temp gauge

[fishcreek]

I just got my new digitial 4 rack smoker love it but. I just got done seasoning it put the digitial temp at 150 and the interal temp went to 180 on the digitial screen need help.

[KyNola]

Welcome to the forum Fish and congrats on your DBS purchase!
The temp rising to 180 on the "burn in" is no problem.  The issue is the temp sensor in the DBS is quite inaccurate.  Mine has been as much as 25 degrees off high or low.  Invest in a Maverick ET-73 temp monitor.  It will accurately monitor the temp in the smoker box and the temp of what you are cooking.  It also has a remote receiver so you can sit in the house and see exactly what your temps are.  Well worth money.  Bought mine on line.

You'll love the DBS and this forum.  The veterans on here are eager to help newbies like us.

KyNola

[Gizmo]

KyNola has some "Seasoned" advice about the temp readout and the remote probe.  You will want to use the remote probe as the guide to box temperature as there can be a significant difference in temperature between where the heat element is (which the box sensor is close to) and where your meat will be.  As your food comes up to temperature, that difference will lessen.  With a 14 pound brisket I have experienced as much as a 20 to 30 degree difference between the heat element (digital readout on the smoke gen) and the temperature near the food (don't let the probe touch the meat).  As the brisket came up closer to the finish internal temperature, there was only a 1 degree difference and at times, they were in sync.

I start out with a oven set point of 320 degrees and go to a 280 degree preheat (as indicated on the generator digital readout), then load the box and carefully clip the remote probe to the wire rack next to the meat on the lowest rack.  I change the temperature of the oven set point down to about 260 until the remote probe next to the meat reads close to the desired cook temperature of 200 to 210 deg.  Then I adjust the oven set point downward in 10 degree increaments over time as needed to keep the cook temperature close to 200 deg.  A 10 degree swing between the high and low seen temperature is not uncommon (at least not in my 6 Rack) during the time the heating element is switch on and off to maintain the oven set point.

Hope I haven't board ya.
Good luck and keep us posted.
 

[NePaSmoKer]

I do about the same with my DBS too as Giz does.

nepas

[underdog]

I just did my first smoke and had the same problem with the temp gauge.  I would appreciate it if Gizmo could go over again his method of overcoming the faulty temp gauge.  Thanks for any help.  Underdog.

[Gizmo]

Hi Underdog,
What specifically are you looking for from my post above?  Let me know and I will try to answer your question (unless some beats me to it   :D).

[underdog]

Rather than Underdog I feel like Bozo.  I just finish burning some pork ribs.  Put them on and adjusted the temp with an internal temp gauge and when I left at around 8 am all was going great.  I went back at 10:30 am to check and found the dbs gauge was reading about 20 degrees higher.  I adjusted the temp so the it would go up to 220 and went left.  I planned on this taking about 6 hrs which is the usual time for my ribs at around 220.  When I opened the smoker OUCH burned ribs.  The temp on the internal had reach essentially the same temp on the dbs.  Good lesson learned that I will have to stay close buy when near the last few hours.  I am disappointed in the fact that you cannot count on the gauge on the dbs since that was on of the reason I wanted a digital.  While disappointed I will try again next weekend and see if I can correct this diaster.  Underdog/Bozo  >:( >:( >:(

[West Coast Kansan]

Underdog, guessing the internal temperature you reference is the tower temperature?  I really did not follow the post to be able to help but you may have adjusted your temp on one of the fluctuation transitions Gizmo described.  Dont know how high you adjusted it but I have not seen enough power in the Bradleys ruin ribs very fast.

How many slabs were in the DBS

Sorry  ???

[underdog]

Just three slabs - my big mistake was to be away too long.  Next time I will stay closer until I get a better feel for the temp.  I had no problem with my charcoal smoker but I was there and able to check on it ever hour or even less.  This was my fist time to use the dbs and I just screwed up but I am not discouraged.  Thanks for your response.   :) Underdog

[West Coast Kansan]

 8) it is better and easier every time.  You are right on about learning the personality of your smoker. The conversion to electric is not exactly automatic.   ;)

Ribs are not my best effort by any means, I still have not settled into a groove for consistent results  :-[ but then i still have not done the same thing twice with them either  :D  :D  :D

Take Care,

[Gizmo]

Underdog, I too am perplexed.  Unless the temp was up to around 280 deg or more, I would not have thought the bradley would have cause the ribs to be burnt in only 2.5 hours.  Do you know what the actual box temperarture was when you took out the ribs?  The investiment in a dual probe thermometer is a great tool to help you keep track of the box temp next to the food and the IT of the food.

[underdog]

Gizmo, I think you are correct that the temp was close to 278 when I arrived home.  I up the temp at 10:30 because my internal gauge was reading about 200 with the oven temp set at 260.  I plan on doing another batch next Saturday and will post the results.  Thanks everyone for your help and concern.  Underdog.

[Gizmo]

I use the max setting on the DBS for prewarm-up and allow the box to get up 260 or so.  Then once I place the food in, I will adjust the temp down to 260 until the box temp at the food gets to my desired set point.  Sometimes I will keep the temp at max if nothing is close to the burner (single rack of food just above center.  Once the box temp recovers to what I am looking for, I will decrease the temp in increments until the set temp and box temp even out.  The temp and set point even out tend to even out when the meat gets up around 150 to 160 deg internal (less of a heat sink).

[DocZ]

I'm glad I am reading this now, since I am still waiting on delivery of my DB6S, and I can hit the road running once it gets here. This also brings up a Question related to this thread, which is uniformity of cook temp within the box!? What I had working for me in my old smoker was a pretty serious air circulation fan. I thought that there was air being forced in from the DB6S smoke generator, is that right? If there are issues in this regard please let me know that, and if there are "fixes". Thanks, Rich <`))>><

[Ontrack]

Welcome to the forum, DocZ. To answer part of your questions, there is no forced air from the smoke generator. There are some experts here that have added a circulating fan, and hopefully they can give you some details. I have a digital 4 rack, and even though I have no problems with the uniformity of cooking temps, I have read on here in the past where it may be an issue with the 6 rack. I hope this was at least a little help to you, and hopefully someone who knows much more than me can jump in and help you out. And as you have probably read on here before, an accurate thermometer such as the Maverick ET73 is a must, as the built-in thermometers are very inaccurate and have probably ruined many meals.