Thermometer recommendations needed

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fishintimber

Newbie
Original poster
Jan 27, 2010
3
10
Helping my brother-in-law on his build and I could use some advice. What kind of thermometers have you guys used? How did you mount it to the drum? Is placement important?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
Mine is a char grill I think. I put mine in the middle/center of my lid. I use mine mainly to watch for temp fluctuations and for a basic temp of my drum. I use a wireless remote to watch the meat.
 
Welcome to the SMF. I'm sure you'll get some good feedback in a short while. I moved your thread to roll call, so that everyone can give you a warm welcome. It's all good my friend.
 
I would recommend this one.

http://www.teltru.com/p-338-barbecue...inch-stem.aspx

Be sure and get the mounting kit as well.

Just drill a hole of the appropriate size (I believe it was 3/4") in the side of the drum and mount it. You'll want the the thermo stem about 1" below the cook grate.

Be aware that in a UDS, a dial thermo mounted on the side is going to read about 40° or more LOWER than the actual cook temp in the center after the drum is warmed up. The difference will be greater as the drum comes up to temp. You'll want to confirm the difference at smoking temps with a digital mounted on the grate. After that, you can go by the dial for smoker temp. For instance, when my dial thermo says 190° the center grate temp is about 240°.

You can also drill out a bolt, mount that in the side of a drum and slide a 12" deep fryer thermo through there if you want to measure center grate temp with the dial thermo. I have some pics of that if you're interested. I did that with mine for a short time but now I just use the short stem Teltru and shoot for 190° on the side.

Dave
 
I use 12" Eastman deep fry thermometers on my drums. By mounting the clip that comes with them on the inside of the drum, it provides a sheath from the thermometer stem and makes them easily removable so that I can clean them with steel wool before each smoke. I mount them so that the end of the thermometer is directly below the middle of the grate. Although temps vary throughout the drum, I figured that I might as well get a reading in the middle. Plus the Eastman thermometers are relatively cheap ($12 or so). I checked my temps with digital probe therms and the Eastmans seem to be pretty accurate.

Sorry, I don't have any good pics of how the thermometer mounts to the inside, though you can see the little screw that I used to mount the clip.
 
That's a good idea too!
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This is GREAT advice by the way. Don't knock yourself out trying to get absoulutely even temps over every square milimeter of the UDS cook grate. Pick a logical control point and go with it. Learn what the approximate differential is at the edges and smoke on.
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Dave
 
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