Verifying smoker temp

[flounderhead]

I have a propane GOSM smoker and am leery of the accuracy of the thermometer on the door. A couple weeks ago I was using it and it never showed more than 215 with it on high and no matter what I did with the vents. I placed a candy thermometer in the open top vent and got a reading of 280. My question would be, is the temp coming out the top vent really indicative of the box temp? I think I'll want to replace the original thermometer.

 

[bdskelly]

It has been my experience that all door thermometers are highly inaccurate. Many on this site have various auxiliary thermometers. Maverick makes a good one that has 2 probes. One for your smoker and one for the meat. You should place the smoker probe on the same grate as you have your meat. That is the area that counts when controlling cooking temperature. B

 

[SmokinAl]

Yea what B said!!
Al

 

[Geebs]

Agree with B, most of those temp gauges are not accurate. I would recommend getting a therm that you can stick a probe in your meat and also put one at grill level. Thermopro makes some cheap but good ones if you dont want to invest a ton of money.

 

[flounderhead]

I do have 2 probe thermometers. I'll put one in the ham and one on the grill for now.

 

[HalfSmoked]

Yup another vote for what B said. I have the ThermoWorks Smoke its great and easy to set had a Maverick but like the ThermoWorks Smoke better.

Warren

 

[johnmeyer]

One of the most important pieces of your "smokin' kit" is a multi-probe, remote read thermometer. At the very least, you want one that can read the temperature of at least one piece of food, and also report the temperature inside the smoking enclosure. I have a Maverick ET-732, but if you read the dozens of posts about which product to get, you'll find several other really good choices. They are all pretty accurate (accurate enough for government work and smoking), so the decision on which one to get depends more on features and price than accuracy.

 

[flounderhead]

I see the Smoke is on sale. I'll have to forward the link to my wife since she's looking for a father's day gift idea

 

[tropics]

You can also take the probe out and test with boiling water
Richie

 

[challenger]

I see the Smoke is on sale. I'll have to forward the link to my wife since she's looking for a father's day gift idea

Where do you see it on sale?

 

[HalfSmoked]

Go to ThermoWorks web sight.

Warren

 

[flounderhead]

Looks like the sale is over though. Website shows full price

 

[Braz]

Looks like the sale is over though. Website shows full price

Sign up for their e-mail newsletter. They will notify you when it goes on sale. They often have "open box" sales and that is a good time to snag one.

 

[flounderhead]

I bought one. Wife bought me one as well. Not sure what I'm going to do with 2 of them though. I never cook that much meat where I need to monitor with more than 1 probe. And I have another monitor that just uses one probe.

 

[lovethemeats]

I would agree with what B said also.
On my Highland I laugh at the door therms and the location. Always go with a probe at grate/food level. On my electric smokers. I have spent many hours going from the bottom shelf to the top shelf recording the actual temps at the grate so I know what my actual temp is while smoking food.

 

[flounderhead]

So I decided that even though I can't see me needing more than 1 meat probe at the present time, I'll keep both Smoke units. When we move back to Texas and do more outdoor cooking, I may see the need for multiple probes.

 

[bdskelly]

So I decided that even though I can't see me needing more than 1 meat probe at the present time, I'll keep both Smoke units. When we move back to Texas and do more outdoor cooking, I may see the need for multiple probes.

Good Idea Flounder. I’d guess Many of us here in Texas folks have multiple cookers, and the goodies that go with em! B