Stick burners. Do you monitor grate temps?

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busmania

Knows what a fatty is.
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I’ve been smoking about 8 years. First on a Weber Smokey Mountain, then a big green egg then a home made stick burner. I upgraded to a Yoder whichita this past summer. I usually monitor my grate temps (in 3-4 locations with the inkbird thermometers) but I’m starting to think they are driving me crazy. They are so sensitive to temp changes that I’m constantly trying to figure out minor changes. The few times I’ve been lazy and not hooked them up I feel cooks are less stressful but I also think the dome thermometers run hotter than the grate temps. I’m thinking about ditching the inkbird grate thermometers. Do y’all monitor grate temps on your stick burners?
 
I might run some Chef Alarms on each shelf if I'm trying something new but generally I just go off the Tel Tru's on the door if I can hang out somewhat around the cooker. If I'm multitasking and paying less attention I'll just use my remote wireless thermometer on one of the grates to know when it's time to feed a split.

Once I figured out the cooker I knew that, generally, if the middle grate is x, the top is y, and the bottom is z and would just rely on look and feel beyond that.
 
I put one therm on the main grate so I can see what it's doing without going outside.
 
Stlsportster said:
I monitor top and bottom rack, but mostly so I don’t have to walk down the deck stairs to look at the tel tru.

Don’t sweat small swings. Cooking at 275 means 250-300.
Click to expand...

This. I like to smoke at 250, so I maintain 225-275. Tel-tru "slew rate" is very slow compared to a digital temp probe. Tel-tru might say 225, but digital probe says 118. Trying to chase temps with a digital probe will have you all over the place. I just stick with the tel-tru and have consistent cooks every time.
 
I bought the Thermoworks "Smoke", but find that I rarely use it.

Learn to control your pit and don't overthink it. You won't be able to tell the difference between ribs cooked at 275° and 267.0045683°.

David
 
Hell yeah I do. That's where the meat is. It's not hanging out by the exhaust or anything ridiculous like that.
 
Once you know the grate is 275 when the Tel-Tru shows 250 then you should know by looking at the Tel-Tru.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk
 
Stlsportster said:
I monitor top and bottom rack, but mostly so I don’t have to walk down the deck stairs to look at the tel tru.

Don’t sweat small swings. Cooking at 275 means 250-300.
Click to expand...

I agree.... worrying about the small swings in temp is what will drive you crazy. If my goal is took at 275 on a stick burner, then I will set my alerts for the maximum (300) & minimum (250) temps that are acceptable. I can live with any temp in between.
 
I used my Thermoworks Smoke to essentially "zero out" the analog gauges to what the Smoke was reading at the grate level. I fired up the smoker and let it run for a couple of hours to get everything hot and uniform. Then I really worked to keep the fire running at a good temp (about 275) and from there I adjusted both my analog gauges to read exactly what the Thermoworks Smoke was reading at the grate level.

I check it with the Smoke every couple of months for so far it is still working perfectly. I know my cooker pretty well, so I throw on a couple of small splits every 30 minutes or so and don't really have to worry about anything. I will peek out the window every now and again at the vent in the firebox and if I can see a good fire I don't even bother worrying about the temp because I know it will be within 20° of my target zone.

I had a Yoder Cheyenne and they mounted that analog temp so high inside the cooker that it wasn't even coming close to getting grate temp. I burned up a couple of briskets trusting that analog temp but found it was off by usually 75-100° compared to what the iGrill and Smoke were saying for grate temp.
 
I've only been running a stickburner for a year, for the 1st 6 months or so, I used my fireboard to monitor grate temp for every cook and compare to the temp on the analog gauge. Now I almost always just go by what I see on the analog gauge.
 
kenrobin said:
I agree.... worrying about the small swings in temp is what will drive you crazy. If my goal is took at 275 on a stick burner, then I will set my alerts for the maximum (300) & minimum (250) temps that are acceptable. I can live with any temp in between.
Click to expand...

Exactly....I gave up a longtime ago worrying about all those temp swings! After learning to keep the smoker in a certain range, it made smoking much more enjoyable.
 
I don't anymore in my vertical offset because the Tel-Tru usually shows what the grate temp is. I've tried taking as much technology as possible out of my cooks and its made the experience so much more fun. I use to get real hung up on having a constant data stream of what temps were doing but now I just don't worry about it. My LSG is so idiot proof to run I don't really have to do much to it anyways once I get to the temp I want.
 
I started on a stick burner and have always placed one of my Maverick probes on the cooking grate. The first few cooks I fell into the same category others have mentioned, found myself chasing temps trying to hold it right on the money. I quickly got tired of that routine and focused on keeping it within a range. Made for MANY less trips running back and forth to add splits or mess with dampeners.....more time to enjoy an adult beverage and the smell of that sweet smoke.
 
I have a dial therm, river country. it's on the hot side of the pit. i try to make sure it points up most of the time. I focus mainly on keeping a decent bed of coals to ignite splits and the rest falls into place
 
I calibrated the door/lid mounted thermometers to actual grate temps a hundred years ago and just trust them.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
I once tried to use a clip, then an onion to run probe to monitor grate temps and it really messed up my groove. I started to question which temp I should be looking at and even thought my Tel Tru's were off, as I had recently removed them to re-powder coat my cooker.

I calibrated them and realized they were dead-on, of course, and since have never tried monitoring grate temps, only looking at Tel Tru's so I know when to add another split...
 
i don't check temps at all on my stick burner , but instead make sure I am running a clean burning fire , most of the time the fire is on the smallish side but if I am in a hurry I tend to have a bigger fire . the quality of my cooks have been a good bit better since doing this . I guess the thing is you do have to pay closer attention to your meat this way but for me it is SO MUCH BETTER cooking this way on a stick burner ….
 
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