I've been using my 14.5 inch WSM for about two years now and I was smoking some baby back ribs this past weekend. When I first got the WSM I always measured the temperature through the side grommet using the temperature probe from my Thermoworks Smoke thermometer. After awhile and a lot of reading on this site I became convinced that the best place to measure temperature was on the grate level. I normally smoke pork butt and I can easily fit a 5-8 lb butt on the top rack and fit the temperature probe so I can get a measurement away from the edge. I haven't worried too much about the dome thermometer. When I smoke ribs I need to cut them in half and lay them side by side. This leaves little room for my probe and I end up putting the probe near the edge which ideally I would avoid.
During my cook I checked the ribs after about an hour. The probe was reading 230F. I noticed that my wood was not burning well and the ribs had no color. I could not see or smell any smoke coming from the WSM (I started with fist size chunk of hickory, cherry, apple). The dome temperature was reading about 200F. I tried an experiment where I put another probe through the side grommet where it also read 200F matching the dome temperature. At this point I decided to switch to measuring the temperature from the grommet which meant I ended up opening the vents to get it to read 225-235F. I checked it again after another hour and I could smell the smoke and the ribs were getting color. For the remainder of the cook the dome temperature matched my measurement from the grommet.
This is the second time now where I've had trouble measuring the temperature at the grate level with ribs. I suspect I'm measuring hot air coming from the sides or radiating off the side walls and for whatever reason it measuring cooler just below the top grate. For now on I'll just measure through the side grommet for ribs. I would still prefer to to measure from the grate level but think I would have more success on a larger WSM where I can properly position the probe away from the edge of the grate.
During my cook I checked the ribs after about an hour. The probe was reading 230F. I noticed that my wood was not burning well and the ribs had no color. I could not see or smell any smoke coming from the WSM (I started with fist size chunk of hickory, cherry, apple). The dome temperature was reading about 200F. I tried an experiment where I put another probe through the side grommet where it also read 200F matching the dome temperature. At this point I decided to switch to measuring the temperature from the grommet which meant I ended up opening the vents to get it to read 225-235F. I checked it again after another hour and I could smell the smoke and the ribs were getting color. For the remainder of the cook the dome temperature matched my measurement from the grommet.
This is the second time now where I've had trouble measuring the temperature at the grate level with ribs. I suspect I'm measuring hot air coming from the sides or radiating off the side walls and for whatever reason it measuring cooler just below the top grate. For now on I'll just measure through the side grommet for ribs. I would still prefer to to measure from the grate level but think I would have more success on a larger WSM where I can properly position the probe away from the edge of the grate.