Do you use your dome thermometer or an alternative to monitor egg temp?

bicktrav

I was just reading on Amazing Ribs about how the thermometers that come with most grills are cheap after-thoughts and are typically unreliable.  The site suggests replacing the stock thermometers with digital ones that take the grill temp with a probe placed at grid level rather than dome level.  Specifically, Amazing Ribs recommends getting the Maverick ET-732.  I understand the logic; there's no doubt that digitals are leagues more accurate.  Nonetheless, it seems like we BGE users communicate recipes using a common language: the dome thermometer.  If you are getting your temp from a different area of the egg, you're losing that commonality, which seems like a downside.  But the increased accuracy sounds fantastic, and the precision that accuracy affords also sounds great.  So what do you all do?  Do you take your readings from digitals placed on the grid?  Do you rely on the stock dome thermometer?  Have you replaced the stock dome thermometer with a Tru Tel for better accuracy?  What do you all think?   

Loosemoose

I'm thinking most at least reccomend calibrating the dome thermometer.
I'm fairly new to the egg but have calibrated the dome thermometer a couple of times. The first time it was off by quite a bit.
I also have a maverick and was surprised to see the grid temp and dome temp were really not that much different.

sbunker

I have replaced my dome thermometer, but just bought another BGE thermometer. I would consider the grill thermometers that are just flat backed and don't have a probe after thoughts. The BGE thermometer actually has a probe but over time may have to be replaced. When mine went out it was vary evident that it wasn't working any longer. I guess the BGE dome thermometer in my mind would be like the thermometer in your oven. Do we know where they are located? It is understood that the grate temp is slightly hotter than the dome temp. I guess that will also vary on rather you are doing direct or indirect cooking. The most important thermometer would be the one that goes in the meat.

Just my take on the subject

williamadamsesq

Dome thermometer, Maverick et732 and Thermapen. All do different things, and it think most guys have all three eventually. The dome thermo is used for a wide variety of things, from monitoring low and slows to seeing how hot things are on sears and pizzas. It's an overall reading that's still accurate. You can cook ribs to brisket using the dome thermo as your primary way of setting the temp. The Maverick is really more of a way of telling the temp when you are not sitting by the egg. Yeah, it's a quicker read and digitally more accurate, but if you're doing an overnight cook you don't care if the grid temp is 245 or 257, you're still running 250 on the dome and all is well. There will be a lot of times you'll get worked up because the Maverick is showing a variation but if the dome is steady, the cook is still on track. The Thermapen is what tells you when the food is done. Even the meat probe on the maverick is just a sign that you need to foil or check with the pen, it only measures one spot and the meat may not be ready to pull just because of the maverick reading. When you stick the Thermapen in and see your ideal temperature plus the feeling that you're sticking a hot knife into a stick of butter, you're done. Never look at replacing things, just adding toys to the pile, it is the holidays after all!

GreenhawK

I use my Stoker thermometer (when I use it) along with the dome thermometer (BGE Tel-Tru).  They are usually very close to each other.  People always talk about the variation between grid temp, and dome temp, but I just don't see it.  Mine are usually identical or within a degree or so.  The best part of the Stoker thermometer is that I can see the temp without going outside.  For long cooks that part is handy, but if you don't mind going out and checking it, the dome thermometer is perfectly adequate.

lousubcap

FYI-the generally accepted practice is that when a cook temp is mentioned it is calibrated dome temp unless stated otherwise.  All BGE's have the dome thermo.  Whatever you do, don't get into temperature reading information overload.  Happy Thanksgiving!