New Austin XL questions

[mattspayde2]

I just bought the PB Austin XL a week ago. Cooked a few times and had an amazing experience so far. I did have to take my grill back and exchange it due to a few issues including a short in the electrical. When the first one worked, I had solid temperatures and felt like it was on the spot, especially since I had never used one.

I am cooking on my new one today and feel like the temps are just not as spot on. For example, I have it set to 250. The temp is reading at 260. I have a meat probe near where the hardwired thermometer is and it’s reading 215. And the barrel temp says 200. I do understand the barrel may not be accurate but I’m afraid that the temp on the screen is running higher than what is actually happening. Is the meat probe going to be accurate when it’s right next to where the other thermometer is? Am I just looking to much into it with my first cook on it?

I’m honestly more paranoid since I had issues with the other and had to take it back. The old one was spot on with all three temps. I have read through the start up procedures and do feel like I followed them today, but I could be wrong. Any help to ease my mind would be great. Thank you.

[mattspayde2]

To add to my story. I upped the temp to 300. The actual says 320. And my probe says 284 in the center of the grill. The barrel is at 270. It just feels like the grill is running an actual that is 30-40 degrees above what is in there. I smoked some Cornish hens and they took longer than what I was actuall expecting.


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[Papa Tom]

You probably have new grill-itis.
Temperatures will vary much as they do in your kitchen oven.......yes they do you just haven't checked.

Best thing you can do is learn your machine just get experience. Start by doing the biscuit test. Buy a can of those refrigerator biscuits that scare the b-gez out of you when they pop open. set the pit @ whatever the can says (you have to pull the shredded wrapper out of the trash for that) let it heat up and place the biscuits in a pattern around the grate the two ends center etc. until you run out of biscuits. Cook the things then remove them placing in the same pattern as on the grate and observe and record the browning you now know the spots on the thing that are higher and lower use this info to your advantage ie the thick part of the meat on the higher temp spot.

I looked the AXL over when they first came out and liked what I saw especially for that price. I recommended a friend buy one since he was looking, he bought a Traeger Pro, then sold it and went back and got a AXl and says he loves it.

Enjoy.

[mattspayde2]

Thank you so much. I can definitely say that the hens came out just fine. Had all the flavor and juices I could want. Just was worried about it having issues. I’ll definitely try the biscuit test. Thanks again.

[spacetrucker]

I can only echo what "papa tom" said....
does 10 , 20 even 50 degrees change anything? really? no you just need to learn your cooker and be the chef. The chef can cook on the machine no matter what it says as long as it is doing the same thing repetitively you can deal with that, and it becomes natural to cook and produce good food on it. This is part of the learning experience. Back when I spent time on other forums folks would spend hours trying to figure out why their thermometer was off by a few degrees. The biscuits will show you what is hot and what is not.
You will learn your cooker and become an expert in no time