Digital thermometer readings

schizoid2k

I have 2 dial thermometers (both from BGE, I swap them out as I feel) and 2 digital, wireless thermometers.  I generally use the BGE dial ones to measure dome temp, and use the meat probes from the wireless therms to measure internal temp of the meat.  The meat probes for both of my digital terms seem to work well (never a bad result), but the dome probe always seems way off from what the dial therms show, even after calibrating the dials and placing the probe near the dial probe.

I generally go by the readings of the dials since I can calibrate them.  I haven't found a wireless probe that I can calibrate, so I write it off as a nice to have, but cannot rely on, feature.

Does anyone have a different experience, or are there any tips to getting the digital probe's readings in the same neighborhood as the dial readings?

lkapigian

Personally I don't fret much about ambient temp, don't even have a thermos on my egg.....get it in a range you are comfortable with...275 -300 for me is a good temp....pay attention to the. " feel" of your pit ...i put my Thermopen in the hole where the dial thermo goes just to get me in the ball park ...my 2 cents 

When I'm doing large cooks in my other cooker, I use grateremo as an average but again I don't fuss much, swings are what kill you 

Photo Egg

You can check your digital probes by testing their temp with boiling water.
They should be close to 210-212.
Your internal food temp is more more important than whether you are cooking at 250 or 285 pit temp.

schizoid2k

Thanks for the replies! 

Yep, I do calibrate with boiling water and everything seems fine until they go into the egg and then the temps are different.  No big deal, since I put more stock into the non-digital one.  The meat probe seems to be pretty accurate all the time.

lousubcap

Here's a recent thread related to your concerns:
Dome vs Surface  FWIW-

Langner91

A wise man once said "the man with one watch always knows what time it is.  The man with two watches is never quite sure."

The same goes for BGE Thermometers.