterthree]

Hi All,

Got a MES 30 for Christmas, seasoned it yesterday, doing a small butt today. I'm using my Maverick thermo to see how accurate the built in probe is, and I'm see a consistent temperature difference of about 20 degrees.

Have the smoker set at 225,and I'm about 2 hours in, but the Maverick is showing 205.

Added pictures for my probe placement. Any thoughts on this?

20140113_120815.jpg

• chapterthree
• Jan 13, 2014

20140113_120830.jpg

• chapterthree
• Jan 13, 2014

Thanks!

 

[mneeley490]

That is pretty much the norm for Masterbuilt electric smokers. Most are off by 20°-25° one way or the other. That's why it's important to have another thermometer to give a truer reading. Looks like you're ahead of the game already. Have fun!

 

[chapterthree]

Hmm OK, should I believe the Maverick more than the MES?  :)  I did a ton of reading before starting and most people were reporting that the built in probe was pretty accurate.

Also, I just noticed in my picture my probe wire was resting on the internal probe, and I wonder if the heat from the Maverick wire was heating up the internal probe a little bit, causing it to give a false reading.  I just adjusted things so that the wire isn't resting on the internal probe, let's see if that makes a difference.

[EDIT]: After moving the probe wire and coming back up to temp, didn't seem to change anything, still about 20 degrees off. :(

 

[garyinmd]

Use the Maverick.  You will need to check your Maverick probes in ice water and boiling water to check them for accuracy if you haven't already.  

 

[chapterthree]

OK, yeah after this smoke I'm going to calibrate the Maverick to see if she's still reading properly.  Had 'er about a year now, and have used it for ~10 smokes in my offset smoker, and have had good Q come out of that.

And of course, after I posted this and started searching around in the forums, I found plenty of people reporting similar temp differences.  I guess if you look for it you can find anything. :D

Thanks for the help, I'm going to hope that my Maverick is not off in its readings and bump the smoker temp up a bit to get to a true 225.

 

[voodoochile]

I have the same issue with my MES 40 . I was in  the same predicament, not knowing which one to trust . I decided to trust the maverick . Later I compared it to Taylor digital thermometer and it was within a couple degrees of the maverick . 

 Go with the Maverick

 

[sb59]

I've found that there can be a 10 degree difference when thermometer is place on different racks. Same as in a home oven. Even where you place the thermometer on same rack can vary by 5 degrees +or- . This is why I smoke with multiple probe thermometers.