Thermometers

Yesterday, while cooking ribs, I took a break from the smoker and ran to Wal-Mart, looking for a thermometer.  Yeah, the smoker has a bi-metal thermometer on it, but those are notorious for inaccuracy and I wanted to see what was available.  I came home with two, and put them to work, monitoring various parts of the smoker.

The larger unit is a Taylor thermometer that I picked up at Wal-Mart.  It cost 15 bucks, and has a probe that you can put in the oven.  So, I wrapped the middle of the probe in a ball of aluminum foil to keep the probe tip from touching anything, and put it in the middle rack of the smoker.

The display unit has a small magnet that you can use to put it on the smoker, but I preferred to use a gas pipe that's running up the wall.  That keeps the unit away from the heat of the smoker and puts the display at a convenient height.  The thermometer displays two temps, the actual on the left and the target on the right.  It comes with an alarm feature when you're using it as a meat thermometer, but I'm ignoring that read-out for todays purposes.  This little unit supposedly has a range of 32F ro 482F.  We'll see about that.  As long as it goes to 400F, I'm good.

The second thermometer, also by Taylor, is a smaller, pocket thermometer.  I stuck it in the top vent of the smoker to see what the temps coming out the top vent are.  I can't find it in Wal-Mart's online catalog, but it was hanging right next to the other one, on the shelf.  Also, 15 bucks.

Interesting that this one is reading a good 35F higher, out of the top vent.  But, heat rises, so there's that.

Still, it's nice to see how temperature varies across the various places in the cooker.