Heat readings...KK versus Fireboard 2.

[BARDSLJR]

Temp dial on my KK reads 300: Fireboard reports 185. Fireboard temp probe is wrapped up around the inside bracket of the KK heat probe, near the top of the dome. Ideally, they should be exactly the same, more or less. What's going on? Who do I believe?

[BARDSLJR]

Like this:

[BARDSLJR]

Of course, there's always this:

[swoff1]

9 minutes ago, BARDSLJR said:

Like this:

Hmmm very interesting     Did you try to stick one of the food probes up in this Area as well.   Could be a bad probe I have seen that before and they replaced free of charge

[David Chang]

test all your probes prior to using. actually test all your thermometers. your dial is twisted and maybe it needs to be recalibrated...

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by David Chang

[BARDSLJR]

Here's the really weird thing: on the way down after the cook, I disconnected the fan but left the Fireboard 2 on: a couple of hours later, the two temperature measures are in synch, reading almost exactly the same on the way down......WTH?

[Poochie]

This is a mystery to me too. How did you connect the two probes together? With wire? Like the others said, it could be a bad probe...even if they read the same on the way down Maybe you moved or jiggled it and it has a bad connection inside the wire itself. But do the cold and boiling water test with it and see what happens. 

[BARDSLJR]

Not sure where you are getting the idea that there are two probes. There are just, as pictured, the reading from the FIreboard2 and the temperature gauge that comes with the KK.

In any case, I plan to use a second probe today- one of the meat probes that comes with the Fireboard 2, and hang it up on the interior bracket that houses the KK temp dial, and be able to compare the three readings.

Of the six spare ribs that were "cooked" yesterday, the larger ones were still adequate for serving, but the smallest one, which may have also been subject to more direct heat, was a crispy critter (see photo), and I could only recover some of the meat from the center of the rack, which got used in a pork fried rice (which was yummy). The bigger ribs were dryer than I would have wished, but as I said, still, according to my neigbors/testors, still pretty decent.

Stay tuned for today's calibration tests.

[swoff1]

Wow seems your Bored, this has been way over analyzed.  So you have a FireBoard and your running just a pit probe????  Cause folks are asking you what your food probes are reading.   Good luck

Edited April 14, 2022 by swoff1

[BARDSLJR]

Today, I am going to fire it up again and wire in one of the food probes and hang it next to the temperature probe inside the KK dome, and see how closely- or not- the three probes agree on temperature. It could be that the Fireboard probe is defective and just needs to be replaced. Stay tuned…..

[tony b]

16 hours ago, David Chang said:

your dial is twisted

Has nothing to do with it.

In fact, this is an old trick that I learned years ago on the POSK Forum - I intentionally turn the dome thermometer to where my target temperature is at 12 o'clock high. Easy to see where the temperature is at relative to target from the kitchen window. Don't have to be close enough to read the dial to know if I'm close.

[tony b]

@BARDSLJR - a 50F difference between dome and main grate temperature is "normal" for a KK, especially early in the heatup process. With a long enough cook (hours) they will tend to equilibrate a bit closer, typically within 20-30F.

[C6Bill]

I'd make sure you are getting a good seal before chasing probe temps, a draft could cause all kinds of issue with temps. From the pictures you showed in the other thread you have been ;leaking air for a long time and the rim could really use a good cleaning.

[Poochie]

"Not sure where you are getting the idea that there are two probes."

"Today, I am going to fire it up again and wire in one of the food probes and hang it next to the temperature probe inside the KK dome"

You called the Fireboard probe a probe and the referred to the KK temperature probe.  So I figured you put the Fireboard probe on or attached to the KK probe to see if they read the same.  I was wondering how you did it. I couldn't figure out "wrapped around the inside bracket of the KK heat probe."

[David Chang]

7 hours ago, tony b said:

Has nothing to do with it.

if i turn my dial with some pressure, i can move the needle around 50-100 degrees without using any tools to turn the calibration nut.

[tony b]

14 hours ago, David Chang said:

if i turn my dial with some pressure, i can move the needle around 50-100 degrees without using any tools to turn the calibration nut.

Then your calibration nut is loose and needs to be tightened up. It shouldn't do that.

[BARDSLJR]

Okay, lots of conversation to catch up on and a few questions to be answered:

First, to recap the problem (which no,SWOFF1, I don't think is in any way "over-analyzed"): When I did the first cook on Wednesday, I used both the KK temp dial, meter, or whatever you want to call it, and the Fireboard temp probe. The temp probe I placed right up with the KK probe in the dome, looping the cord around the inside bracket to the KK temp dial, so that the working end of both (the pencil-type things) were within 1" or so of each other. So they should have been experiencing the same temperature, or very close to it. I don't know if this image helps or not. But during the cook, I was getting WILDLY different readings, with KK dial reading much higher-approximately 335 on the KK to 197 on the Fireboard..

[BARDSLJR]

So yesterday I added a second temperature probe, this one one of the Fireboard food probes, looping the cord around the KK temp dial bracket inside the dome, so I now had three different probes, with their working ends all within 1" of each other. (Sorry, got the two photos mixed up- the previous one is of the three probes, the one below is of the two), and I put some fuel in the KK, fired it up, and set the Fireboard controller to 250*. And as you see, now all three temperature gauges are reading pretty close, with ten degrees, to one another, though the original Fireboard probe that I had problems with Wednesday is still reading a bit lower than the other two. So long as they are all dependably close, and so long as the Fireboard is controlling the heat within a narrow range, I am okay.

 

BTW, to answer a couple of the previoous questions, (1) I got the air leak under control, and the problem Wednesday was not out-of-control temps, but rather, a misleading temp reading from the Fireboard. second, no I don't use a food probe when I am doing ribs. For pork shoulder or brisket, yes.

For now, the problem would appear to be solved, but since I have the third probe already wired up in there, I think I will keep it there for a while as a security check.

[MacKenzie]

Remember the probe ends need to be kept clean too.

 

 

[Syzygies]

On 4/13/2022 at 11:18 PM, BARDSLJR said:

Here's the really weird thing: on the way down after the cook, I disconnected the fan but left the Fireboard 2 on: a couple of hours later, the two temperature measures are in synch, reading almost exactly the same on the way down......WTH?

Exactly. There's a long period where different parts of the KK will read differently, but it stabilizes.

Pick a strategy: Do you want to fly by the grate temperature, or the dome temperature? It affects the initial ramp up, anything works once you get used to it.

I like to run my Guru probe through the dome thermometer hole, instead of the analog thermometer. I can even use the Guru to control bread temperatures (450 F). Some cables can withstand 450 F but no need if the cable is entirely external.