Temperature Differences
- Thread starter Bob Mann
- Start date
Dave Russell
TVWBB Honor Circle
Bob, mind me asking how far your therm probe tip was from the side of the cooker? That pic would've meant more to me than your second, because measuring grate temp in an 18.5" can be a pain in the butt. You've got cold meat in the middle and little space between that and the outside hot perimeter of the grate. That's why so many guys simply hang the probe in the top vent.
K Kruger
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I ONLY go by lid temp.
I strongly suggest picking one place or the other to temp - and not both - because it can make you crazy. We see dozens of posts like this every year. Pick one and work off it.
I prefer lid - at the vent because installed therms aren't reliable - over grate temps because grate temps aren't reliable either, imco.
Another point: if 297 is accurate it's utterly no big deal.
I strongly suggest picking one place or the other to temp - and not both - because it can make you crazy. We see dozens of posts like this every year. Pick one and work off it.
I prefer lid - at the vent because installed therms aren't reliable - over grate temps because grate temps aren't reliable either, imco.
Another point: if 297 is accurate it's utterly no big deal.
Bob Mann
TVWBB Honor Circle
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Bob, mind me asking how far your therm probe tip was from the side of the cooker? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>About 3 inches in from the edge of the grate.
Bob, mind me asking how far your therm probe tip was from the side of the cooker? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>About 3 inches in from the edge of the grate.
Dave Russell
TVWBB Honor Circle
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Bob Mann:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Bob, mind me asking how far your therm probe tip was from the side of the cooker? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>About 3 inches in from the edge of the grate. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Bob, I'm sure you realize this, but the wsm has about 2 inches of grate that extends past the perimeter of the water pan, the infamous HOT zone where rib slab ends get charred and brisket burnt ends can happen without trying. Well, my point is, temp readings only an inch or so closer to the grate center in my experience will be typically a good bit higher than the average grate temp.
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Dave Russell:
Bob, mind me asking how far your therm probe tip was from the side of the cooker? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>About 3 inches in from the edge of the grate. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
Bob, I'm sure you realize this, but the wsm has about 2 inches of grate that extends past the perimeter of the water pan, the infamous HOT zone where rib slab ends get charred and brisket burnt ends can happen without trying. Well, my point is, temp readings only an inch or so closer to the grate center in my experience will be typically a good bit higher than the average grate temp.
timothy
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
They are just reading temps @ different locations. Which one is right, who knows, flip a coin?
Like Kevin and Don I'm a top-venter, started that way and everything I read on the board is it usually runs 10-15degs hotter than grate.
Takes out alot of the variables as the therm is tempered in the exhaust and not affected by the amount of cold meat or sitting to close to the edge.
Try it a few times as it's a lot easier than snake-in a probe through grommets and using a clip or tater or block of wood IMO
Tim
Like Kevin and Don I'm a top-venter, started that way and everything I read on the board is it usually runs 10-15degs hotter than grate.
Takes out alot of the variables as the therm is tempered in the exhaust and not affected by the amount of cold meat or sitting to close to the edge.
Try it a few times as it's a lot easier than snake-in a probe through grommets and using a clip or tater or block of wood IMO
Tim
Dave Russell
TVWBB Honor Circle
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by timothy:
They are just reading temps @ different locations. Which one is right, who knows, flip a coin?
Like Kevin and Don I'm a top-venter, started that way and everything I read on the board is it usually runs 10-15degs hotter than grate.
Takes out alot of the variables as the therm is tempered in the exhaust and not affected by the amount of cold meat or sitting to close to the edge...Tim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It's not a matter of what temp is right. If you want to understand where hot spots are and cooking temps all it takes is a couple cans of frozen biscuits and a couple of fairly accurate oven therms.
Anyway, measuring temp at the vent is just fine, and a particularly good idea if monitoring temps from in the house over long cooks, particularly with a full grate. However, if you think about it, regarding cold meat affects, it's just about the same as sitting a therm too close to the hot zone. Cold meat doesn't affect the temp reading at the vent (as much as at the gauge or a central grate location) since the air being measured is moving fastest and on it's way out of the cooker before the majority of the air coming up the center. Top vent measurement is better than the grate hot zone because it's obviously more consistent. Still, getting back to the OP, assuming the Weber gauge is accurate, it's very close to actual avg. cooking temps since it's OUT of the hot stream of circulation.
They are just reading temps @ different locations. Which one is right, who knows, flip a coin?
Like Kevin and Don I'm a top-venter, started that way and everything I read on the board is it usually runs 10-15degs hotter than grate.
Takes out alot of the variables as the therm is tempered in the exhaust and not affected by the amount of cold meat or sitting to close to the edge...Tim </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
It's not a matter of what temp is right. If you want to understand where hot spots are and cooking temps all it takes is a couple cans of frozen biscuits and a couple of fairly accurate oven therms.
Anyway, measuring temp at the vent is just fine, and a particularly good idea if monitoring temps from in the house over long cooks, particularly with a full grate. However, if you think about it, regarding cold meat affects, it's just about the same as sitting a therm too close to the hot zone. Cold meat doesn't affect the temp reading at the vent (as much as at the gauge or a central grate location) since the air being measured is moving fastest and on it's way out of the cooker before the majority of the air coming up the center. Top vent measurement is better than the grate hot zone because it's obviously more consistent. Still, getting back to the OP, assuming the Weber gauge is accurate, it's very close to actual avg. cooking temps since it's OUT of the hot stream of circulation.
K Kruger
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">If you want to understand where hot spots are and cooking temps all it takes is a couple cans of frozen biscuits and a couple of fairly accurate oven therms. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
True - but only for that particular cook. The next one will likely have different hot spots, etc. WSMs, kettles, offsets et al. are not kitchen ovens (which have their own - though usually static - hot spots. Ambient conditions in the cooker and outside of the cooker are different nearly every time one cooks. Which is why I repeatedly say - contrary to what many others say - it is not the case that 'every butt is different' (and variations thereof). The cooks are different because the circumstances (ambient conditions inside and outside the cooker, fuel, how the fuel was lit and for how long, moisture content in the fuel, position(s) of the meat(s) in the cooker - and many other things) are different in virtually every cook.
True - but only for that particular cook. The next one will likely have different hot spots, etc. WSMs, kettles, offsets et al. are not kitchen ovens (which have their own - though usually static - hot spots. Ambient conditions in the cooker and outside of the cooker are different nearly every time one cooks. Which is why I repeatedly say - contrary to what many others say - it is not the case that 'every butt is different' (and variations thereof). The cooks are different because the circumstances (ambient conditions inside and outside the cooker, fuel, how the fuel was lit and for how long, moisture content in the fuel, position(s) of the meat(s) in the cooker - and many other things) are different in virtually every cook.
timothy
TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
"They are just reading temps @ different locations. Which one is right, who knows, flip a coin?"
"It's not a matter of what temp is right."
That was my point. The WSM has been around since what like the early 80's? Did Weber install a thermo back then? no. Maybe they didn't know exactly what the right location would be. Seems to me that once they installed one in 09 in roughly the same location that you see in the mods section, that's when all the confusion started.
Now to your point Dave on the OP. I don't find a lid mounted therm(Tel-Tru)to be an actual average on a cook compared to what, Your times and temps in your backyard on your WSM?
That's cool, but my WSM runs different and I use an empty foiled pan and run in the 275deg range. Now granted the lid therm will get closer to actual avg cook temps as the meat comes to temps, but at that target temp I always trust my vent mounted therm as the lid one can read 75-100degs cooler like the OP.
Consistency is what we all strive for- and whatever works albeit grate lid or vent should be a singular choice, not a mix&match..
Tim
"It's not a matter of what temp is right."
That was my point. The WSM has been around since what like the early 80's? Did Weber install a thermo back then? no. Maybe they didn't know exactly what the right location would be. Seems to me that once they installed one in 09 in roughly the same location that you see in the mods section, that's when all the confusion started.
Now to your point Dave on the OP. I don't find a lid mounted therm(Tel-Tru)to be an actual average on a cook compared to what, Your times and temps in your backyard on your WSM?
That's cool, but my WSM runs different and I use an empty foiled pan and run in the 275deg range. Now granted the lid therm will get closer to actual avg cook temps as the meat comes to temps, but at that target temp I always trust my vent mounted therm as the lid one can read 75-100degs cooler like the OP.
Consistency is what we all strive for- and whatever works albeit grate lid or vent should be a singular choice, not a mix&match..
Tim