Has anyone run into any issues with the 2 Star standard probes and rain? I was smoking 5 chickens last weekend and a typical East Coast late afternoon shower came across. There wasn't enough rain to even wet the Pellet Boss, but the probe was running along the edge of the pellet hopper and into it's proper entrance, and it got wet.Suddenly, after the rain shower, the probe was reading all over the place. It jumped from 140ish to over 200F, setting off my program alarm. It was reading 160F in my hand. I took the probe out and finished the cook with a hand probe. After letting the probe dry out inside last week, it seems to be functioning perfectly while cooking me brisket today. Any thoughts?
2 Star probe issues...
- Thread starter Jonathan
- Start date
muebe
New member
The end where the wire enters the the probe is where moisture can make it's way in. This will cause irratic readings. You can place the probe ends into a 250F degree oven for 20 minutes to dry the moisture out of the probe. Once the moisture evaporates the probes should start working normally again.
You can use some high temp RTV sealent at the probe ends to try and seal it so more moisture cannot get it.
This is a problem common with all probes and not just the ones for a MAK.
You can use some high temp RTV sealent at the probe ends to try and seal it so more moisture cannot get it.
This is a problem common with all probes and not just the ones for a MAK.
The probe was in the smoker, so that shouldn't have been a problem. I ordered two more probes from my dealer, though today the probe functioned perfectly for a brisket and for an eggplant parmesan. So, it must have dried out. I'll try some high temp sealent like you suggested as well. Thanks.
Hey fellows, I forgot to follow up this post. Everything is working well. It appears that MAK DADDY was correct. The unit dried out and everything has been working great since. In fact, there are two brisket flats smoking away at the moment for a send off dinner for my newphew today. The boy has done went and turned into a man and is heading out for basic training this coming week. It's hard to believe he is all grown and graduated high school and heading out to serving America already!
It seems I've had this happen twice this month. My mak was under an umbrella but apparently enough water splashed (doesn't seem like it takes much) up to make the probes unusable for the rest of the cook. Looking for ideas on avoiding this during overnight cooks. Unfortunately it's the time of the year here in NC with high heat humidity, we get random thunderstorms at night.
SmokingDents
New member
Would Mak concider making a waterproof connection where the plug meets the Pellet Boss? Sounds like an occurring issue.
MAK DADDY
Moderator
Try a popup shade over the grill, if you get winds be sure to stake it down. We don't have any plans to change the probe jacks in the near future as this is a rare scenario. We did just change meat probes again (always improving), the new M4 probes have a better connection at the plug side where we were seeing a lot of failures from the M3's.
Can you define better connection and what kind of failures are you referring to?
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MAK DADDY
Moderator
The plug wires could be pulled loose inside the jack causing the probe to fail, typically would read "High" when plugged in.
The new M4 plug jacks are more robust.
My M3 is doing this with the "High" reading after only 5 uses. I called Customer Service and they asked me to send it in with a note about the problem.