Phshon Posted October 16, 2016 Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 Yesterday I cooked my first butt on the KK--not my first butt ever, I've had clay cookers since about '98, but my first KK butt. What a machine! If there was only some way to get it into my living room, I've got a great place next to the couch. . . Anyway, here's my question. Yesterday I used a DigiQ 2 and I noticed a difference between the dome temp and the grill surface temp. I never paid attention to this before mainly because the thermometer on my POSK from that bogus guy who fled to Mexico never really worked, instead I used an oven thermometer sitting on the grill surface and that was good enough for government work. Since then I purchased the DigiQ 2. Yesterday during my cook I noticed about a 35 - 40 degree difference between the digi and my dome thermometer, the dome temp always reading the higher of the two. Today I calibrated all three probes and they all read the same correct temp, I live in Arizona so I boil water at 208 degrees. I gave all the probes a hot and cold test and they all passed, almost right on the money. I understand there should be some difference between grill and dome but I never thought it would be as great as 35 - 40 degrees. Any ideas on why such a difference between dome and grill surface? For my butt cook I used a deflector and cooked indirect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve M Posted October 16, 2016 Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 3 hours ago, Phshon said: Yesterday I cooked my first butt on the KK--not my first butt ever, I've had clay cookers since about '98, but my first KK butt. What a machine! If there was only some way to get it into my living room, I've got a great place next to the couch. . . Anyway, here's my question. Yesterday I used a DigiQ 2 and I noticed a difference between the dome temp and the grill surface temp. I never paid attention to this before mainly because the thermometer on my POSK from that bogus guy who fled to Mexico never really worked, instead I used an oven thermometer sitting on the grill surface and that was good enough for government work. Since then I purchased the DigiQ 2. Yesterday during my cook I noticed about a 35 - 40 degree difference between the digi and my dome thermometer, the dome temp always reading the higher of the two. Today I calibrated all three probes and they all read the same correct temp, I live in Arizona so I boil water at 208 degrees. I gave all the probes a hot and cold test and they all passed, almost right on the money. I understand there should be some difference between grill and dome but I never thought it would be as great as 35 - 40 degrees. Any ideas on why such a difference between dome and grill surface? For my butt cook I used a deflector and cooked indirect. Sounds like you have already ruled out an issue with the two thermometers. I expect they are both accurate; a pork butt is a lot of cold protein sitting on the grate. I see the same thing from time to time depending on what I am cooking but they typically converge over time and sometimes are pretty close to equal. I use a cyber q and still set the temp for the one I am shooting for. When it is heat soaked and before I put the meat on, they are nearly identical readings for an indirect cook. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomahawk66 Posted October 16, 2016 Report Share Posted October 16, 2016 I've noticed changes between the 2 readings that will eventually converge after enough time at a low and slow temperature. For me there is a big difference when the KK is not heat soaked and when I've added meat or cold deflector etc. I've also noticed that the dome temp is often higher if I have the top damper opened more. Would be cool if you could put a thermal camera inside the KK while it cooked and watched all the air turbulence and heat distribution!Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tony b Posted October 18, 2016 Report Share Posted October 18, 2016 Just to support what's already been said. Until the KK is heat soaked, there's generally a noticeable difference in temps between the dome and the grill surface, particularly on indirect heating. As the lid heats up, it will radiate heat back toward the main grill (assuming you're using a heat deflector) and they will equilibrate to within a few degrees. If you are cooking direct (no deflector) the temperature difference will remain, but be smaller (on the order of 10 degrees or so). Bottomline - don't sweat it, if you've checked your probes and they are calibrated (which you did). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mguerra Posted October 24, 2016 Report Share Posted October 24, 2016 This observation has been made many times over the years by many KK owners. Exactly what tony b says. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
