Way too different temp reads

[f22raptor]

Hello folks,
  I recently bought a ThermoPro TP-07 and grilled chicken thighs in the 22 inch Weber. I intended to maintain a 350 F -375 F and have them in it for around 2 hours. But i had a really hard time figuring out the temp control. So once I got the coals hot and ready, put the thighs on and looked at the thermometer on the dome which shows 360 , but the thermopro temp kept showing 260. Throughout the entire cook, the thermopro was an avg of 100F less than the weber thermometer read on the dome. For kicks, i put another thermometer (a regular meat thermometer) through one of the holes in the vent and got a read of 320 F.

This was just freaking me out as I had no clue which one to trust. Any one had a similar issue and/or what do you recommend as to which was the correct read?  In the end, i had to go with the feel of the meat and cooked them for around 150 mins and got around 158 internal and out of fear of drying them out since it was soo long, i wrapped them up in foil hoping the steam will maintain the juices. I personally felt the end product was "Meh". Though my guests liked them, i wasnt happy.

Any advise ?

[irv39]

I checked mine when I bought them put the probe in boiling water and see if it reads 212.

[SMOKE FREAK]

Turn the lid around so yhe therm is above the meat and see what ya get.

[HoosierKettle]

Forget the gauges. Sounds like you were cooking to low. Dump a full lit chimney on one side and cook the thighs on the other with all vents wide open. It’s that easy. No need to worry about oven temps on thighs. Cook them until they look and feel good. This is usually an internal of 180+. You won’t dry thighs or legs out. No worries. You can basically cook the crap out of them and they turn out great.


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[michaelmilitello]

Lid therms are notoriously bad.  Don’t trust them. 


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[JEBIV]

Forget the gauges. Sounds like you were cooking to low. Dump a full lit chimney on one side and cook the thighs on the other with all vents wide open. It’s that easy. No need to worry about oven temps on thighs. Cook them until they look and feel good. This is usually an internal of 180+. You won’t dry thighs or legs out. No worries. You can basically cook the crap out of them and they turn out great.


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YES!! to all of the above

[Foster Dahlet]

Forget the gauges. Sounds like you were cooking to low. Dump a full lit chimney on one side and cook the thighs on the other with all vents wide open. It’s that easy. No need to worry about oven temps on thighs. Cook them until they look and feel good. This is usually an internal of 180+. You won’t dry thighs or legs out. No worries. You can basically cook the crap out of them and they turn out great.


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YES!! to all of the above

Yes!! to the yes to all of the above

[michaelmilitello]

Meathead from amazing ribs.com calls them “heat approximators”


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[crizpynutz]

Forget the gauges. Sounds like you were cooking to low. Dump a full lit chimney on one side and cook the thighs on the other with all vents wide open. It’s that easy. No need to worry about oven temps on thighs. Cook them until they look and feel good. This is usually an internal of 180+. You won’t dry thighs or legs out. No worries. You can basically cook the crap out of them and they turn out great.


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This can make you feel uneasy when you first throw caution to the wind, but I've found with chicken thighs, the above works out just fine.

[jhagestad]

Folks, he's not looking for a cooking lesson - he's looking for an answer to his temp probe reading question. 

Irv39 makes a good point - test your temp probe using boiling water to make sure it's accurate.  If it's not reading 212F, and you can't calibrate it to correct the problem, I'd return/exchange that mofo.  For accurate temp readings using a thermo probe, place the probe wherever the food cooks cause that's the only place where the temp matters (especially indirect cooks). Readings from lid thermometers should only be considered a rough estimate. Hope this helps!

[pancho2017]

I'm no master cook but I've noticed that my dome thermometer is usually about a 100° degrees hotter than the cooking surface. I use the dome thermometer to see when maybe my coals are fizzling out or just a cool feature to look at while I'm taking a swig of beer lol.

Sounds like maybe you have a dodgy thermometer. A good test and I've bought three of these and put them in my Samsung 5 burner oven in the house at 350° and all three was spot on!

I used the Walmart oven thermometer before I got the Maverick XR-50 which it also spot on! In fact first and only ribs I done was using the Wally World thermo and it showed 225° the entire 9 hours.

Maybe exchange the one you bought not everything is perfect 100% of the time you might have just got a bad one out of the bunch.

[pancho2017]

I'm no master cook but I've noticed that my dome thermometer is usually about a 100° degrees hotter than the cooking surface. I use the dome thermometer to see when maybe my coals are fizzling out or just a cool feature to look at while I'm taking a swig of beer lol.

Sounds like maybe you have a dodgy thermometer. A good test and I've bought three of these and put them in my Samsung 5 burner oven in the house at 350° and all three was spot on!

I used the Walmart oven thermometer before I got the Maverick XR-50 which it also spot on! In fact first and only ribs I done was using the Wally World thermo and it showed 225° the entire 9 hours.

Maybe exchange the one you bought not everything is perfect 100% of the time you might have just got a bad one out of the bunch.

And for checking meat temp I use the Weber instant read. It's not really instant takes a few seconds but it's always been good to me. Might check Target if you have one close I bought a few a week ago for like $5.

I'd like to have a Thermopen but it would be my luck I'd drop the dam thing on the cement patio and be out a fair bit of dosh lol.

[auto180sx]

Don't trust the dome thermometer!

Most of my smoke cooks the thermometer reads 350°-400°F but I imagine it's actually closer to. 250°-300°F at the grate going by feel and cook time.

If you ball up aluminum foil and place it near your protein, you'll be able to temp it using a gun or thermometer and get a better idea of what temp you're actually cooking at.

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[Redwng]

I like using the ThermoWorks Smoke setup, one for the grill grate and one for the meat, and a ThermoPen just to be sure. It is extremely accurate.

[M635_Guy]

I'm a complete noob, but what you're talking about is extremely consistent with what I've experienced so far:  Dome/lid thermo is high (showing between 350F to 450F) when the grate-mounted probe is much lower (reading 230F - 275F).   Since the hottest air is rising to the dome, I'd guess my reading from a vent would have been something closer-to-but-trailing the dome.

I agree with the rest that you should temp-check the probe, but I pretty much ignored the dome and just went with the grate and meat probe on my XR-50 and things worked out well.  The only thing I use the dome thermo for is whether the grill is up to temp or not.