Bad Meter or Bad Me?

[LarryD]

I purchased the Maverick ET-733 dual probe thermometer with my #2 that arrived last Wednesday.  I just had the meter tell me my beef roast had hit 140 degrees in the center when I really new it shouldn't be there yet.  I let it go another 10 minutes and it climbed up to 145 so I went ahead and pulled it out.

I cut into it and it was bloody and a good old fashioned meat thermometer shoved into it registered ~120 (the thermometer doesn't even have markings until 130).  This means that the electronic one is off by at least 25 degrees.

So the question is...  am I using it wrong or is it just that grossly off?  If it is that off, do I return it and try again?  I'm smoking some pork at the same time and I'm pretty darn sure that probe is behaving the exact same way.  The meats are on the top two racks.  The probes are inserted in the ends of the meats, but not buried to the wire... probably 1/2" to a max of an inch still showing.  The rest of the probe is thoroughly in the meat and definitely not coming in contact with anything other than the middle of the meat.

Thanks for any advice...

For the moment I've bumped the target temperatures on the meter, but I really don't want to have to do that.

 

[LarryD]

As a follow-up... I bumped the temperature alarm for the beef to be 153 and the alarm just went off when it says it hit 144.  I'm really starting to think this unit is defective. 

 

[SconnieQ]

Larry, you need to test your probes. Place probe in the middle of a pot of boiling water, probe should read around 212. Fill a tall glass with ice and water. Place the probe in there and stir it around. Probe should settle out at around 32. If they test okay, then it is probably probe placement.

 

[LarryD]

Larry, you need to test your probes.

Seems straight forward enough... I'll definitely do that.  Is there a solid guide you know of for probe placement and common mistakes?  Thanks!

 

[SconnieQ]

Seems straight forward enough... I'll definitely do that.  Is there a solid guide you know of for probe placement and common mistakes?  Thanks!

You want the tip of the probe in the center of the largest meat mass. Not too close bone. Not in a fat pocket, and not in a gap between lobes of meat. That being said, it's easy to get the probe in a less than ideal spot no matter how good you are at it. If you get to the end of the cook, and it doesn't seem long enough, try moving the probe to another spot and see what your temp says. I often use two probes. Then I go by the probe with the lowest temperature. I never trust my probe placement 100%. Two probes gives me more confidence and peace of mind.

 

[LarryD]

I completed my testing last night.  I really don't understand what is going on.  I bought a new stand-alone meat thermometer and tested the probes against it.  Everything seems to work fine in a water test.  However, when I measure something in the smoker it goes all to hell.

I put a 17.5 lb turkey in the smoker about 30 minutes ago and put one probe in in one side of the turkey and the other probe in the other side of the turkey.  Both probes started out registering ~40 degrees.  Now one probe is registering 77 degrees and the other is showing 145 degrees.

 

[DivotMaker]

Now one probe is registering 77 degrees and the other is showing 145 degrees.

Sounds like a bad probe and/or thermometer unit, to me.  I'd trust the 77 probe!

 

[LarryD]

Sounds like a bad probe and/or thermometer unit, to me.  I'd trust the 77 probe!

Yeah... I'm starting to think so.  I'm going to swap the ports and see if the problem follows the next time I smoke something.