Just bought on Aliexpress a thermometer, originally I wanted to replace the one on my master touch but at the end I installed it on my portable 18 jumbo Joe, what do you think? Will it work or is just a waste of time and money?
by cgarza88
Just bought on Aliexpress a thermometer, originally I wanted to replace the one on my master touch but at the end I installed it on my portable 18 jumbo Joe, what do you think? Will it work or is just a waste of time and money?
by cgarza88
11 Comments
Interesting. You tell us.
I’d personally install it closer to grate level.
And if it’s calibrated, a cheap thermometer will work fine. More prone to break when exposed to high heat or water, but hey, for $5 you can just replace it.
I’m personally getting a kamado joe thermometer for my kettle. I have a joe for a few years now and the thermometer is great. And has also celsius, unlike any tel tru I have seen.
I have always used cheap oven thermometers at the grate level.
I think the hottest gases are traveling up and out the vent. You aren’t getting a sense of the ambient temp of the cooker or the grill level where the protein is located.
That being said, these thermometers are more for getting a sense of what’s happening and not dead nuts accurate anyway.
Let us know how it works
By the vent, it is not going to be the most accurate because heat rises…. however, with that being said, the jumbo joe is smaller, so the difference may not be important, and once you get used to it, you will know where you want the temp to read for you. So, it’s not a waste.. looks neat.
In theory, this is a good placement for the thermometer.
In reality, as others have said, this is actually a bad placement for a thermometer.
You are measuring the temp of the exhaust, which will be hotter than what the food is actually experiencing 4 inches below the therm. But this is no worse than Weber’s idea of placing the therm directly above the flame in an indirect heat setup. You are measuring extremes with either setup.
It’s more useful to measure averages.
With practice and testing with a wired probe at grate level where the food sits, this setup can work. But you will have to subtract the difference between this reading and your wired probe to get an accurate reading.
If you are going to add a therm, do it at or near the cooking grate level, just under the exhaust port for the most accurate reading of average temps throughout the cook chamber.
At best, this may tell you what the top of a large roast or a turkey is experiencing, but the majority of cooks won’t be that high in the dome, so this info is largely useless.
Let us know how it goes, because this actually looks kinda cool.
not really functional. I bought a thermometer from a local BBQ supply place, drilled a hole with a step bit, down near the lower edge, in-line with the top vent, and mounted it there. Works great.
Waste.
It’s probably a better indicator than the stock thermometer on the opposite side
Have it like that on my 18 Smokey joe
I have 3 temp probes and one of them checks the exhaust temp 2” in the lid. I think it’s good.
Buy a surface temp thermometer instead. (You just place it on the grate). They’re super cheap on Amazon. All the thermometer you have tells you is the ambient temperature inside the hood.