any wifi wireless themometer updates/reviews?

[fxsales1959]

Happy New Years all,
Last day of the work year and I should be working on schematic drawing approvals and a new backboard camera design for the Memphis Grizzlies but here I am fixating on meat and stuff. Today's topic/question. Wireless meat thermometer kits with WIFI app( WIFI important). I absolutely love my #inkbird I-BBQ4-t wired thermometer and the app, but using them on the rotisserie becomes tedious turning off the rotisserie every three revolutions to unwrap the wire.
I did a search to no avail. Have seen all the "meater" ads and haven't had time to dig deep and see if their app is truly wifi with graphing. I am not big fan of bluetooth due to distance restrictions. If our friends from #inkbird are reading, a two to three probe kit with the wifi app like on the I-BBQ-4t would be fantastical.
I also like the claims that the probes from meater that the probes will supposedly transmit both meat temp and chamber temp with the dual sensor probes.
End of another uselessly long diatribe.
Carry on, and again, Happy New Year.
John

 

[TripleLindy]

I just got a Meater+ a couple of months ago. I’ve only used it on my Thanksgiving turkey and it performed well. The thing that surprised me the most was the estimated cooking time. It ended up spot on accurate, but that’s only 1 test. Yes, it has dual sensors - one for internal and one for ambient. The ambient sensor works best if you can angle the thermometer away from the meat so that the cool temp of the meat doesn’t impact the reading. Even when you do that, the ambient temp takes a while to read accurately. Both temps are tracked and graphed in the app, which is pretty good and one of the reasons I went with a Meater device.

In terms of Bluetooth vs. WiFi, Meater uses both. You need either the Meater Block base or another Bluetooth device (phone or tablet) within the range - 160’ I think. Those devices can then connect to your WiFi and transmit data to the cloud, giving you access from anywhere. I think most of the WiFi connected thermometers use the same method.

So far the only 2 negatives I have with the Meater probe are the thickness and insertion depth. The probe is much thicker than non-wireless probes, like my Thermoworks Smoke. And it has to be inserted 2-1/2” deep to protect the electronics. That’s fine on larger pieces of meat, like a brisket or turkey, but would be nearly impossible on a filet, as the point would almost stick out of the other side. But all wireless thermometers that I looked at had the same issues.

I don’t use my rotisserie all that much, mostly for wings, so I didn’t get the Meater+ for that. I just got tired of messing with the wires on my Smoke and I was looking for an app that would keep a history of my cooks.

 

[sawhorseray]

I am technologically challenged sad to say. I had the Meater which didn't work at all for me, gave it to a forum buddy and haven't heard if he got it to work. Got the Tappecue a couple weeks back, DL'd the app, tried it out double smoking a ham on my Weber kettle. It did fair at best, went in and out of connection frequently, tho when it worked it appeared to be fairly accurate reporting the IT and CC temp. Next I tried it out spinning a lamb roast on the rotisserie, which was the reason I got one in the first place. It never really hooked up like it did the first cook, no temp reads,. It kept asking me to sign in, name my cook, and was pretty much a useless POS. I don't want or need graphs of my cooks, just a dammed temp read-out. I've been cooking on a Weber kettle over 45 years before all this new-fangled high-tech garbage became available, can't recall many failed cooks. I'll just go back to relying on my knowledge and experience, use the wired probes and the instant read, not waste any more dough. RAY

 

[chopsaw]

I just shoved mine in a half loin . Was going to spin , but rain is moving in . So it's going on the pellet grill that's under cover . Cross your fingers ?

 

[sawhorseray]

Watching, and good luck Rich! RAY

 

[BigW.]

I have the Tempspike and I'm on the fence. I'm not a techy and I had some issues with the app. Spun a rib roast on xmas and couldn't get it to connect. Charged it up the next day and was able to get it to connect. A charge is supposed to last a long time. So not sure if charging fixed it or?

 

[chopsaw]

Watching, and good luck Rich!

Keeps disconnecting , then comes back online . I'm ok with that . Just need to stop the alerts . Not going very good for 5 minutes in the smoker .
Holy !!! just trying to type this out I've received 4 emails to come back in range .
I'll come back in range with a claw hammer !

 

[normanaj]

I just shoved mine in a half loin . Was going to spin , but rain is moving in . So it's going on the pellet grill that's under cover . Cross your fingers ?

We're getting rain tomorrow which kinda throws a stick in the spokes as my EZ-UP apparently got crushed behind some stuff in my shed. Gotta come up with something to keep the Auber and the probe wire from getting wet. Not going to waste money on a cheapo HF knockoff.

 

[chopsaw]

I have a section 10 X 12 that's covered . My 30 sits up there all the time . I should have used it .
looks maybe like this therm has settled in . I have so much stuff hanging on my wifi that maybe be an IP battle going on when it first joins .

 

[KM0AGA]

I have the Meater Block. I bought it right after they were introduced. Mine connects to my Wi-Fi and I can be 50 miles away and check on my cook. I mainly use it for stuff in my oven.

I also have a Fire Board 2 Pro that I use with primarily with my Webber SNS setup. I've done comparisons and both are accurate +/- 1 degree or so.

The only thing I don't like about the Meater is the fact it wont read ambient temperature that is less than your food temperature. I was messing around with my roaster over and a potato. I was trying to dial in 150 degrees. Once the potato got above 150 the Meater would not read external temps below the potato.

My two cents..

 

[SecondHandSmoker]

I've never used a wireless therm such as Meater, Tappacue, etc and have wanted to use one since I use the rotisserie a lot on the kettle.
However, the main thing for me is if these therms cannot accurately read CC temps during a cook, then they are of little use to me. Until they can solve this and connectivity issues, then I agree with sawhorseray .

 

[KM0AGA]

Fireboard is the way to go. It has probes so you can the temp from the unit and Wi-Fi. It also has a fan for temperature control. You don't have to use the Wi-Fi but it is available.

 

[gmc2003]

This may work for you. I know tropics Richie also made a version of this successfully

Making ET732 work on my rotisserie

I wanted to monitor the IT of what I have on my rotisserie, so to the shop and a day's work. The shaft on the Weber roto was too short, so I substituted one from a generic roto. Excuse the crappy cell phone pictures. Started with a brass bushing from the hardware store, drilled, tapped...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[GrumpyGriller]

I have the Inkbird 4 probe wifi set up IBBQ-4T) - actually I have 2 of them. They are reliable and generally available on Amazon for about $50-60 with the 4 probes. I would certainly consider getting a Fireboard at some point in the future as it's a USA based company, but they are 3-4 times the cost and I sadly cannot justify that expense.

 

[fxsales1959]

Thank you all,
much appreciated. I think for now I'll just rely on my #inkird IBBQ-4T. My rotisserie cooks are far between and typically done in my Napoleon SS grill utilizing the rear Infrared burner. for now, when i get a whim, I'll rely on look and quick instant probe checks. The good thing about a grill is that the temp swings aren't as bad as on a smoker. Time will tell on the apps and connectivity issues on the new gear. That stuff is awful expensive to cook one rib roast a year.

 

[Colin1230]

Happy New Years all,
Last day of the work year and I should be working on schematic drawing approvals and a new backboard camera design for the Memphis Grizzlies but here I am fixating on meat and stuff. Today's topic/question. Wireless meat thermometer kits with WIFI app( WIFI important). I absolutely love my #inkbird I-BBQ4-t wired thermometer and the app, but using them on the rotisserie becomes tedious turning off the rotisserie every three revolutions to unwrap the wire.
I did a search to no avail. Have seen all the "meater" ads and haven't had time to dig deep and see if their app is truly wifi with graphing. I am not big fan of bluetooth due to distance restrictions. If our friends from #inkbird are reading, a two to three probe kit with the wifi app like on the I-BBQ-4t would be fantastical.
I also like the claims that the probes from meater that the probes will supposedly transmit both meat temp and chamber temp with the dual sensor probes.
End of another uselessly long diatribe.
Carry on, and again, Happy New Year.
John

John,
I have the ThermoPro TempSpike. It works for me but may not work for you it being Bluetooth only. The app does graph but will skip any disconnects. The Bluetooth range is acceptable for me as it covers my whole home and if it does disconnect it reconnects quickly once back in range. I purchased it to use primarily with the rotisserie and for that it has worked well. If I plan to spin something, I'm not leaving the house until the cook is complete.
Hope this helps a little and Happy New Year to you as well.

 

[chopsaw]

The Tappacue settled in and worked good ,,,, until it didn't . I did have another therm in the meat , and they both read the same . At some point the Tappacue just was MIA . About an hour into the cook . No connection and couldn't be found . Maybe it's dead . Not sure how you know that though . Not giving up yet , but not what I expected by any means .

 

[DRKsmoking]

I'll come back in range with a claw hammer !

a carpenters fine tuning tool, sometimes just a gentle tap are in order.

David

 

[wesir]

Fireboard 100%, it's built into my yoder but I also bought myself a fireboard 2 drive for monitoring snack sticks on the MES40 and eventually controlling a charcoal grill. If no one mentioned it yet one great advantage it gives you is cloud sessions and the ability to share a live session link to your family/friends and they won't keep bothering you on when the food will be ready. Example:

Sun Mar 20 pork butts

Auto-created session

share.fireboard.io

The only issue I've had with the fireboard drive was that I put in the wifi password wrong which resulted in it in a constant boot/restart cycle, factory reset fixed that but it was a little annoying as I had like 15 seconds to navigate 4 screens.

I've tried the following:

Tappecue - worked ok, app was kinda bad, had one of the old ones that you had to buy a weatherproof box for and it was a pain, updating wifi required connecting to a computer I'm pretty sure

Meater BLOCK - technology is cool but implementation is awful, it's also more expensive than a fireboard. The wireless probes constantly disconnected from the base station that was sitting on top of the MES (maybe 1" of thin metal and insulation), whoever made the app didn't think to add buffer time before making your phone explode whenever the probes disconnected so good luck ever sleeping through a cook, also for me the notifications didn't seem to work if the app was in the background.

ThermoPro TP20 - this one actually works pretty well for me but I only ever used it while in the office which was 1 wall away from where the smoker was.

Maverick wireless thermometer - I tried 2 different models and both constantly disconnected and required me walk out to the smoker and re-pair them.

 

[chopsaw]

The thermopro and Ink birds are great . I bought the Tappaque so I could use it with the spinner .
TP-20
TP-08
Inkbird IBT-4SX
All work great , and my Smokefire has 4 port therm built in .
No connection issues at all .