Thermo Question/s... Lid vs Grate Temps

Faulty Lid Thermo?

Hello everyone! First time poster here and new 18.5 WSM owner. I've had it less than two weeks and I've already completed three different cooks. Thanks to this forum I was able to hit the ground running like I've owned one of these for years. It is the easiest thing to maintain temp on, so easy it's almost unfair.

I got my WSM on 7/12 and within 10 minutes of assembling it, I had charcoal lit for a pork loin cook. Just after adding the lit coals and putting the lid on to build up the temp, condensation started to accumulate inside of my lid thermo. (Within 3-5 minutes) It has done it on every cook I've done so far, within minutes of adding hot coals. It does go away as soon as I shut the cooker down and/or when it's not in use. Yesterday, I cooked a pork shoulder while using a MAV-732 for the very first time. Throughout the entire cook the lid thermo was reading 25-30* LESS than the probe temp at the top grate. Which completely contradicts what I've read about and researched over the last month.

- Did I miss something I had to do the the lid thermo... before I started using the WSM?
- Is it normal to have condensation inside of your lid thermo throughout an entire cook?
- Is it normal for the top grate temp to run 25-30* hotter than what the lid temp reads?

I'm not really sure if it's normal or I should replace it, contact Weber etc. etc. etc.... I though I'd get some feedback for the veterans here first.

(All three cooks where using the minion method and a full, un-foiled water pan.)

Hey Kurt, My thermo on lid condensates aswell, but seems to go away after a while. Also I think the lid therm is way off too!

Jeff

mine fogs up every once and a while, but my dome temp seems to run within a couple of degrees of probes at the grate

Welcome to the forum Kurt. My thermometer on the lid of my WSM22 also fogs. It doesn't bother me because I have both a et732 and a heatermeter. I prefer to know the temp at the grill and the meat temp. Works better that way. That said, these things are easy to keep at temp and it is not critical to maintain an exact temp, just keep it as constant as possible. That said, my heatermeter does keep my temps on long cooks very constant and allows me to sleep. Just a few thoughts. Good luck.

You are experiencing what most others experience. Regardless if the lid thermometer is off or not, it is reading temps from different area and will give a different reading.

Here is what you can expect.
Lid therm= 25-40 less than grate
Drop a therm in vent= 25-40 higher than grate.

Doesn't matter which go by as long as you stay consistent on which you use if you want to track results for comparison
I think most that worry about temps will go by grate temps because you can always compare that reading between smokers and recipes even if different smokers.