Dome Thermo and Maverick Thermo - on the fritz?

Philicious · September 2012

Ok, I smoked 4 butts this weekend - two on the bottom and two on the top grid. The butts on the top touched the dome thermometer (BGE brand). Didn't think much of it but soon realized that the thermometer wasn't working. No big deal because I have my Maverick wireless one. That one worked great until I took two of the butts off. After that, the temperature really spiked, at least on the display - I do not think in the egg.

So, tonight I try my first pizza on the egg. Didn't even think about look at the dome one because one look tells you that it is screwed. Put the Maverick back to work and it was fine for a while. After about 550, it started reading HHH. WTF?

Any thoughts? What can I replace my dome thermometer with?

Doc_Eggerton · September 2012

The Mavrick will only work up to 600 then you get an error message.

Neither will be accurate if it touches the meat. There is an art to balancing the Mav temp and the dome temp to achieve what you want. Only experience will teach you what to look for in each.

Skiddymarker · September 2012

Doc_Eggerton said:

The Mavrick will only work up to 600 then you get an error message.

Neither will be accurate if it touches the meat. There is an art to balancing the Mav temp and the dome temp to achieve what you want. Only experience will teach you what to look for in each.

That great cook photo taker is right, the Mav specs are to 572F - anything over that you are burning up probes.....

Philicious · September 2012

Great. I hit the daily double and burned up 2 probes in one weekend. The dome one did hit food but the temp wasn't more than 300. Tonight, when I cooked my pizza, the dome thermometer didn't move at all. It is stuck on something like 215. Skiddy - when you say burn up a probe, can I replace that part and keep the electronics?

Doc_Eggerton · September 2012

Philicious said:

Great. I hit the daily double and burned up 2 probes in one weekend.

Double check on those probes. I've gotten the dreaded HHH several times, and after they cooled down they worked just fine. Another thing to understand in the balance between dome and Mav is if there is flame under the probe it will really spike. It take awhile to get the dome and the grid temps close to each other.

Duganboy · September 2012

I have an XL that is about a month old. I calibrated the thermo yesterday and it read 230 in boiling water.

Skiddymarker · September 2012

Philicious said:

Great. I hit the daily double and burned up 2 probes in one weekend. The dome one did hit food but the temp wasn't more than 300. Tonight, when I cooked my pizza, the dome thermometer didn't move at all. It is stuck on something like 215. Skiddy - when you say burn up a probe, can I replace that part and keep the electronics?

Yes, you can order the probes separately, however I think the cost of two probes is almost the same as a whole new unit. Try the probes again, at room temp. Plug them in and see if they read. You can get the HHH or --- due to the "temp the probe reports" as being out of range of the electronics, doesn't hurt the probe or the electronics, just something they can't read. High heat can damage the wire from the probe, that's what I meant by burning up the probe - if this happens, they are toast.

As Doc noted above, place the grid probe over the leg of the setter if using one, keeps it out of the direct fire path, less temp spikes. Good luck.

Griffin · September 2012

Can you explain more about how the dome thermometer isn't working? If it was touching meat, it wouldn't register a true pit temperature, but once you move the meat, it should still work. have you tried placing it in boiling water since then to see if it will hit 212? If it does, you should be good to go with that one.

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Dome Thermo and Maverick Thermo - on the fritz?

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