Thermometer problem

[smokingvic]

  I added two temp smoker gauges to my Char griller 5050 smoker , is there a way to calibrate them , I purchased these from Home Depot , This afternoon one is showing 90 degrees and the other shows 120 degrees , is this normal for this ????

 

[rabbithutch]

Doesn't sound right to me. Can you swap their positions and see if that makes any difference? You didn't mention whether or not you had a fire in the smoker.

My guess is that there are better quality dial gauge thermo's than the ones you got. I bought one from Academy and another online. Both seem to be fairly accurate. I got the second one because it had a greater range of temps and I needed that for the Weber kettle. I moved the other one to my mini-WSM.

 

[s2k9k]

It is possible that one side of your smoker is hotter than the other.

You can check their accuracy in boiling water.

Look on the backside of the gauge where the probe meets it and if there is something that looks like a nut (hex head) then they can be calibrated. Check them in boiling water and if they are not reading 212* then turn the nut with a wrench just a little then check in water again. You might have to do this several times to determine the correct direction to turn the nut and to dial it in to 212*.

 

[smokingvic]

 Thanks , This site is awesome with helpful people , I checked my temp gauges and they did have a screwdriver notches on the ends of the probes to set these , i went ahead and set both to 212 on boiling water but when they cooled down they stay at 140 to 150 , is this common and will i get the right heat reading whenever I fire up my smoker , to get back to my previous thread , no I did not have a fire when i noted the different degree readings.