Modifying the BBQ Guru Competitor

I recently purchased a BBQ Guru Competitor kit from someone that had already sold their egg. The kit was like new with very little usage except the pit probe wire was melted in one spot and it only worked when held in a certain position. I was going to buy a replacement probe set from the BBQ Guru website but they cost anywhere from $53 to $65 after shipping which I thought was pretty steep considering that I only paid $40 for my Maverick ET-73 which included two higher quality probes and a great wireless monitor as well. I decided to attempt a repair of the Competitor probes since I didn’t have anything to lose.

The first thing I did was to disassemble the Competitor probes including removal of the connector plug and thermocouple junctions. I was disappointed to see that each probe wire contains two very thin single-strand conductors that are simply stripped, twisted together, and soldered with a special compound to form a crude thermocouple. The soldered wire junction is then enclosed in a thin plastic sleeve which is inserted into the metal probe body and crimped in place. I have disassembled and repaired a few other temperature probes including some expensive lab-grade thermocouples and all of those had slightly thicker conductors and a more significant weld material at the junction end. They were also protected by thicker insulation made from braided stainless steel or fiberglass that is rated up to 1000°F or higher, versus the thin plastic coating on the Competitor probes that is only rated up to 400°F. The Competitor manual states that the probe wires were made thin to avoid air leaks where they pass through the gasket which is a nice idea; however this made the wires more fragile as the previous owner found out when his pit probe wire melted and the unit quit working.

At this point I wasn’t optimistic about repairing the Competitor probes so I did some testing to see if the Maverick probes could work on the Competitor. Unfortunately the Competitor probes work on a very low resistance range which was between 0Ω and 20Ω during all of my testing. The Maverick probes and my other thermocouples were up in the 100kΩ range and above so they obviously use a different thermocouple compound which I believe is more durable and more accurate. Interchangeable probes were now out of the question so I decided to attempt a complete rebuild of the Competitor probes including a slight customization.

The first thing I did was to open the Competitor case and add two submini 3/32” phone plug jacks: one for the pit probe and one for the meat probe just like the Maverick unit. This will allow me to use the Competitor with only one probe connected instead of having both probes connected and the unused probe hanging from the case. I left the Competitor’s proprietary 4-pin connector in place so that I could still use an original BBQ Guru probe set later if desired.





Next I removed the 4-pin plug and separated the probe wires. Both probes were shorter than I wanted so I soldered an extension wire onto each probe making them about 6’ long. Then I soldered a right-angle submini 3/32” phone plug onto each probe and protected all solder joints and strain points with high-temperature heat shrink tubing. I also reinforced the thermocouple junctions and reinstalled them inside the metal probe covers. Finally I covered both probe wires with high-temperature black wire sleeving that is rated up to 1000°F and beyond. The resulting probes are much longer, significantly more durable and heat-resistant, easier to handle without tangling, and easier to connect and remove individually when needed.







I fired up the Competitor unit fully expecting the probes to fail or at least need recalibrated but to my surprise they worked just fine and both were within 5°F of the actual temperature based on several boiling water tests. If you have a BBQ Guru Competitor unit with a defective probe or if you sometimes use it with only one probe then you might consider making a similar modification to your unit. It was a pretty easy project that took less than an hour and cost less than $10 so it was well worth the investment for my needs. It may be possible to find replacement probes that work in the same range for a lot less money and if so then this would save you some cash as well.