Weber dial thermometer question.

[Stoneage]

Actually 2.
1: The thermometer doesn't seem to want to sit flush in the bezel. I've checked the little tab & it passes through the bezel's cut & the slot in the lid. The wingnut is also tightened fully. Is this normal? It just rocks at an angle.

2: I know bimetallics are "off" but mine seems to read about 74 degrees high! I checked it with 2 different digital units, one with a probe the other infrared reading taken from right next to the thermometer & they both agree with each other. How much is too much?

[crowderjd]

@Stoneage my old (90s mastertouch and 90s performer) also are about 70-80 degrees too high.  They are not terribly accurate, if you keep that in mind, they are usable but no substitute for a digital thermometer.

[Stoneage]

That was kind of what I thought. Its even more shocking as my old offset read about 50 LOW, so its a big change. I used to just mentally add 50 to every reading & it worked passably.

[leeharvey418]

The more you know about thermometry, the less you trust any thermometer.

That being said - 70 degrees is pretty bad, but what really matters is that you know how hot your grill should be based on state and arrangement of your charcoal.  If you have that down, the thermometer doesn't do much except show you which way you're off from where you want to be.

[ReanimatedRobot]

The stock thermometers are only good to tell you if it is cold, hot, or hellfire.  It only gets you an idea.  Check out thermoworks if you want to get much more accurate.  They have inferred thermometers that I like to use for pizza cooks or hotter cooks and also have probe thermometers that work great for smoking. 

[tibas92017]

The stock Thermometer on my Weber Performer Deluxe reads around 50F more than the reading at the grill grate where the meat is cooking.

[Darko]

Put a probe at the same place as the stock thermometer probe is and see what the difference is there.

[Darko]

There can be a difference between grate temp and lid temp.

[Stoneage]

I checked it with both a digital with the probe right next to the original & an infrared right above that, reading the lid. Both of them was withing 5 degrees. Which is fine.
I ran process control for several factories our temp readings were computerized to 1/10th degree, but they had to be re-calibrated periodically. We had dials for things like rinses which could tolerate a 10 degree variation, but they were calibrateable. really simple system a nut on the back of the dial that rotated it till it read correctly.
I wish there was something like that.

[Darko]

I just checked the copper and I found my probe was about 50 degrees hotter than the lid therm. Once I got the probe down near the grate the temps were pretty close( within 10 degrees.).

I'll have to check my other kettles to see if they are similar.