Upon purchasing my Fireboard (and extra ambient probes), I decided to perform more accurate temperature zone testing. This time, all testing was done without aluminum foil as I have also purchased a Don Godke Downdraft and wanted baseline left-to-right temperatures before and after installation. As well as basic left-to-right testing, I also added the lowest pro-shelf and did left-to-right testing there as well. This was out of curiosity as I tend to split cooking between grate level and lowest pro-shelf level. The pictures below show the probe placement in my Grid Iron.
I replicated the temperature setpoints of the first test and allowed ample temperature soak between readings. After setting up all (6) probes and prior to starting up the cooker, I closed the lid until all probes showed readings within 1.5 degrees of each other. While possibly not 100% accurate, I decided that this would be a sufficient control for this testing. Since the sun was out during the initial stage of setting up the cooker, natural warm spots may have occurred, so I'm not concerned with this variance.
There definitely is a temperature difference between the left and right sides of the cooker. I was also surprised at the temperature difference between the grate and pro-shelf level. I expected the pro-shelf to have a lower, more even temperature than the grate level. While the left-to-right temperatures were slightly more even on the pro-shelf, they were, indeed, all higher. I plan on installing the Downdraft in the next few weeks when I get time and will repeat this exercise. As a side note, I realize that with thermal mass (food) on the cook surfaces, airflow (and temperatures) will change. This data, coupled with post Downdraft installation data, simply represents any affects of the Downdraft. More information will follow.
