meat probes are reading crazy temperatures, tried multiple probes, any ideas?


 

JasonL

TVWBB Member
Just threw up a beef rib on the kamado joe and the thermoworks tx-1001x-op is reading crazy temperatures (170 degrees and rising). I tried 3 different probes (1 of them brand new out of the package). I tried multiple probe #s (both on the heatermeter itself, as well as on the rododamper3 and they are all reading wrong temps (the other one was reading something like 80 degrees which is also not right). The meat probe temps are also jumping up and down 1 degree+ every second if that helps diagnose at all.

It worked fine the last time i used it a couple months ago.

Some possible causes?

1) its really cold outside right now (0 degrees F, not sure if that matters)
2) i had both the heatermeter and probe stored outside in a storage bin. It's covered (and the items were inside a small box inside the storage bin) but wasnt sure if prolonged exposure to the cold weather would cause any issues.

EDIT: i took the brand new probe which was reading 196degrees and plugged in into the 3 different ports. all reported the same temperature. Also when i removed the probes and left them outside, they all almost immediately dropped to 0F, which is about the temperature outside. I guess there is a very small possibility somehow my meat is at 196degrees after 30 minutes, but that seems unlikely :) The pit probe is reading 225 with the dome thermostat reading slightly higher so its not like it's been cooking any any temp where the middle could somehow actually be at 196....

EDIT2: i thermapened it and it was not surprisingly not actually at 196. read 80 degrees.

EDIT3: 1 more thing to add. so the meat thermometer has been sitting in there since the cook but I hadnt plugged it in. I was curious what it was reading, so I plugged it back. Started reading ~160degrees (a bit high, probed at 142 and 150 in different spot using the thermapen), but rose over the next 5 minutes until it got stable at 210. It seems weird that even after sitting in the meat for 3 hours, it would start at one temp, and continue to go up before settling. I'm not really sure what that means or if it helps diagnosing the problem, but figured I'd call it out in case its useful.
 
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Hmm, just put in a pot or boiling water from room temperature and it seems to measure accurately up the boiling compared to the thermapen
 
That's very strange, especially considering that you tried three different probes and they all were giving the same result. I see you tried all the different ports as well, which would be the next thing I would have checked. I'm really at a loss because it seems like it wasn't just a fluke reading, but was consistently reading an incorrect value. Did you happen to notice if there was the noise icon on the food probe boxes in the webui (it looks like a little red squiggle in one of the bottom corners)? I wouldn't think that would be the case considering how it didn't seem random at all but I really don't know what it could be.

You suppose you could use a multimeter and measure the resistance of the probe when it is reading incorrectly and see if that matches what HeaterMeter is calculating. That would tell you if there's a circuitry problem in the device or the probe is just reading the wrong temperature somehow. You can get HeaterMeter to display resistance for all non-control probes by entering a setpoint of "R", although be careful because the control probe will switch to Celsius which may kick the fan into high gear (just disconnect the blower before switching). Just set a normal setpoint like "225F" to switch back to normal operation.
 
Thanks for the response. I talked to John bostwick (he built it for me) and he suggested it could have been a condensation issue or corrosion. I took it apart and sent him pics of the board and he said nothing seemed off / give it a good scrub with alcohol + toothbrush. I haven’t done that yet, but after having it sit inside for a few hours, I tested it again with a pot of water on the stove and it read the temperature fine all the way up the boiling (spot checks with the thermapen). I’m going to store the heatermeter inside from now on and see if the issue reoccurs.

Thanks!

Edit: didn’t notice anything funny on the web GUI to indicate any issues
 

 

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