Wifi temp monitoring advice and a 22# shoulder

[Rolling Egg]

What’s the go to now days for multi probe temp monitoring. I prefer wifi that will let me monitor from wherever.

I’m currently using the themoworks signals but for the life of me can’t get reliable accurate probes. I’m taking care of them and making sure they don’t get exposure to high temps but they still seem to be junk. Every time I use the they will hit 200 internal on a butt and when I hit it with the thermapen they’ll be 180. You can tell by the tenderness that the thermapen is the correct one. I know there’s a temp trim on there but it will only let you trim so far.

Any advice welcomed.

Here’s a 22# shoulder I have rocking on the Stumps classic. Happy 4th!

 

[Nuco59]

My daddy was late to bbq. I gifted him a Thermoworks DOT and it became his favorite. He already had a couple of Walmart shelf "instant reads" Weber, Taylor- whatever. He got caught up in not trusting whatever therm he was using at a given time. He swore "you have to have 3 different ones: one to use, one to check the one you are using and one to tell you which one is the lying bastid". I'm a bit less OCD with temps- I use a leave in thermometer to get me close and then probe until done... and that's good enough for 90 % of my cooks Maybe when you get some down time, take all your temp gear and some boiling water and just see what's what? I can't suggest better gear than ThermoWorks.

Good luck- and Happy 4th.

 

[ZWood15]

I have a Fireboard and absolutely love it! I use the Drive function with a fan on my UDS and just use the temp probes on my offset. It's not cheap, but I've had 0 issues over my 30+ cooks with it.

 

[Juggy D Beerman]

To misquote Albert Einstein, A man who has two thermometers never really knows what the temperature is. I have two Taylor digital thermometers exact model and purchased at the same time. As soon as I opened them at home, I checked them for accuracy by placing the probes in a pot of boiling water. One read 210F and the other read 208F. Ignoring the actual boiling temperature as I did not know what the barometer reading was, the variance was 2 degrees. That figures to be a one percent difference which is not enough to worry about. The Ashcroft bi-metal thermometers I purchased years ago stated there was one percent variance of accuracy with their thermometers.

I am unfamiliar with the thermoworks products. Is there a way of calibrating them? If there is, you can avoid the math for calibrating the boiling point of water by using that particular day's barometric pressure as a part of the formula. Use the freezing point of water as your guideline. Water's freezing point and melting point is 32F or 0C regardless of elevation and barometric pressure. (How water/ice knows which way to go is something my physics teacher could not explain to me to where I could understand the phenomena.) Take an insulated styrofoam cup and fill it full of ice and cold water. Allow the ice and water several minutes to allow the ice and water to achieve equilibrium temperature before checking the temperature.

You did the right thing though by checking with the temperature with the thermapen and using the probe as your guide. The thermometer is a guideline when meats are done. For me, the probe test is the final word for when it is done.

 

[Gore]

You'll always get some variance in temperature as you're not measuring from the exact same spot. Even if you have a pot of boiling water on the stove, you will get different readings depending on where in the pot you are measuring. I can probe five different spots in a roast and get readings that are different by as much as 10* especially if one is near the center and another is closer to the edge or another is located in a fatty region, which is a great insulator and takes longer to heat up. That said, I expect that your 20* difference was taken from two similar spots and that is WAY too much. Thermoworks puts out a decent product. Sounds like you got a dud. I would write the company.

 

[4ever3]

Nevermind….

 

[oldgfbbq]

If you simply need extended range and are not married to the numerous features available for WiFi, you may consider the Thermopro TP829x. I've used it for over a year and not had problems with probes or range. My needs are simple, pit temp and meat temp. The 4 probes may be programmed to alarm when meat reaches a specified temp, or programed to measure temerature(s) in the cooking chamber with both Hi/Lo settings for each probe. I wanted additional probes, but found another 4 port unit was only a few dollars more than buying probes individually.


https://buythermopro.com/product/tp829x/

My Thermopen has been great. I've had my eye on the Signals and Smoke X models for their ability to drive a blower, which I use, but have had to adjust it manually.