New WSM fired up w/ butts, temp gauge off ?


 
D

DavidD

TVWBB Super Fan
Today is the inaugural run with the new WSM, and my first time cooking on any wsm. I opened one vent and the temp wasn't going up fast enough so i opened a second. It went to 220 on the weber dial. I was suspicious of this so i pulled my Thermapen out and checked the temp via the lid vent. I probed around and the reading was a whopping 270. I'm glad i checked this b/c that is a 50 degree variance. I let the temp come down with vents closed and at 182 on weber dial, the thermapen was 212, so in that case, a 30 degree difference. I guess the higher the temp the greater the discrepancy.

anyone else either test or experience this on the new webers? If i wasn't testing with a high quality thermapen, I might not know which gauge was accurate.

anyway, put the butts on at 8am this morning, along with 4 chunks of oak and one hickory and hoping for the best.
 
Same thing happened last week with my 08 w/ Tel-Tru in the lid.
I had a 10lb butt on, took about 3 hrs for the temps to even out.
Tim
 
I had the same problem with the therm. Used a polder via lid vent and it was reading 235 while the weber therm was reading 200.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Davidd:
I was waiting for temps to reach stabilization but it was holding at 170 or so with vents closed. I've read here that in the beginning, it is likely I will need all 3 vents closed to control the heat and open later as it burns down. . </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Start with all vents open. Don't have to wait for a temp before you put the meat on. Temp may go down after adding meat, but it will recover fairly quickly. Then, when you get to within a range that you like of your target temp, make vent adjustment to control the rise. I always have vents open at least 20% or so except in rare cases. If you start with all vents closed sure the heat will stall with little oxygen.
Not that my way is the only right way, but here's what I usually do and its been working. Minion method with 20 lit coals this time of the year. Dump the lit coals, add my wood, assemble the cooker, add meat and lid. All vents open. Monitor the temp rise for about an hour or so and make vent adjustments accordingly.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I guess the higher the temp the greater the discrepancy. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
My bad.
I should of stated that I was doin my butt @ 300.
Also was measuring @ grate with a probe.
At the beginning the Tel-Tru was reading 50deg lower than grate temp, put my trusty turkey fryer therm in the vent, ( which was what i used from the beginning ) and the read was the same as the grate. I did a grate vs lid search on this site,
came up with some good info
Tim
 
Did you check the weber thermometer to see if it is accurate? It is easy to do. Just unscrew the wingnut and hold the probe of the thermometer in boiling water. I did that with mine and it read right between 210* and 215*.

I think that it might be better to compare the temp at the grate and the weber therm rather than a thermometer in the vent. I know lots of the oldtimers use a thermometer in the vent and are happy with it. But the vents create a convection current that will read higher (as many of the oldtimers have stated here) I may be wrong, just my opinion.
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I agree with the boiling water, have done that will all thermometers but did not do it with this one. I will pull it and test in water to see what happens later this week and post my findings.

During the cook, i consistently had a variance of 35-45 degrees between the vent and the weber built in thermo. I did point the tip of the thermo toward the built in so they were in appx the same spot, and had the same reading but still agree, the water test is key.
 
Boiled water test is in, and I'll eat my words, though admit, I'm still puzzled. How can the temp in the vent vary that much from the lid temp via the built in thermo that comes with the new wsm? I understand differences exist between grate and lid, but I don't understand this difference.

Anyway, the bottom line is, the boil test showed the wsm thermo came up slower than my Taylor, and certainly slower than the Thermapen, leading me to believe it was off by 10 degrees, but with patience, the wsm thermo settled in at 211, the thermapen toggling at 212-213 and the Taylor at 210.

Glad I did the test, thx for the suggestion. It was a breeze to unscrew the wingnut and perform the test.
 
Probably just an oddity of the air currents within the WSM. With three bottom vents, and only one outlet vent at top, it must set up a steady current in some fashion. A therm stuck in the active current will read higher than just a short distance away which is outside the current.
 
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