Probes UUGGGRRRRHHH!

Wow, I've never had problems with my Taylor.. and I don't do anything special.

Question.. if you followed the process of boiling in oil.. how long did you leave in the oil? If you have hot oil with some water at the bottom of the pan it takes some time for the water to boil off.. it's not immediate.

I'm not sure I ascribe to using heat shrink.. IMO, that only helps hold moisture in.. The heat shrink can not seal over the woven wire casing as the weave is rather loose, even if tight, it would not be moisture, gas tight, steam being a "gas". I'd guess if you could get the woven mesh clean you could drop some thin epoxy on the very end of the probe to seal the mesh and apply some heat shrink to work as a strain relief.. but, once sealed with epoxy would perform no other service. But, if the epoxy didn't affect a perfect seal..you are back to square one.

So, if boiling in oil works, let it sit for some time in the hot oil, possibly getting the oil to just below the smoking point. After some time and use in the smoker, the oil will later 'gel' and affect a good seal.

Course, this is only another man's opinion.. YMMV

One more point.. If you ran shrink tubing from the probe to a point where the cable exits the smoker, it would then be moisture tight. CS is a moisture retaing smoker.. you might consider putting the probe in your stove oven when using that to help gel the oil quicker..? Just a thought

Thanks for your reply, Bill. I have kept them in the oil until I no longer see bubbles coming out, which I assume was air and water. But, I didn't heat the oil up to near smoke point either.

I can try again. I understand what you mean about the heat shrink...some had recommended it so I thought I'd give it a try as a "wit's end" measure.

By the way, does battery power have any effect on the digital readings of the thermometer you think?

Rick in CO

Do all the units work well,and only the probes are off?

I have found that not all probes are interchangeable. For instance, even though the plugs will fit, plugging a Taylor probe into a Polder or Tru-Temp thermometer will give a wrong reading. I nearly drove myself to drink (even more) before I discovered this problem. Sometimes readings were off by as much as 20 degrees while other times they were right on the money. If you're using different brand thermometers you may want to check this out.

That may be the problem. I do have different probes from different manufacturers. 90, is there a way to tell which probe goes with each unit?

Tom, the units do seem to work well and I didn't suspect them as the problem.

Thanks for the help,
Rick in CO

Yep,those I have all tend to interchange[ made by the same chinese prisoners? ]

If you find your matches,you can mark them.

You can try the boiling point/freezing point method to discover how many degrees are off and mark that on a piece of tape.

Most of us on the circuit use Thermopen instareads to check all our other therms,right before we use them.

Every now and then a probe fails on us,but we beat them up pretty badly and continuously.

Rick, I don't know that bringing the oil to almost smokin is important.. just that it's hot enough to boil out the moisture. They aren't well sealed but I think my comment about the shrink tubing is important. Lot's of shrink tubing ala Radio Shack is only a few inches long.. The probes aren't meant to be used in an environment that is as wet as the CS.. however, I have never had a problem.

I continue to use the cable remote for every cook.. but when it says it's done I always check with an instant read thermometer as a backup. Usually only about 3-5º difference.

I don't use them much lately, but I've never had any trouble with them if I did.

I don't probe big pieces of meat like a big brisket or pork shoulder, because I know they'll be done in about 18 hours.

Pulled pork you want at 200 internal, so it takes a long time to get a joint that high, especially if you are cooking at 225, which I do.

I think a probe is a nice thing for a turkey, however.

I have had great luck with the Maverick dual probe. You can monitor cooker and meat.

Maverick Temp Probes Model ET7 dual

732-417-9666