I have smoked 3-4 times on my new FatStack smoker without using my ThermoWorks Smoke thermometer. I just went off the Tel Tru Thermometers on my rig. I wanted to gather some data on my second brisket cook since my first one was probably one of the worst briskets I have done (first one on the offset). What I noticed was my Tel Tru Thermometers were reading 50 degrees lower than what my grate temp probe of my ThermoWorks Smoke, so I thought well that’s why I dried the crap out of my first brisket cause I was actually 50 degrees hotter than what my Tel Tru gauges were showing. I decided to calibrate all three (on right by the firebox, middle of smoker and one by the smoke stack at grate level for all) of the Tel Tru thermometers to the ThermoWorks Smoke Grate probe. The brisket turned out good. The flat was a little dry, but I will chalk that up to not trusting my feel and going off of the probe in the meat. .
I placed the grate probe within inches of the Tel Tru gauges and calibrated them. Prior to doing this, the middle of my smoker was running 25 degrees hotter than the other two gauges, but after calibrating them to my ThermoWorks probe they were as expected. If the firebox side read 275 then the middle read 270 and the smoke stack side read 265. After the cook I decided to check the accuracy of my ThermoWorks probe and Tel Tru gauges by using boiling water. The ThermoWorks Grate Probe was spot on at 212. I fine tuned the tel tru thermometers cause they were off by 2-5 degrees. Now here comes the issue.......
I placed the Tel Tru’s back on and started using just the Tel Tru cause that’s eventually where I want to be at. I am a minimalist, so if I don’t have to have redundancy then I am happier with it. About 30 minutes into the cook I noticed that I had that hot spot in the middle of my smoker again reading 25 degrees hotter than the two ends. I decided to get the ThermoWorks probe out to see. Sure enough the tel tru and ThermoWorks are off again. Not sure if I messed up the calibration while wrenching the gauges in the smoker. Here is what I have for the data:
Firebox side: 283ish Tel Tru Gauge/ 295 ThermoWorks Grate Probe
Middle: 277ish Tel Tru/ 294 ThermoWorks
Smoke Stack side: 270 Tel Tru/ 291 ThermoWorks
With that info, should I just calibrate the Tel Tru to the ThermoWorks or leave them since I calibrated them with the boiling water? How should I move forward?
I placed the grate probe within inches of the Tel Tru gauges and calibrated them. Prior to doing this, the middle of my smoker was running 25 degrees hotter than the other two gauges, but after calibrating them to my ThermoWorks probe they were as expected. If the firebox side read 275 then the middle read 270 and the smoke stack side read 265. After the cook I decided to check the accuracy of my ThermoWorks probe and Tel Tru gauges by using boiling water. The ThermoWorks Grate Probe was spot on at 212. I fine tuned the tel tru thermometers cause they were off by 2-5 degrees. Now here comes the issue.......
I placed the Tel Tru’s back on and started using just the Tel Tru cause that’s eventually where I want to be at. I am a minimalist, so if I don’t have to have redundancy then I am happier with it. About 30 minutes into the cook I noticed that I had that hot spot in the middle of my smoker again reading 25 degrees hotter than the two ends. I decided to get the ThermoWorks probe out to see. Sure enough the tel tru and ThermoWorks are off again. Not sure if I messed up the calibration while wrenching the gauges in the smoker. Here is what I have for the data:
Firebox side: 283ish Tel Tru Gauge/ 295 ThermoWorks Grate Probe
Middle: 277ish Tel Tru/ 294 ThermoWorks
Smoke Stack side: 270 Tel Tru/ 291 ThermoWorks
With that info, should I just calibrate the Tel Tru to the ThermoWorks or leave them since I calibrated them with the boiling water? How should I move forward?