Newbie questions

[wannago]

Hi guys - just joined, great site! I have a Pyrex brand digital probe therm. My smoker is cheap charcoal/water pan w/ precision hot/ideal/cold ambient therm. Probe warns don't use in oven over 400d or in grill. Should I keep coals on 1 side of pan opposite where I thread in the lead, or don't worry about it, or am I about to ruin this therm? As for ambient, can I drill a hole in the lid approx meat position and a dial therm like I use in my deep fryer? Any advice is appreciated, as I obviously don't know what I'm doing!

 

[bbrock]

Hello welcome to SMF.. I not real familiar with your type of smoker myself. But as far as your thermometer goes you should be ok with using it to smoke with. You should not need to smoke any thing at 400 degrees. As far as drilling a hole I dont know about that.. Am sure some one will come along with the same type of smoker and can tell you about something like that or any mods you could make..That is one thing about this site always a helping hand close by. You will find very good people here. Sorry I could not have been more help.

 

[mballi3011]

I have the same thermo probe and if I were you test it with some ice water and then in some boiling water to test it. Mine is a few degrees off each way hot and cold but not enough to make me go but another one. The part about drilling a hole in your smoker is. When you have a temp probe you can trust put the probe into your smoker because the factory temp gauge never is true temp. That way you will know really what your smoking at.

 

[bigsteve]

It sounds like you have a Brinkman cooker. Brinkmans can hit 400* if the temperature runs away from you. First time I used mine, the built in thermometer went way past "hot" and pointed straight to the ground.

If I were you..........

Before I put the pyrex thermo in, I'd make sure the built in thermo wasn't high in the "hot" range.

I'd wrap the thermo leads that will be inside the smoker in a few turns of aluminum foil, escpecially where the leads are heading out the lid. The coals are straight below, and that's the hottest part of the smoker.

 

[hoser]

Mballi hit the nail on the head, newbi...my gosm thermometer in the door is off by over 100 degrees...see pics


kind of hard to see in this pic, but the thermometer reads 375 degrees

true temp is below with probe