Looking for Guidance

[MoHuka]

I posted this on the Bradley Forum as well...wondering if there are any ideas from you good folks?

Thanks in advance for any help



History...I purchased a digital 6-rack and soon thereafter added a 2nd element and an Auber dual probe.  I reset the P to 140 as recommended on this forum and it worked pretty good with the exception of the oven temps on PID and Maverick 732 were 7 degrees different..so I messed around with off-sets and got them pretty close...food temps have always been pretty close.

So then I decided I should auto-tune and after that I started having the problems as experienced in yesterday's BB Rib cook.  Set PID for 230 degrees and 8 hours.  Both PID and Maverick tracked within 5 degrees for a couple of hours then the Maverick would indicate 260 degrees and the PID would be giving erratic readings in the 150 to 170 degree range...after some time the PID would stabilize and climb to 230 and the Maverick would slowly come down but always stop considerably higher than the PID.

After the first time this happened I did another auto-tune followed by same problems so called Auber and the tech said to put P back to 140 as auto-tune had changed it to 68 and put all other parameters at factory default.  I did that and still experienced the same problem as described above.

Wanted to ask if I am putting the probes in the correct location which is on the bottom of the lowest rack which puts them just above the heat shield.  I put them on the right side near the front as I think I understood from the forum this is the correct place

So am I putting the probes in the right place or do I have other problems?  I hope to advance into sausage making but afraid I am not controlling the temps well enough for that

Thanks for any help

BTW when I went to foil the ribs yesterday after 3 hours they were looking close to done which makes me think the Maverick high temps indication may be right??  In the end the 3-2-1 method gave me drier that expected ribs..

[Smokin Don]

I can't give any help on the Bradley Mo Huka but after doing ribs 3-2-1 for a period I now go more for a 2-2-1 or a 3-1-1. Don

[MoHuka]

Thanks Don.....will try the 2-2-1 next time....help from the Bradley site is all pointing towards bad probes....

[muebe]

Thanks Don.....will try the 2-2-1 next time....help from the Bradley site is all pointing towards bad probes....

Yep sounds like the probe is shorting out. Did you perhaps get moisture into the probe?

Take the probe and put it in your home oven(leave the connector outside the oven). Then run the oven at 325F for about 30 minutes. This will dry out the moisture.

It could also be the wiring at the plug for the probe is loose. If you wiggle the end of the plug while plugged into the PID does this cause the temp to change? If so the plug might be defective.

[pz]

Has anyone tried high temperature silicon to seal the wire entry point of the temperature probe?

[Pappymn]

Has anyone tried high temperature silicon to seal the wire entry point of the temperature probe?

Muebe had me use heat shrink tubing, which worked great. Available at Home Depot

[nepas]

Use ambient probe, Toss the food probe and do ribs old way, meat pulled from end of bone bout 3/4"

[flbentrider]

It does sound like the probe is the problem.

I am with Rick, I don't use a food probe on ribs.

[pz]

Muebe had me use heat shrink tubing, which worked great. Available at Home Depot

Excellent tip - thanks for that 

Might as well be proactive and take care of the probes before moisture problems arise.

[MoHuka]

Thanks to everyone...

I had put the silicone on the probes but only after I started having some problems....I may just get new probes and do the heat shrink as mentioned earlier (good idea).

Yes, the connector on the PID, if wiggled, will effect the temp so I could possibly have a bad connector

I don't use the meat probe on ribs, just stated that the PID and Maverick meat temps have always tracked closely when cooking other meats...only problems with the oven temps

Again thanks....