I started to cook an 8# brisket last Saturday (6AM).
I inserted my Polder temp probe as well as a probe for my NU-701 wireless unit. Closed the CS door, and started the cook.
The Polder immediately started "going crazy", setting off it's alarm, and registering erratic temps as high as 440 degrees F. The Nu-Temp seemed to be working just fine!
I had a problem with the Polder last week similar to the above. Thinking it was the temp probe, I got the spare probe out for the Saturday cook, and, threw out the "defective" probe!
Thinking everything was in order, a couple more hours of sleep seemed to be indicated.
When I got up 2hours later, the brisket had already reached a temp of 168 degrees. In all my years of cooking briskets, I have never seen this temp come up so quick. My Thermopen confirmed the meat temp when I opened Old Smokey for a check. It still took ovwe 12 hours to reach the goal of 190 degrees- but, I digress.
I don't know why, but, my next move was to unplug the CS, planning to re-plug it and check the thermmostat ( you can feel it go on when you turn it).
To my surprise, I noticed that the ground prong was missing from the cable. It was stuck in the outlet!
Continuing the cook of the brisket (I figured about 12 hours for this just out of the frige 8 pounder plus some more for opening the door?), it reached a temp of 190 at 7 PM (just when we planned to begin dinner with our 2 guests).
Now, after this long dissertation, here comes my questions:
1. Is the behavior of the Polder explained by the lack of "grounding" from the third prong?
2. Is the undisturbed behavior of the Nu-Temp 701 (which transmits the meat temp of the brisket to separate receiver that is wirelessly coupled to it) explained by the unit not needing to be grounded?
3. Should I replace the cord for my Smokette with a new one with a grounded outlet plug?
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