iQue110 Temperature Verification

A

AUradar

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Location
NW Florida
I’ve been using my iQue110 several times now over the past year on my drum. It does seem to hold temps stable, however, they seem to be low. My therms on the grill are placed 1) short one placed at rack level on the side of the grill and 2) short one placed in middle of the lid, using the orginal drum lid. Those two therms always seemed to read about a 50 degree difference with the outside edge therm being the lower of the two. I’ve had good luck manually controlling the fire in keeping the outside edge around 200-225 and the lide around 250-275. A 12 hour butt cooked yield excellent pulled pork.

I also smoke butts in an electric smoker, set the temp to 225 and smoke for 12-hours. Excellent results. So with the iQue110 I’ve been putting the prob half way between the edge and the middle of the grate. Figured I would split the 50 degree delta difference. I would set the iQue110 for 225 degrees and let her rip. The iQue does seem to control the temp at a stable level, however, it appears very low. I’ve checked with therms and it seems to say 180 degrees. Also, leaving in for 12 hours does not produced very good pulled pork.

Yesterday I called the company and asked. I’ve seen some negative comments here about their customer service. To be honest, I chalk their attitude up to being yankees. Meanly a little gruff, but they seemed helpful. I talked to a lady and she said I could check the accuracy with an oven. So I tried that.

I concluded the temps seemed to be correct. So I need to do a bit more research as to why the pit temp seems low when I use the iQue. Maybe the thermcouple measures a different type of heat than the standard therms we typically use? I design IR cameras for a living. I think I’m going to bring a handheld home and try and do a thermal analasis during my next cook.


First test: set oven to 250, insert probes (I have two units) and see what happens. Both came up with a steady green light:

8233853b.jpg







Next step was to set the iQue to 300. This time I set the oven to 275 and worked my way up to see where the light would stay green (indiciating at temp). It camp to temp at 290:

a5def26f.jpg




I then raised it to see where it would go out of temp, that was at 310, seems to be a good accurate range:



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I tried again at 350. Forgot to record at what temp it finally recorded at. I think it was 350 on the dot. 335 was still flashing:

0a45b04e.jpg



It went out at 375:

39cdb56d.jpg
 
It sounds like your oven test confirmed the iQ was working? I'm not sure I followed everything.

Some thoughts I have:
1) It doesn't sound like you have a diffuser in your UDS? Just a guess, but the iQ probe probably can't handle direct heat like that. It was designed first for the WSM. Try with a diffuser between your fire and probe, like the WSM. I bet that would help.

2) Unless your probe and thermometers are at the exact same spot, it doesn't surprise me that there is a difference. Clip your iQ probe to your other thermometer and see if they read the same.

3) My iQ green light seems to lag at times. I clip my probe to a Maverick probe so they typically read the same. The green light doesn't seem to go out for the first time the second that it hits 10* below the target temp. It seems like it goes out about five minutes later when it hits the target temp. But, later in the cook, after it has time to settle and figure out what's what, it seems to behave correctly. I think there could be something in the software logic (not necessarily a bug) reason for this. It could also be that the probe takes time to read. ... it isn't a super fast Thermopen after all. :wink:
 
---k--- said:
.......
3) My iQ green light seems to lag at times. I clip my probe to a Maverick probe so they typically read the same. The green light doesn't seem to go out for the first time the second that it hits 10* below the target temp. It seems like it goes out about five minutes later when it hits the target temp. But, later in the cook, after it has time to settle and figure out what's what, it seems to behave correctly. I think there could be something in the software logic (not necessarily a bug) reason for this. It could also be that the probe takes time to read. ... it isn't a super fast Thermopen after all. :wink:
Click to expand...

I don't like the clip supplied by IQ that covers the end of the temperature sensor. It shields it from the heat as well as adding thermal mass so the temperature changes slower. Also, the IQ uses an RTD temperature sensor and the temp doesn't change as quickly on this type temp sensor as it does on the Maverick temperature sensors. My last cook I didn't use the clip on the end of the IQ temp sensor and I was happy with the results.

Your prior point about not having a baffle is also valid. I don't think direct heat is an issue as much as the uneven heat distribution from center of the drum to the perimeter which makes the location of the temp sensor important. A good baffle would help even out the heat distribution making temp probe placement less sensitive. I'm working on a baffle now for my UDS.

Also, be aware that the temp in an oven my swing 50F or more between the heat element kicking on/off so it isn't precise. The way you used it on your oven may be valid as the display may show the actual temps as it climbs to the setpoint temp.
 
---k--- said:
It sounds like your oven test confirmed the iQ was working? I'm not sure I followed everything.

Some thoughts I have:
1) It doesn't sound like you have a diffuser in your UDS? Just a guess, but the iQ probe probably can't handle direct heat like that. It was designed first for the WSM. Try with a diffuser between your fire and probe, like the WSM. I bet that would help.
Click to expand...

Thats what I'm wondering. Maybe its picking up a lot of radiant heat or something??


---k--- said:
2) Unless your probe and thermometers are at the exact same spot, it doesn't surprise me that there is a difference. Clip your iQ probe to your other thermometer and see if they read the same.
Click to expand...

yea, but I'm not judging my a single thermometer, single location, single reading. Its an overall feel based on time of cook, feel of the smoker, and several therms poked at several different places.

---k--- said:
3) My iQ green light seems to lag at times. I clip my probe to a Maverick probe so they typically read the same. The green light doesn't seem to go out for the first time the second that it hits 10* below the target temp. It seems like it goes out about five minutes later when it hits the target temp. But, later in the cook, after it has time to settle and figure out what's what, it seems to behave correctly. I think there could be something in the software logic (not necessarily a bug) reason for this. It could also be that the probe takes time to read. ... it isn't a super fast Thermopen after all. :wink:
Click to expand...

I pretty certain the PID controller will have to have a huge lage time in it. I'm wondering if this has something to do with the problem. On the oven, the green light stopped blinking about a minute or so after the oven PreHeat turned off. The instructions for the iQue did mention not to turn off during the middle of a cook because it would loose its memory. I figured he was talking about hte intergal part of his PID loop. But not totally for sure.



I'm going to hook up a thermacouple right beside the probe and do a long term memory recording and see what happens.
 
wait a second, when the fan turns on, could it be blowing more heat up which the prob measures? Could that be given an artifical high temperature reading?
 
AUradar said:
wait a second, when the fan turns on, could it be blowing more heat up which the prob measures? Could that be given an artifical high temperature reading?
Click to expand...

If the temp increases, not sure how that would be considered artificial......
 
HogFan said:
If the temp increases, not sure how that would be considered artificial......
Click to expand...

if the wind from the blower is pushing more hot air up from the coals that could temperaly raise the probe reading. When the blower turns off, less heat will be rising.

So I guess i'm asking, does the blower being on cause a temporary spike in the temperature at the grates which throws the iQue probe reading off?
 
I'm not a UDS user, but in general, I would never do a low & slow without a diffuser. In my WSMs, I don't use water, but I do use the water pan with a large clay pot base covered in foil. Others use sand in the water pan.

I love how AUradar verified the temperature accuracy of the IQ in his oven. This is a simple but good test. True, all ovens I've tested will oscillate several tens of degrees, but the average temperature has always been close to the setpoint.

The IQ's RTD probe is very accurate. Every IQ leaving the factory is verified to be accurate to within 1% - any technical person will tell you this is very good. That's not to say that the system will always be this accurate; if you break the seal on the probe and contaminates reach the electrical connections, the resistance and temperature reading will be off. Same if the wires within the shield are damaged by pinching under the lid.

Regarding customer service, we are working hard to improve it. BarbieQ talked to AUradar, and while she now lives in the north (?), she was born in Douglas GA. Folks, she's as sweet as it's going to get!

Temperature gradients in cookers never cease to amaze me. I cook in a Rebel Smoker. It is a very stable, insulated, gravity feed cooker. For its size, it uses very little fuel and air. At our last comp (Excelsior Springs, Mo; 69 teams, 1st place brisket, 13th overall), I used my eight channel Omega temperature logger to measure temps in five locations. After the cooker was pre-heated, before being loaded, it stabilized to within 10 degrees at all five locations. But when loaded with cold meat, or recovering from a door open condition, I saw over 75 degree temperature differences at times.

There is no substitute for practice. Find an IQ setting and probe location that cooks the meat the way you want it cooked, and then repeat.
 
Last edited:
I trust my IQ over my Maverick 732. I had the same concerns and did the oven test on the mavericks and the IQ and the IQ was more accurate.
 
John I. Que said:
I'm not a UDS user, but in general, I would never do a low & slow without a diffuser. In my WSMs, I don't use water, but I do use the water pan with a large clay pot base covered in foil. Others use sand in the water pan..
Click to expand...


this makes more sense. I'm going to try a diffuser. When I called and talked to the lady she told me about the oven test. I really wasn't ready to say the iQue was measuring wrong, I have two iQue's and two drums. Same results regardless of which iQue is on which drum. She told me what I wanted, which was how do I test them.

i'm also going to try and take an IR camera home and take some images as well as a temp recorder. I'm starting to think the blower turning on maybe causing more heat to get to the probe and throwing things off.
 
AUradar said:
wait a second, when the fan turns on, could it be blowing more heat up which the prob measures? Could that be given an artifical high temperature reading?
Click to expand...

YES! I think, but cannot say for certain, that may be the case too. I don't have extensive testing, but have noticed things that I want to go back and test more. I once moved my probes nearer to the edge of the drum between the side and the edge of my 16" TC diffuser. I noticed when the fan ran, the temps would rapidly rise and then fall off when the fan stopped It seemed a lot more noticeable than with the probe in the center of the diffuser.

These things work, but have their limitations and bring to the surface different quirk of the smoker. IMHO, it takes as much effort to learn how to use them as it does to learn how to use the smoker without them.
 
---k--- said:
IMHO, it takes as much effort to learn how to use them as it does to learn how to use the smoker without them.
Click to expand...

To be sure, you need to know how to use your cooker without a blower before you try using it with a blower. Do you think non-bbq people think we are nuts for thinking about bbq and smokers this hard? :grin:
 
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