Temp Readings

[TAC]

If I set the temperature of my grill to 165 degrees F and place the food probe right next to the grill thermocouple the food probe shows 175. I have calibrated the food probe in a glass of ice water so I'm assuming that is accurate. Is there a way to add an offset to the main grill temp like the food probe?

 

[Slimpicker]

If I set the temperature of my grill to 165 degrees F and place the food probe right next to the grill thermocouple the food probe shows 175. I have calibrated the food probe in a glass of ice water so I'm assuming that is accurate. Is there a way to add an offset to the main grill temp like the food probe?

First post here so WELCOME

ANSWER: Buy a 3rd party Ambient probe to use in your pit.
Traeger grills have the worst RTD built in thermometers... Every ones grill here is OFF from what you "set" it at. Sometimes up to 25° + or -.
What you need to do is "learn" your grill, how far 'off' it is and cook accordingly.
If you want to cook at 225°, you might have to 'set' your grill to 250° to achieve 225°, or vise versa.
Traeger RTDs should NOT be trusted, 3rd party pit therms are more accurate, and should be considered to be your first good investment for good cooking.

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[srandall25]

If I set the temperature of my grill to 165 degrees F and place the food probe right next to the grill thermocouple the food probe shows 175. I have calibrated the food probe in a glass of ice water so I'm assuming that is accurate. Is there a way to add an offset to the main grill temp like the food probe?

If you set the temp of the grill to 165 and your temp probe is showing 175, that's not bad. That shows your grill is within 10 degrees of what you set the temp to. Just because you set your grill to 165 doesn't mean that's gonna necessarily be the exact temp inside the grill. Your grill is constantly adjusting the burn to help match your set temp the best as possible. Most likely, whatever you set your grill temp to, it will never actually be that temp exactly.

 

[YYCRed]

First post here so WELCOME

ANSWER: Buy a 3rd party Ambient probe to use in your pit.
Traeger grills have the worst RTD built in thermometers... Every ones grill here is OFF from what you "set" it at. Sometimes up to 25° + or -.
What you need to do is "learn" your grill, how far 'off' it is and cook accordingly.
If you want to cook at 225°, you might have to 'set' your grill to 250° to achieve 225°, or vise versa.
Traeger RTDs should NOT be trusted, 3rd party pit therms are more accurate, and should be considered to be your first good investment for good cooking.

Slim is 100% right. While yours is "only" 10 degrees off at 165, it may be even further off at higher temps. Get a 3rd party probe (like FireBoard or InkBird) and use that. It will take some time to learn what temp to set your Traeger at to reach the real desired temp, but it doesn't take long to adjust as you cook.

 

[srandall25]

But the info he provided doesn’t show that his grill temp probe is even 10 degrees off. It shows a difference from what the grill temp is set at. Whatever you set the grill temp to doesn’t mean the temp is actually going to be that exact same temp.

 

[YYCRed]

But the info he provided doesn’t show that his grill temp probe is even 10 degrees off. It shows a difference difference from what the grill temp is set at. That doesn’t mean the grill temp is actually that temperature.

The two probes are 10 degrees different, and the one has been calibrated, so I am assuming that the internal one is actually 10 degrees wrong.

Bottom line: you can't trust the Traeger probes. Use a 3rd party probe.

 

[srandall25]

Ah ok. The original post didn’t say anything about using two probes

 

[TAC]

I also have a Green Mountain grill and it has a nice feature that allows you to set an offset at different temperatures.

 

[TAC]

Ah ok. The original post didn’t say anything about using two probes

I'll admit I'm not using a 3rd party high accuracy probe but was thinking the calibrated (at 32 degrees) food is my best bet for accuracy, even at 165 degrees.

I would think the food probe response is linear or the response curve has been programmed into the Treager firmware to get an accurate response.

BTW does the Treager automagically download updated firmware as it becomes available?

 

[Murphy's Law]

I'll admit I'm not using a 3rd party high accuracy probe but was thinking the calibrated (at 32 degrees) food is my best bet for accuracy, even at 165 degrees.

I would think the food probe response is linear or the response curve has been programmed into the Treager firmware to get an accurate response.

BTW does the Treager automagically download updated firmware as it becomes available?

I find that my Traeger probe (ambient) is pretty accurate when set at 185, about 10 off at 225 and around 25 off at 350+.

 

[srandall25]

I'll admit I'm not using a 3rd party high accuracy probe but was thinking the calibrated (at 32 degrees) food is my best bet for accuracy, even at 165 degrees.

I would think the food probe response is linear or the response curve has been programmed into the Treager firmware to get an accurate response.

BTW does the Treager automagically download updated firmware as it becomes available?

My Traeger just did an update automatically when I fired it up the other day. So apparently yes.

 

[Ironyoder]

This is one of the reasons I bought a Rec Teq instead of a Traeger. So far my temps have been very accurate within a few degrees of my target temp.

 

[Ray Reiter]

If I set the temperature of my grill to 165 degrees F and place the food probe right next to the grill thermocouple the food probe shows 175. I have calibrated the food probe in a glass of ice water so I'm assuming that is accurate. Is there a way to add an offset to the main grill temp like the food probe?

There is also an offset adjustment in the menu, where you can effectively raise or lower the sensed tempurature.
I would first fallow the calibration procedure.
then cook something and monitor to meat temp both the traeger sensor and a second 3rd party probe
once the meat gets nearly ready record both sensor values
then go into the settings and adjust the sensor offset buy the difference between the two readings

I does this in the nearly cooked range, because I really don't care if the sensor is out 10 deg, when the meat is cold