Brand New ET 73 Problem!!

[dmess8541]

After reading MANY posts of how everyone swears by this unit, I bought it and tried it first time yesterday. 

It was showing that my snack sticks were at an IT of 163 and because I knew they weren't done, I pulled the entire unit and a snack stick inside the house.  On the table, it read 135 IT.  ????

I ran the probes through the top vent so I could set the transmitter on my deck railing away from the heat so no wires were pinched in the door. 

I took the long meat probe and ran it all the way down the center of one of the snack sticks so only the very back curved part was not inside the meat. 

Also, the smoker temp probe was reading 50 degrees higher than the thermometer on the door of my new smoker. 

I am out of ideas?? Help!

 

[smoke king]

First try an ice bath test to make sure it reads 32 degrees, and then a boil water test to make sure it reads 212 degrees. If it doesn't, that is your problem, then contact Maverick. If not, then it probably had something to do with the placement in the snack stick.  I think getting the end in the center is the most important part, not that you bury the entire probe in the meat. 

 

[rbranstner]

First things first take both of those probes and put them in boiling water and see if they read 212 degrees. Don't put them all the way in the water just the tips as you don't want any water getting into the part where the mesh wire meets the probe. If they are accurate then you need to trust that thermometer as the one on the door of your smoker probably isn't accurate as they are notorious for that.

Now lets assume the probes are reading accurately then as far as your snack sticks go I would guess that maybe the meat probe was pushed too far into the snack stick and the tip was actually right on the outside of the snack stick touching the casing or something and was picking up some temp from the inside of the smoker causing it to read higher.??? This is just a though. As far as I understand you only need to stick that probe in a few inches as the piece that reads the temps is right at the tip. With thicker cuts of meats or sausage you can just shove the meat probe in and probably not have any issues but if you are doing snack sticks if you don't have the probe in the center of the stick I would think you could get some false readings if your probe was on the outside of the casing and it was picking up some temps from the actual smoke chamber through the casing. Again I have not had this happen but I have always been worried about it. Hopefully someone else can come along and put their $0.02 in as well.

 

[venture]

These guys have you on the right road.

Also, I would note that the door therms are quite often way off from the true temp in the pit at meat level.

Good luck and good smoking.

 

[frosty]

You absolutely need to calibrate the probes first.  If you ahve a problem with the probes, you can get replacements.  Mine have gone bad, and a replacement solved my problem.

 

[jrod]

You absolutely need to calibrate the probes first.  If you ahve a problem with the probes, you can get replacements.  Mine have gone bad, and a replacement solved my problem.

I too have the Maverick 732 and I am experiencing these same issues with the food probe. The BBQ probe works great even if I plug it into the food #1 probe spot and I got new probes. I cannot find in the manual where to calibrate the probes on this unit, how is it done?

 

[big casino]

I too have the Maverick 732 and I am experiencing these same issues with the food probe. The BBQ probe works great even if I plug it into the food #1 probe spot and I got new probes. I cannot find in the manual where to calibrate the probes on this unit, how is it done? Read rbrasnter's post above

I will angle my probe sharply into the center of the snack stick or if you can go directly in the center from and end, and like they have mentioned it doesn't have to buried to the hilt

I see you are in pa so am I, so I am guessing that the outside air temps weren't them warmest, I don't know how long it took you to get your sticks from the smoker to the table to recheck them but a snack stick doesnt have much mass to "hold" temperatures and it could possibly have cooled off, as they can cool down quite quickly, specially if out side air temps are cold and it was out there for a little while