I just did the initial burn in (400 for one hour). I put an iGrill2 ambient probe dead center in the grill (supposed to be accurate within +/- 1 degree), as well as a known accurate oven thermometer. Both of those were pretty close (as in...the same at 377), but the RTD is reading 400. Seems to be off about 5% there.
Currently, got it running at 250 and will check the temps again in an hour and adjust the offset on the grill if I need to. I don't really care how accurate it is for high temp cooks as long as it can hit 500, but I do want it to be pretty accurate a the lower smoking temps.
When I got my Bull a couple of months ago, my son handled the horn installation (no pun intended). He did not install any pads under the horns, and I have no idea where they went. I emailed Recteq this morning about a probe issue I'm having, and I took the opportunity to ask them if I could buy a new set of foam pads. Here is their response:
"As for the gasket that goes between the handle and lid, those are only needed on the 2500. The 2500 has a different shaped lid and the felt piece that goes between the two is to keep the handle from scratching the lid."
So I guess it is not really needed for the Bull. I would definitely install the pads if I had them, but I'm not going to sweat it by not having them. I haven't noticed the handle being too hot to touch so far (but I haven't done any very hot cooks).