How good are the egg thermometers ?

EggSimon

Hello t`all

I´ve got a question. Cause I´m still leraning to cooking with the egg, I´ve mostely the Mav ET 73 placed in the egg, to learn the temp behaviour of the egg.

What I have observated is, that the Temp on the mav (probe close to the cooking grid) shows always another temp than the dome thermo. But - and that´s funny - it´s not always higher or lower, sometimes shows the mav a higher temp, sometimes the dome temp. The difference of the thermos is in the 20 -50 F range.

The dome temp haven´t toughed any meat...

A buddy of me has also an egg, and his dome thermo shows definitiv 80 F colder than reality. Seems to be defect. I ruiend a few ribs shortly...

So my question, is the quality of the dome thermo as high as the egg itself ? Or is the gauge a weak point - as often in smokers... ?

Do ya recommand to replace the dome thermo with an - lets say tel tru ? Which model fits in the egg ?

Thanks for your help !

Greetings Simon

The Naked Whiz

My experience with BGE thermometers was that they all eventually broke, for whatever reason. While they worked, I thought they were accurate enough. But they all eventually stopped working. All my TelTru's are still working fine. If you visit the TT site, they have a couple models listed for the Egg. One is 5" stem, the other is 2.5" stem. The 2.5" stem reads about 10-15% low because the stem doesn't stick far enough into the cooker. If you want a shorter stem, it will work fine, just remember to add the extra 10-15%. Good luck!

fishlessman

different setups and cooks and the grid and dome temp will vary. calibration in boiling water helps but eventually all my gages have been changed to teltru as the bge gages started failing. i use the 2.5 length stem the naked whiz posted about, also have the larger stem but i would rather use the less accurate shorter stem in my large. once you get an idea of whats going on its no big deal

azbbguy

IMO the piece of mind you get from a TelTru, is well worth the $20.

BGE should really think about putting a higher quality thermometer on their products.

boston_stoker

I see TelTru sells two temperature ranges. Do you recommend the 150-750 one or the 200-1000 one? If it gets up to 800 in the dome, will the 750 break or will you ust not be able to tell the exact temp?

EggSimon

I found the gauges at Teltru website, thanks for that hint !

But - perhaps I`m wrong - I suppost ya tough often the meat with an 5 inch stem. Or not ?

Frank from Houma

One of my Thermometers went belly up, then I closed the thermo on to a CI pot on a second, so I was moving one thermo back and forth between three Eggs. :blink: :S

Finally signed up for three TelTru thermos. Long stem on the XL, and shorts on the Small and Mini. I'll put a short in the XL if I put the CI on a raised grid or have something high in the dome.

fishlessman

ive wrapped the gages around a couple hundred degrees higher than recommended and havent had a problem. i believe even the thousand degree gage said ony to run in the upper range for short intervals in the literature that came with it but ive cooked several pizzas in the 1200 degree range with it

The Naked Whiz

I just make sure not to let the probe touch. If it does touch, you can use a spacer on the outside of the Egg (say a cork?) to keep the thermometer stem from going all the way in. Just be advised that if the stem is not all the way in so that the part of the stem beyond the mark is all the way in, you'll have inaccurate readings, depending on how far the stem goes. Here's the mark:

AZRP

This is how I use the 5" stem. -RP

reelgem

I've had my egg for 2 years and have never had a problem with it. I calibrate fairly regularly and it's always right on the money. I'm sure my days are numbered because I've heard they all eventually die. Why not use it till it goes kaput.

double L

I have used the original for 4 yrs It seems to work fine but I calibrate now and then and use the thermapen with it for accurate temp

Judy's Egg

I used mine til it went kaput, but had already bought a back-up for such emergencies.

RRP

Perhaps this picture might answer your question and also explain why I replaced these with three Tel-Tru thermometers. The one on the left is the more current model with a better seal on the face, but it still doesn't read correctly anymore as you can see. The center and right are the older cheap soft plastic lens models. Both of these were replacements after the originals had moisture in them and then got hot during cooks and "blasted" the lens! One shot 6 feet and the other went over the deck rail and I never found it! :laugh:

JBUG99999

LOL We recently replaced ours with a Tel Tru. The BGE thermometer is on the kitchen counter and was recently calibrated but currently says it's 125 degrees in the kitchen. Yes, we're in Florida, however, the a/c is on and it says it's a balmy 78 degrees in here.

Our BGE thermometer got moisture behind the face and quickly went downhill. It's only 5 months old. :(