15-20 degree difference on Mak 2 Star

[Pappymn]

I assume this is a "know your pit" type of scenario. But just wanted to ask the experts. No wind and 85 degrees today, burning 100% oak.

 

[TTNuge]

Yep, all part of the learning process. Learn the hot and cooler spots on your grill and get the hang of where the sweet spots are. Go buy a can of Grands biscuits and place them around your grate at different spots and see which ones get done faster vs slower, etc.

 

[Chili Head]

Putting foil on your drip pan will change temps as well.

 

[Big Poppa]

test the therma pen where the thermocouple is and foiling does affect your temps at ttnuge said....For fun do this same thing in your home oven...eye opening

 

[omahajs]

It can be frustrating, but it's more frustrating to dwell on it. I just make PB adjustments based on what the actual temps are where the food is.

I have no idea why the probe is back left, but I'm also not an engineer. I agree it would be nice to set PB and get that temp at grate, but you can work around it.

For example, I asked Sparky for advice on ribs. He cooks them at 275. For my 2012 MAK 2 I set the PB to 245 and that keeps my center grate temp around 265-275 and works for me. I also like 245 better because the fan stays at a lower speed (ramps up higher @250) and I get way more smoke.

The higher the PB temp the more the actual grate temp difference, at least for me.

Assuming you have 2012 MAK a few other thoughts:

1). Clean PB probe regularly.
2). Check firmware, details in sticky here. If still on 2.1 you WILL have problems on smoke mode.

Even in these 100+ days I get smoke temps around 175-185 on PB and it smokes like crazy! I've noticed the longer the cook the more smoke as well, it seems to settle in over time.

It's an awesome pellet grill, just get to know it and sit back and enjoy the food.

 

[Big_Jake]

Dadnatronc - That's pretty crazy that yours does not put out any smoke.Mine smokes like crazy,much more so than the other 2 pellet smokers I have had.I have done two racks of ribs so far and they had as much smoke flavor as ribs when I do them on my Weber Smokey Mountain.Although I have never ran the unit on "smoke" just on 200 and above.Here is a vid of me running it for the first time.You can see my temps and some smoke coming out of the unit as well.And this is with foil as I state in the vid.

Also here is a pic where I put one probe on the top grate and one on the bottom.You can see again there is not much difference from the PB to the actual grate temp,and again I am using foil.

So yeah maybe you have something wrong with your unit?What I would do (and I did this with my last pellet cooker) is make a vid, and post it on Youtube of the unit running for 30 minutes.Then when you have 0 smoke you can send it to the company so they can see how your unit behaves.

 

[MAK DADDY]

To answer your question about the TC reading the temp regardless of other variables that is exactly what the pellet boss is doing. We don't compensate for the difference of other areas around the pit we simply read the temp from the TC in it's location and display it on the screen. The displayed temp is an average over a minutes time to keep the temp from bouncing all over the place, if you want to view the "live" temp you can switch it over in the maintenance screen. The TC in the MAK is extremely accurate, just remember we display in 5 degree increments so take that into consideration when testing. Temps will change based on cleanliness of the pit, foiling the pan, amount of food in the cooker, temperature of food, exhaust air flow etc. that doesn't mean the TC reads a different temp than actual, it reads what it actually is in its location.

 

[Big Poppa]

Let me caution all of you on temps...even candy sue president of KCBS and Head of BBQers delight...pellets are wood and can vary from batch to batch...late last year we were getting super hot temps on our comp one stars...we started the season and were getting low temps...different batch of pellets can affect you temps

 

[FLBentRider]

I do ribs @250F, Sparky likes them @275F...

Figure out YOUR temp.

 

[sparky]

I do ribs @250F, Sparky likes them @275F...

Figure out YOUR temp.

True dat. New rib is 250 w/ new flame zone. If one temp doesn't work try a different one. It's only bbq ppl.

 

[Tailback]

Yep, I'll have the temp dialed in by the next time the bro-in-law visits. Which means I'll just have to cook a bunch more racks of ribs. (For scientific testing purposes of course)

 

[Big_Jake]

Let me caution all of you on temps...even candy sue president of KCBS and Head of BBQers delight...pellets are wood and can vary from batch to batch...late last year we were getting super hot temps on our comp one stars...we started the season and were getting low temps...different batch of pellets can affect you temps

This is another thing for people to think about.There are also so many variables between each cook.It's hard to recreate the same senario every time.Even with my WSM I can see strange temp swings and the ribs do not always come out the same.If you talk to the bbq "champions" I bet they would say that sometimes they even have a bad day were their que did not come out right.

 

[jimsbarbecue]

I will follow up what MAK Daddy said with some personal views . When checking temps if I don't have a probe where the MAK probe is ,I have nothing to compare to. The probe I use clipped to the MAK probe when I do this testing has always measured what the MAK read. Other probes in the pit (I have used up to 10). Read depending on the variables as mentioned . All the checking did change my foiling habits as it effects the temps and air flow if not done right. A empty pit versus one with food is also a factor. I would agree that at smoke mode you expect it to be under the next settings. MAK Daddy will help you with your issues as he is passionate about MAKing grills. If your a Big Poppa customer it is a added bonus as he will help you out and has cooked a lot on MAK grills and can share his insights and tips. Not to mention customer service is BIG at Big Poppa Smokers.

 

[Big Poppa]

OK first off...cooking temps are personal and there are many great cooks here...Sparky would be the first to tell you that also....because sparky cooks at 275 doesnt make that the only temp you can cook ribs at...I find that it depends on the cooker...the meadow creek we cooked at exactly 250 the baby jambo 260 and the big jambo 275 and we are nationally ranked in ribs.

I also say that you should run your tests on your home oven with probes in different places and see how crazy that is