Actual temperature issues

Dominace · Apr 22, 2021

I am having an issue with my Pitboss knowing the actual temperature and having huge temperature swings due to it. For some reason the thermostat that is inside the smoker reads about 100+ degree higher than it actually it. If i set the temperature to 200 it will heat to what it thinks is about 175 - 250. Yet based on the lid thermostat and a separate thermometer that i placed inside the grill to check. The temp is actually closer to 100 - 120. Due to this I cannot use the p settings as the grill never gets to 150+ degrees that it thinks it is at.

Any help would be appreciated. I have used the Grill 3 times and I am costantly having to manually adjust the temp to keep the heat up and the smoke going.

alanWsmith · May 2, 2021

I have the same issue with my 700. Internal temp on app reads 350 but lid Thermometer AND oven thermometer inside reads 300. Does Pitboss have anything to say about thjs?

alanWsmith · May 8, 2021

alanWsmith said:
I have the same issue with my 700. Internal temp on app reads 350 but lid Thermometer AND oven thermometer inside reads 300. Does Pitboss have anything to say about thjs?

Does anybody else have this problem?

seasick · Jun 2, 2022

My Lexington 540 consistently runs colder than the PID display using an oven thermometer hanging from the top grate. I’ve had numerous calls with PB customer service, replaced the PID and temp probe TWICE. Then a PB tech said to ignore the oven thermometer and cook with confidence!! Well that didn’t work out. Took 2 hours to cook boneless chicken breasts @ 400. After an hour I checked and the internal temp was 200. Set the temp to High, display read 500 and internal temp was 300. Frustrated to say the least.

Roadkillav8r · Jun 5, 2022

I got my Pro 820 yesterday, assembled it and lit it off for the initial burn off and for two hours the hottest it would go on the digital display was 180 degrees. Finally got on the chat with the company and during the chat it started creeping up. I had the temp set to 400 and it got to 375 but no hotter. Today I cooked St Louis ribs for 5 hours at 250. They weren't done, not even close so it is clearly not getting as hot as it shows. Tomorrow I will get a thermometer and find out just how off the temperature really is. But clearly something else is going on that it won't go above 375 which is probably really around 300. I can't cook with that kind of limitation. I see me telling the company to come and get it. I'm not happy

gooose53 · Jun 6, 2022

I'm new to pellet grills/smokers myself so I'm not sure how much I can assist you but, what kind of pellets are you using? Have they gotten damp? I have not had the same issues that you are experiencing. I hope someone on the forum will speak up with any additional information that might help you. Good Luck!

Roadkillav8r · Jun 7, 2022

gooose53 said:
I'm new to pellet grills/smokers myself so I'm not sure how much I can assist you but, what kind of pellets are you using? Have they gotten damp? I have not had the same issues that you are experiencing. I hope someone on the forum will speak up with any additional information that might help you. Good Luck!

Brand new bag of Pit Boss pellets. I was really shocked by the absolutely horrible temperature differences seen between PID and left and right side. I'm wondering if anyone has put a shield over the PID temp probe and what effect that may have had?

Gronk · Jun 13, 2022

I have a new Brunswick, with similar issues. My first two cooks took *way* too long, so I decided to verify.

I've checked temps in various places inside the smoker with both a "dial" oven thermometer and a pair of ThermoPro probes. In order to cook ribs at 225º, I had to set the smoker at 270-280º, and to finish them off at 275º I had to set it to 340º.

The "actual" temp display was consistently 60-70º above what the probes and dial thermometer said, and this difference remained consistent even as the temperature fluctuated up and down over a 10-15º range during the cooking process. A probe on the top shelf read 25-30º hotter than a probe right near the meat; I used the lower temp as my guide, and it seemed to be the proper thing to do, as the cooks progressed as expected.

I took lots of notes while smoking a couple chickens and two racks of ribs; I think I'm getting close. But I don't like having to compensate by this much for a new appliance. Hopefully my three sheets of data might make it through the customer service script. (My initial call on this issue did not go very well.)

I will say, however, that my first three experiences talking with customer support were stellar and the folks were both friendly *and* helpful.