My stepson gave me a ThermPro (Model TP-20) for Christmas. I just used it for the first time to smoke a hog ham. It's got a few more bells and whistles than my old Cabela's. The main things I like is that the range is twice as far, and it has two probes. I can sit in my office and monitor the pit temperature and the meat temperature.

For someone that likes smoking with a stick-burner, they are invaluable. (Gato used to go by look and feel. His "look" and "feel" weren't so hot on at least one occasion.)

I did discover one thing interesting. The probe in the hood of my smoker, and the pit probe on my new ThermPro Remote were off by 40 degrees. (The new remote read 40 degrees hotter.) That was a shocker. I'm going to replace the thermometer in my Texas Pit Crafters smoker. That has got to be the one that's off. It's six years old.

The ones that come on the smokers are usually way different that the temps on the grates....so I usually put one probe through a potato and set that next to the meat, and another inside the meat....at least before I was too lazy to cook.

I found it nice that the ThermPro TP-20 comes with a metal clip that attaches to the grate and has two holes that Probe #2 slips through. That saves the life of one potato.

Well...if it saves just one potato....

Charles, the potato thing is a great idea. I plan to kipe it!

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Charles, the potato thing is a great idea. I plan to kipe it!

Hey...I got it from the internet sooo...

Being in the HVAC industry for years I've multiple uses for our pocket thermometers.Plus they're easy to calibrate. Just put the stem in a glass of ice water + then adjust the nut on the back to 32 degrees.

I have a Thermapen instant read thermometer but for monitoring temps while cooking for a long time the probes with wireless connections are great.

The one dead giveaway when I noticed my smoker thermometer was reading 40 degrees off was that when I had first installed batteries and turned on the new ThermPro, it was reading the same temperature, on both probes, as the house temperature; exactly. I take that to be pretty good calibration.

The faulty smoker temperature reading makes sense on another level also. People (on the Internet) were taking much longer to smoke the same piece of meat I was. I guess(!) since their 225 was my 265.

Thank God it was at least above 160. In the 70's I was smoking a turkey for a friend for Thanksgiving + the stat was off. We came around the corner to the smell of rotten meat. The task of finding a new cooked turkey on Thanksgiving day was a chore but I did it.I have been much more diligent on watching the smoker stat after that.