Temperature Control


 
G

Gabe Tinti

TVWBB Member
In preparation for smoking 8 pork butts tomorrow, I decided to check SmokeFire reported temperatures (ThermPro, confirmed accurate within a couple degrees using boiling water and ice water) vs. actual temperature at the grates when set to 225. I figured it wouldn’t be perfect, but I was surprised to see just how far off it was - about 40°F higher than the SmokeFire set point. Which, of course, means it’s not actually possible to run the SmokeFire at 225, since the lowest you can set it is 200. Best I can get is about 240-245. (SmokeBoost send to get the grate temperatures down to about 210-215.) Do I have an unusual problem, or is this a common condition for the SmokeFire?
 
One data point is not enough info to draw conclusions. It is possible to get 200. People do it all the time. Are you running an EX 4 or 6? My Gen1 Ex6 runs hottest on the top cooking grate right side. My lowest temp is bottom shelf, left side, front. Also, because the grill is a convection oven it takes longer for the temp to stabilize than your kitchen oven or a WSM. I've had the temp on top right drop by 45 degrees after an hour of running and it gets in the vicinity of set temp but a tad higher. Then just to confuse us a little more, some of that changes as we get the grill gunked up. I don't deep clean the interior of the cooking chamber. A little knowledge, lots of patience, and that grill will perform nicely. Relax and have fun.
 
All good points. It’s an EX6 G2. I tried 225 and 200 (and SmokeBoost), primarily because I’m planning low and slow tomorrow. Didn’t test anything above that. My probes were set for what I figured might be worst-case - top middle and bottom right. I did notice a massive spike as it came up to temperature, when it hit 284 before gliding back down. Not unexpected, but even after it stabilized about 30 minutes later, it was still bouncing between 255-275. Of course, the SmokeFire display said everything was perfect. Really wish they would display the actual reported temperature from the attached probe, rather than the BS it feeds us. At least then we could learn how it runs and work around it. It’s a bit concerning as I got this to be more “set and forget”, and it seems it may be less stable than my WSM. I’ll certainly give it time, as I knew going in to SmokeFire that it wasn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows. Big day tomorrow with eight butts on the grates.
 
Gabe Tinti said:
Drip pan setup will be 3 pans across the flavorizer bars to keep as much grease out of the bottom as possible.
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I did a brisket and a butt a few weeks ago on the upper rack with drip pans on the lower rack. I had to keep adding a little water so the drippings wouldn’t smoke in the drip pans. let Us know how it works out.
 
Will do. One thing I did learn is that apparently you can’t buy regular foil pans to fit between bars and grates. The Weber pans are like 3mm shorter than the “standard” foil pans. The wet smoke kit is odd. The brace they send is barely narrower than the pans they send with it. Don’t bump the smoker if using as a water pan - it might just slip right off the rack.
 
Gabe Tinti said:
All good points. It’s an EX6 G2. I tried 225 and 200 (and SmokeBoost), primarily because I’m planning low and slow tomorrow. Didn’t test anything above that. My probes were set for what I figured might be worst-case - top middle and bottom right. I did notice a massive spike as it came up to temperature, when it hit 284 before gliding back down. Not unexpected, but even after it stabilized about 30 minutes later, it was still bouncing between 255-275. Of course, the SmokeFire display said everything was perfect. Really wish they would display the actual reported temperature from the attached probe, rather than the BS it feeds us. At least then we could learn how it runs and work around it. It’s a bit concerning as I got this to be more “set and forget”, and it seems it may be less stable than my WSM. I’ll certainly give it time, as I knew going in to SmokeFire that it wasn’t going to be all sunshine and rainbows. Big day tomorrow with eight butts on the grates.
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Just a datapoint. Those butts will act as a heatsink and they’ll all cook at approx the same rate up to around 155-160° or so. Then depending on each butt, once you wrap, if you wrap, your “done time” for each butt will likely vary due to each butts characteristics.

No two butts cook alike. Similar, maybe. But you most likely will have each one done at a different time.

Now if you’re cooking exposed the full cook, then you’ll enjoy how each one will come to temp, again at different intervals, but your cook will be longer with no wrap.

Enjoy the journey. You’re in for a long and fun cook. Get the beers or waters chilled tonight and just breathe. You cannot control Mother Nature.

When the pig’s done, it’ll be done. Please post pics. I wouldn’t worry about your temps so long as you’re not prolonged at over 300°.

Have fun.
 
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Brett-EDH said:
Just a datapoint. Those butts will act as a heatsink and they’ll all cook at approx the same rate up to around 155-160° or so. Then depending on each butt, once you wrap, if you wrap, your “done time” for each but will likely vary due to each butts characteristics.

No two butts cook alike. Similar, maybe. But you most likely will have each one done at a different time.

Now if you’re cooking exposed the full cook, then you’ll enjoy how each one will come to temp, again at different intervals, but your cook will be longer with no wrap.

Enjoy the journey. You’re in for a long and fun cook. Get the beers or waters chilled tonight and just breathe. You cannot control Mother Nature.

When the pig’s done, it’ll be done. Please post pics. I wouldn’t worry about your temps so long as you’re not prolonged at over 300°.

Have fun.
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Excellent advice. I get way too worked up about temperature stability, but as I’ve learned with my WSM, chill out - it will be all right.
 
Gabe Tinti said:
Will do. One thing I did learn is that apparently you can’t buy regular foil pans to fit between bars and grates. The Weber pans are like 3mm shorter than the “standard” foil pans. The wet smoke kit is odd. The brace they send is barely narrower than the pans they send with it. Don’t bump the smoker if using as a water pan - it might just slip right off the rack.
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Agree, the design of the SF is problematic trying to fit proper drip pans for larger cooks.
 
Hey Gabe, good luck today! You have expert advice above, so there's no real reason for me to chime-in other than just to help you see one more voice agreeing that it's a good idea to not allow your temp measurement results be a source of frustration nor discouragement. If memory serves, you're new to the SmokeFire but not to smoking, so I'm confident things will work well for you.

I didn't even realize that my SF pit temp could sometimes have so much variance left-right until last year when what turned out to be a malfunctioning thermometer probe prompted me to add a second probe on the grate. Here are a few graphs (I believe my Fireboard probes were at lower grate level on all of these examples and the light color is left side, darker color is right side):

High heat wings. Note the temp variance:
1678532858752.png


Poor Man's Burnt Ends and Baby Back Ribs. Note the even temps during this cook:
1678532934771.png


I think this was one of my first couple cooks after using two probes. Midway through I opened it up, wondering if the large flavorizer bar or something else may have not been seated properly. I didn't see anything out of place, yet I still pulled the flavorizer bar and the diffuser weldment and reseated them. Then, voila! dead even temps. Why, I do not know:
1678533006571.png

Though this was when I used a single probe it does illustrate that low temps are possible. Started at Smokeboost, then 225, then 275:
1678533413734.png

I will admit, in my example where after reseating the components it does have me wishing sometimes that I could replicate that evenness persistently but you know what? Everything that I pull off from a SmokeFire cook tastes great and when cooking multiple items and/or different foods they usually need to be pulled at varying times for reasons other than the pit temp, so it all works out.

Best of luck!
 
Heck even a home oven many times is not capable of holding a temp. Our LG POS stove can't hold + or - 50 degrees! LG response? "oh it's normal variation"
My MM Pro Series pellet grill does a pretty stable job (now that it's fixed) :D I truly don't believe the food is too bothered by some temp swings
 
Seems to be going well so far. Started with SmokeBoost for 3 hours, and have been gradually increasing temperature from there. Temps have been as steady as could be expected. Still not sure on the difference between the actual temp and the reported temp, but I’m impressed so far.
 

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Gabe Tinti said:
Seems to be going well so far. Started with SmokeBoost for 3 hours, and have been gradually increasing temperature from there. Temps have been as steady as could be expected. Still not sure on the difference between the actual temp and the reported temp, but I’m impressed so far.
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I don’t think you could be doing any better. Looks perfect.
 
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