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[ppilot]

So I recently contact support for a Pellet Grill manufacturer about about fairly significant variances between the temperature listed by the grill and what my Thermoworks Smoke was reading despite being less than two inches away from each other. The temperature differential is typically between 20-30 degrees in temps at 300 and below, while the difference got up to 50 degrees if the grill was set to higher temp ranges. For a grill that costs about $1.5k I think that level of inaccuracy is not acceptable.

The manufacturer responded with the following:

A Thermoworks Smoke probe is a thermistor which is different than our thermocouple. The Thermoworks takes the temperature at the specific point inside the grill that it is placed. Our thermocouple takes the overall temperature inside the grill body, then averages that temperature out.

Is this legit and would you consider this temperature variance acceptable? I did some googling but nothing that really explained how a thermocouple would be able to determine temps in other parts of the grill.

Thanks for any feedback!

[slaga]

I don't buy that the "thermocouple takes the overall temperature inside the grill body and averages it out". The thermocouple takes the temperature where it is at just like the thermistor. That said, I do know of at least 1 manufacturer, and I am sure there are others, that uses offset tables in the controller's programming. Basically the controller reads the temp from the sensor where it is located and through a process of trial and error, they know roughly what the temperature should be at the center of the grill and that is what is displayed. Once the grill settles in on the the set temperature they do seem to be pretty accurate. At least mine was. When in transition from one temperature to another they are not quite as precise though in my experience. You may want to set your Thermoworks Smoke up in the center of the grill and once the grill settles in at the temperature you set, a couple oscillations above and below the set temperature, and see how close they are. The temperature where your food is being cooked is more important than the temperature where the sensor is located anyway.

[BigDave83]

How does your cooker cook? If you are happy with what is coming off of it you are set, don't worry about a little temp difference. They all cook the same and they all cook different, meaning they all basically work the same way, but they will cook differently even with in the same brand an model. The manufacturer can not calibrate for differences in weather/ambient temp, wind or many other things. The temp where you put your probe will be different depending on what is in your cooker as I know I have see a different cook temp cooking ribs than I have cooking turkeys or chickens. Even though my controller was set at the same temp and I had the same pellets in the cooker. The airflow is disrupted more so the temps change.

Best thing to do and keep from making yourself crazy is use your cooker and learn how it works/cooks.

[triplebq]

How does your cooker cook? If you are happy with what is coming off of it you are set, don't worry about a little temp difference. They all cook the same and they all cook different, meaning they all basically work the same way, but they will cook differently even with in the same brand an model. The manufacturer can not calibrate for differences in weather/ambient temp, wind or many other things. The temp where you put your probe will be different depending on what is in your cooker as I know I have see a different cook temp cooking ribs than I have cooking turkeys or chickens. Even though my controller was set at the same temp and I had the same pellets in the cooker. The airflow is disrupted more so the temps change.

Best thing to do and keep from making yourself crazy is use your cooker and learn how it works/cooks.

+1 Great advice

[slaga]

I am not trying to be argumentative but isn't understanding the temperature gradient in your pit and how far off from the set temperature the pit is where you cook your food a part of "learning your pit"? It was for me. My Traeger Lil Tex was always hotter on the right side where the chimney was and coolest on the left where the temperature sensor was. If I had any desire for 4 Boston Butts to finish about the same time, I always put the larger ones on the right and the smaller ones on the left. For Brisket, the point went on the right and the flat was to the left for the same reason. I used a small piece of aluminum foil and tied the Maverick probe to the grill sensor and the temps were within a few degrees of each other so I knew when I set it to 225, it was 225 on the left and hotter on the right. With the adjustable baffle in my Yoder, it was a little more even as long as I stayed about 8"-10" away from the chimney, but I had to learn where to put the baffle to even out the temperatures. Having an understanding why there is a 30 to 50 degree temperature difference, 2" away from the each other is a valid concern and is not something he is "making himself crazy" over. Which one should he trust? I mean the distance between the 2 probes is 2" and he sees a 50 degree difference in temperature? I'd be concerned too. My initial guess is the controller is displaying the temperature it should be at the center of the grill, not the temp where the sensor is.

What grill do you have so we can make more educated suggestions? Can you post a picture of where the 2 sensors are? Have you checked the temperature of a glass full of ice water to check how accurate the Thermoworks Smoke temp sensor is?

[BigDave83]

the thing is people start measuring temps everywhere with nothing in the cooker, whether they are spot on or off 100° doesn't matter so much because once you start putting product in to cook it all goes out the window, they are convection cookers more than a radiant cooker, so when you disrupt the airflow the temps will be different, over time provided we do not sneak to many peeks the temps will even out for the most part across the whole chamber. I don't know how long that takes to happen but I have seen it in my Rec Tec when I used to watch temps.

It doesn't matter if the temps are off right to left or front to back, if you know that info then you are great use it to your advantage, if not you will learn if there are hot spots as you cook.

When I got my first one the Rec Tec I was checking temps and things and finally just said to myself this is how it works and went with it. When I got my GMG I never even checked grate temps just put food in and monitored the food temp and went with it. I now also have a pit boss vertical, no idea where the temps are on the different rack but I know that it seems to cook well when I use it, it is new so just learning.

Good luck finding anything that the temps are completely accurate 100% of the time, it doesn't matter what fuel you use it isn't going to happen, the burning and cycling will always have it changing.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Good luck finding anything that the temps are completely accurate 100% of the time, it doesn't matter what fuel you use it isn't going to happen, the burning and cycling will always have it changing.

I can tell you I have a grill on my patio that is very close to 100% accurate and another brand of grill that is usually within 5 degrees.  The other 3 grills not so much.  But, I learned all of this by placing a probe in the center of the grate and comparing it to the controller temps readings.  I even have a grill with a damaged LED that I just use a grate probe and turn the dial on the controller until my remote thermometer hits the temp I desire to cook at.

I think the temp differences that the original poster discussed are a bit extreme and I wouldn't be too happy with them either for the price he paid for the grill.  Now since we don't know the grill and don't know whether he did good research in advance, maybe some of this could have been avoided.  Some grills take a good 30-45 minutes to settle down, and maybe the temp differential decreases once the grill is stable.  Not sure if the original poster took that amount of time to check or just went with temp differences at the time the controller or grate temp hit the temp he desired.

At the end of the day, it does come down to knowing your pit.  Once you know what the controller temp is versus grate level temps, I haven't seen a grill change it performance often.  If I want to cook at 275° but I know my controller hits that grate temp at 250° setting, I set my grill at 250°.

[ppilot]

So just to provide more information...the pellet grill is Mak 1 Star that was bought new last year. Also to follow up on the temperature issues, I did some data collecting by testing the temperature at 12 different points (including the upper rack) on the grill and my initial observations were consistent with what I found.  10 of the 12 test areas were consistently off by 20-30 degrees from the 250 degree set temp on the controller.  This kind of issue kinda defeats the whole purpose of buying a higher end pellet grill in my mind.  I didn't pay $1.5k for a grill that I constantly have to deal with it's deficiencies any time I want to cook and is not what I was told I was going to get when I bought the Mak. Maybe I misunderstood, but if that was the case I would have been better just saving $1k and get a GMG.

Also what's not helping things is that I've not been impressed by Mak support when I've contacted them about some other issues. Their CR flat out didn't follow up on my issue last fall dealing with significant grease leakage issues that completely messed up my deck. I am just frustrated right now.

Update - I just did a couple more tests at 360 Set Temp.  First two tests showed a consistent 35-40 degree difference.  Last test was even worse Basically it looks like the grill was stuck at 355 as it stayed at that temp for about 10 minutes. At the same time the Probe was reading 400-410.

[Kristin Meredith]

Perhaps you should contact the owner of MAK directly -- I am sorry, I forgot his name, but various folks on the site know it and will probably post it.  He has always seemed to be very concerned with customer satisfaction and wanting his customers to get good service and a good product.

[pmillen]

I agree with many of the above.

•  Slaga is correct.  Thermistors and thermocouples react to the temperatures where they sit, not at some distant point.  Customer Service people sometimes get things wrong either by misunderstanding their training and reference material or by making things up because they don’t want to say, “I don’t know.  I’ll find out and call you back.”

•  BigDave points out that air temperature and air flow vary by pit contents.  A simple solution is to put your ThermoWorks Smoke probe near the food you’re cooking and adjust the controller accordingly.  The downside is that as the food warms, the air temperature that the probe is measuring near the food will increase and you’ll be required to readjust the controller down.  This is what you were hoping to avoid by buying a pit with a controller.

•  As Kristin suggested, a cordial discussion with a manager or the owner seems to be appropriate in the circumstances.

[slaga]

Are you staying at least a couple inches inside of the drip pan when taking measurements?  Just looking at the pictures of the Mak 1 Star, 2" away from the grill probe towards the center, puts your Smoke sensor right at the edge of the drip pan and that will be significantly hotter than the center of the grill. The 2 pits I have used, Traeger and Yoder, with a similar drip pan were always much warmer at the edge of the drip pan and I always kept my food at least a couple inches from the edge of the drip pan. Do a biscuit test placing them near the edge of the drip pan and space them a 1/2" closer to the center of the grill. You will find the point they quit burning and that is the edge of your usable area. This is not a Mak flaw but a nuance of this type of pellet grill design that crosses many brands.

[Bar-B-Lew]

I have not experienced that with my MAK 2 with the original controller or the one I installed last year to be able to get the wifi.

[ppilot]

Are you staying at least a couple inches inside of the drip pan when taking measurements?  Just looking at the pictures of the Mak 1 Star, 2" away from the grill probe towards the center, puts your Smoke sensor right at the edge of the drip pan and that will be significantly hotter than the center of the grill. The 2 pits I have used, Traeger and Yoder, with a similar drip pan were always much warmer at the edge of the drip pan and I always kept my food at least a couple inches from the edge of the drip pan. Do a biscuit test placing them near the edge of the drip pan and space them a 1/2" closer to the center of the grill. You will find the point they quit burning and that is the edge of your usable area. This is not a Mak flaw but a nuance of this type of pellet grill design that crosses many brands.

Unfortunately The results I got from the front of the grill were pretty consistent with with center and the rear. I even attached the bracket underneath the top shelf I got similar temps.

[Bar-B-Lew]

What brand and wood specie of pellets have you been using?

[ppilot]

Pacific Pellets and Lumberjack