Possible dome thermometer problem?

ChrisgrillsSTLMO · July 2014

Greetings -

Last Friday I did my first "exhibition" cook for 8 people and things were going great until the last part of the meal. Here was the progression of items & temps:

1: ABT's (amazing, will do again soon) & Spatchock chicken at 400 deg raised direct, thermometer was dead on

2. Grilled Veggies at 500 degrees raised direct, thermometer was good

3. In preparation for the last course of pizza, I removed the grid, added some more lump to get a good fire going, then inserted the platesetter legs down, then grate, then spacers, then pizza stone. I anticipated a big dip in dome temperature since it hand new lump and relatively cold parts put in. I opened up the lower door all the way and took off the daisy wheel to get up to my pizza temp of 575 degrees and the thermometer would not budge above 490ish, ever. I waited a good 30 - 40 minutes for the temperature to get up and it just stayed there below 500. When I couldn't take it any longer I opened the lid and the fire was definitely going so I put on the pizza and it cooked as it should in 10-12 minutes with a good crust.

What happened? It was a very still night so not a lot of air was moving but the fire seemed to reach the necessary intensity to cook the pizza. The next day when I cleaned up the Egg it had all the look of a clean burn which tells me it did reach a hot temperature. As far as I could tell the pizza stone was not in contact with the thermometer to throw it off whack. I have attached a picture of the thermometer inside the dome in case it is too dirty.

I am not sure it needs to be calibrated since it was good for the first 2/3 of the night and only got weird at the end; possibly user error?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. I am doing reverse sear steaks tonight so I will report back what happens in this case. Thanks for reading.

Cheers!

RRP · July 2014

Why did you have to add more lump? That clearly would bring the temp down. Next time fill your egg to the middle of the fire ring to begin with and you'll be set to go for hours! and BTW remove that clip, throw it in the trash and then take sandpaper and clean that stem - I doubt it affected your reading that much though, but gravity will keep your thermometer in place and prevent accidentally throwing it out of calibration if you bump or turn it when that useless clip is in place.

ChrisgrillsSTLMO · July 2014

Thanks for the input, what grit of sandpaper should I use so that I don't damage the stem, 180 or something higher?

morrobayrich · July 2014

Use Emery cloth if you can find it. If not, something in the 600 grit area ought to work fine.

lousubcap · July 2014

Simplest thing to do is check your thermo calibration. That said, it sounds like it was reading correctly, given the mass of ceramics between it and the fire but a simple cal check and adjustment (if required) removes all doubt. FWIW-

ChrisgrillsSTLMO · July 2014

morrobayrich said:

Use Emery cloth if you can find it. If not, something in the 600 grit area ought to work fine.

Ok, thanks for the information.

lousubcap said:

Simplest thing to do is check your thermo calibration. That said, it sounds like it was reading correctly, given the mass of ceramics between it and the fire but a simple cal check and adjustment (if required) removes all doubt. FWIW-

Good idea. I did do a cook last night (reverse sear steaks) and it seemed to behave fine and I got the Egg up to 700+ degrees. As you said, an calibration check would remove all doubt.

Cheers!

Possible dome thermometer problem?

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