Maverick ET-73 whacky?


 
Sheldon Koehler

Sheldon Koehler

TVWBB Super Fan
Not sure if this is the correct forum, but here goes.

Today 5 hours into my smoke, I noticed the temps climbing wildly, 227 to 269 in less than 10 minutes (I was in the shower). I ran outside and by that time it was up to 281. But the temp on the lid read 245. I grabbed my oven thermometer and placed it inside and it now reads 225ish while the Maverick reads 281.

These are fairly new probes, probably only about 5 smokes on them. I clean them after each use.

Any ideas?
 
Water, and the bowl was mostly still full. I started with hot tap water.

Like I said, this was 5 hours into the smoke. The Maverick read a good 50-55 degrees hotter than the old dial type oven thermometer once the Maverick spiked. I am going to to a boiling water test tomorrow on both probes. Before I put the meat on, there was only 1 degree difference between probes.
 
Pretty sure your probe went up. Do you have another probe to check it against? Even now after the cook, if you have an extra probe then you can check it against a new one using boiling water or just ambient temp.....if the probe is bad it should read off.

Are you using the high temp probes from Maverick or the regular? If you are using the regular, then 5 cooks is about right before they go up.....at least from my experience. If they are the high temp probes, then they should last longer.

If you are using the regular ones, then when you order more from Maverick, I would give the high temp ones a try. That is my one big complaint with the ET-73 is that the regular probes don't last that long.

Hope this helps.
Kg
 
Keith,

I will call Maverick on Monday and see what ones I replaced it with. They sent them for free. After I make my coffee I will do a temp test, but I only have the pit and meat probe.
 
Even if you only have a pit and meat probe, then you should be able to tell if one of them is bad. You probably don't even need to put them in boiling water. Just ambient temp should tell you one is bad.....a bad is usually that far off.

If Maverick sent you replacement ones, then you can bet they are the regular ones and not the high temp ones. The only bad thing with the high temp probes is that they only come in the long meat probe (no high temp pit probe) unless they started making them. But I still use the meat probes as the pit probe with no problem.

Good luck,
Kg
 
I have struggled with this same situation myself. To add even more information into the mix, I use a Maverick ET-73 and a Guru DigiQ DX on my WSM. The probes on the Guru are thick and seem high quality. After a number of cooks, they are consistent. I run all probes into the WSM thru grommets made to pass probes.
I have tested both the Guru's probes (both food and pit) alongside the Maverick's two probes in ice slurry and boiling water. Oddly enough, they both are perfectly matched and read correctly.
However, when the probes go into the pit, things change. I use a silicon probe tree so both pit probes are right together and not touching any metal. I can run the Guru at 225 pit and the Guru probe reads on the money. The Maverick probe may read 280. This is a major concern since I use this remote monitoring to alarm at night during 15 hour cooks.
I also have used oven gauges and all agrees with Guru at 225.
My question is why Maverick does perfect reading the ice/boiling water, then falls apart in application? I even wrapped a piece of electrical tape around the probe wires where they make metal to metal contact going into the body of the WSM thru the grommet. Ready to look for something else. Any ideas?
 
At ambient room temp, the pit probe is 1 degree warmer than the food probe. Interesting to hear I am not the only one with this spike problem. I am going to call Maverick after I make a pot of coffee. I will still do the boiling water test to see if they are more off at that temp.

A Guru is on my wish list...
 
The boiling water test showed the same 1 degree difference. I let it boil for at least 5 minutes with no change. I left voice-mail with Maverick for a call back.
 
Wow, this is wierd and, obviously, not right. Never had the problem with mine, but I don't use mine anymore since I got my Stoker. I did have problems with bad probes, but once the probes went, they were way off and you knew they were bad. Never had the symptoms you are experiencing. Will be interested to see what Maverick says.

Thanks and I hope it works out.
Kg
 
Thanks Keith, I hope I can get this issue resolved too. Sheldon..if you hear back from Maverick, please post us back for discussion.
I did read a post somewhere on here that submerging the probe in hot oil will form a seal that can potentially help. Logic is that in ice water or boiling water, the thermister coupler can be surrounded by water if the seal leaks where the probe wire meets the tip. Said hot oil can form a barrier and seal up the probe.
Sounds like the probes are a weak link in the chain. You can see the quality difference in the Guru leads and the Maverick leads.
Keith, I certainly trust my Guru, but falls short in having remote capacities like your Stoker. I rely on my Maverick to transmit my temps so I can sleep easy at night and let me know when certain cuts are done if I have various sizes on together.
BTW......Maverick wont seem to answer my emails.
Keep me posted guys!
 
Morrey: Yea I used my ET-73 for years for remote temp monitoring and alarm notification until I sprung for the Stoker. I had one of the very first models of the ET-73 and the antenna range wasn't the greatest (I even found on google how to modify it for better range, but didn't help much). I could not take the ET-73 into the bedroom on overnight cooks, so I always wound up in the basement on the couch for overnight cooks. Became a PITA for me, so invested in the Stoker since most of my cooks are multiple brisket and butts and not getting great sleep overnight got old and found myself not using the WSM as I would have liked.

I hope Maverick gets back to you. I always wondered why there isn't more options other than the ET-73.

Good luck,
Kg
 
Keith;

One of my buddies who cooks competition BBQ is Guru dealer. He got me the DigiQ at a great deal so I went with Guru even tho I knew Stoker had many fancier bells and whistles. The remote monitoring is the single most important area I feel I am lacking.
Seems Maverick ET-73 has a stronghold on the market. I learned to compete from a fellow who had a motor home and pulled his Stumps vertical upright in a trailer. He would set up the stumps with his ATC, then monitor the setup with the Maverick while he slept. Since the Stumps is gravity fed thru a vertical chute, occasionally the charcoal will bridge and get hung up. The Maverick will low temp alarm in the pit. Also, cooking KCBS, four different meats are being cooked for turn ins. Food probes are essential as well.
If you (or anyone reading this) knows of any other quality remote monitoring device, please let me know. Maybe I just got a Maverick thats going bad or something.
 
Keith.....


BTW, what device do you use to remote monitor your system with the Stoker? Cell phone....laptop??? Is it a hassle, hard to setup??
 
Morrey: I am just using my laptop. I am also using StokerLog....never thought I would since I really only wanted to be able to control the setpoints, but I tried it for the fun of it and I must say seeing the graphs and history over the cook is nice. It is nice to wake up in the morning and see if any big overshoots/undershoots happened. StokerLog also has alarms and adds some more functionality. Plus it updates the temps every second, where the Stoker http interface updates the temps at much longer intervals unless you refresh it.

No it was simple as pie to setup. The hardest part I had was getting the wireless bridge configured since the software configuration tool Linksys provided would not work right with my laptop. So I finally just accessed the bridge direclty through its IP address and manually configured it. After that you just set your Stoker to DHCP, log into your wireless router to see what IP is assigned to the Stoker, then use that to open up the http interface to the Stoker and you can configure the temps, assign blowers, change the probe and blower names, and set alarms. Then if you want to use StokerLog, just launch it, enter in the Stoker IP, and click start.

Getting started without wireless is even easier. I thought about just running a long ethernet cable from my router to the Stoker, but keeping my sliding door open all night. Also, I do like the fact that if you want to add more food probes you can with no problem and if you run out of ports on the Stoker, you just can use a 1/4" headphone jack y cable.

Anyway, let me know if you have any other questions. Best of luck,

Kg
 
I got a spare Linksys wireless transmitter just sitting around. My system has a 10cfm pitviper fan along with the Weber adaptor already in place. All I really need is the stoker control box. I may convert since remote monitoring is important to me.
I assume the fan I have now will work with the Stoker.
Sheldon...Maverick has not answered me either
 
Hey Morrey: I don't know what your connector end looks like on your viper fan, but the Stoker requires a 1/4inch jack connector to plug into the Stoker. (just like 1/4in headphone jacks)

Keith
 
I think that will work Keith. Gonna look at the base stoker controller and consider.
BTW.....Sheldon, I just got an email from Maverick that they were sending a new ET-73 out to me and sorry for the troubles I am having. I appreciate their good customer service. They are standing behind the ET-73.
 
Wow, that is great news Morrey on the replacement ET-73.

Also, you may want to email Rock's and make sure you don't need different temp probes if you are going to use your Guru ones, since I know they have some unique ID numbers.

Good luck,
Kg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

 

Back
Top