ThermoWorks RFX - 2 Probe Review

[civilsmoker]

I first want to thank our sponsor ThermoWorks for the recent Throwdown prize….. a two probe RFX…..

First up before I ever received the unit I received an email from ThermoWorks customer service telling me it was on the way.

The email contained a YT link on how to set it up.



Next was an app link for the phone app followed by an animated step by step set up and lastly written step by step with pictures of each step…..all the learning styles were covered!!!

What’s in the box….another set of set up steps, directions on charging, and use instructions for the person that wants paper……

It comes with the gateway, gateway charger, an air probe for the gate way, two meat probes with wireless aaa battery charging cradles and color rings (many extra)

I will note that this runs on the 2.4 GHz WiFi so be sure you have that turned on before you go through the set up.

The setup is very simple, you add a device, name it, and pick a probe color, the WiFi is added by the name and password. It took me all of 2 mins to get it up and running….

Oh and if you want to change the name or color that can be done any time after the setup, ie you can see I missed a space in probe 2…..err so found it was easy to update it….the pics below I fixed that missing space!!!!!!

Each of the meat probes has 4 sensor locations that make up an average temp as the single temp pic shown above. You can also set it to advance mode and see the average and each of the individual sensor temps as well. Shown below….these temps were from sitting out on my office desk for an hour to make sure things were normalized…..

You can also set how fast the gateway and meat probes send data, ie for extended battery you can pick a longer interval, for shorter cooks (grilling) a shorter interval.


Next up the ice water test….

I mixed up a small glass of ice water and let it sit for 5 mins with a few stirs to equalize the temps to a reasonable uniformity (PS I’m going for BBQ unit of temp not instrument level….). I also grabbed my thermapen one, and executive needle (LOVE THIS UNIT!!!!) to compare things.

In the water they go……

Here are the RFX…. Bingo all are in the BBQ unit of temp……I couldn’t get my middle in the same location as the others for the pic but when I held it it was within .4 of a degree as well……

Next up I put the gateway air probe in and it was right on as well….

After that I took them out and put them all right next to each other on the counter to let them normalize over 40 mins….the handhelds were spot one with each other

The RFX….

Ok now I’m way impressed now……

Oh when you put the meat probes in the cradles they have a flashing light to indicate charging that stops when they are at 100%. The instructions say to change the aaa battery at least every year regardless if it has a charge left. The unit came with the aaa already installed.

So the above was just my out of the Phase 1 box take and so far I’m really impressed and excited to try them out!!!!

Phase 2 of my review will be testing them hard core…..grilling a couple 1.5 inch thick NYs I picked up tonight…..Ie I will be testing the 1000 degree rated exposed end on the gasser…..I will also shorten the response time to max signal sharing…..

Phase 3 will be a low and slow of this beef chuck (look at the marbling!!!)

More to come………

PS I’m going to be eating good this week!!!!!!

Double PS I can NOT believe these are Walmart cuts….i read that they got their own beef processing set up and man oh man if they keep this up my wife will ban me from shopping with her……. I also heard Costco was working on doing the same….

 

[bmudd14474]

Great review so far.

We have a friend who is a cattle rancher. They sell just to Walmart. Apparently, Walmart has some very high standards they have to meet in order to sell to them.

 

[Gonna Smoke]

this beef chuck (look at the marbling!!!)

Nice review and yes, that's a good looking chuck. Looks like Prime to me, not Choice, but Walmart doesn't sell Prime, I guess...

 

[civilsmoker]

Great review so far.

We have a friend who is a cattle rancher. They sell just to Walmart. Apparently, Walmart has some very high standards they have to meet in order to sell to them.

I always look at the meat counter no matter what store, ie window shopping and I have notices a huge improvement to the beef at Walmart and went all in with our family rib roast for Christmas.....the whole fam was like ......WHAT... It was an excellent rib roast!

 

[civilsmoker]

Nice review and yes, that's a good looking chuck. Looks like Prime to me, not Choice, but Walmart doesn't sell Prime, I guess...

Thanks GS! I was just going to get the steaks, but my eye spied this chuck, and it was "NO Choice" pun intended...lol it came home!

 

[civilsmoker]

So test #1….

On the heat they go…..it was rather cold (25) so had the grill smoking hot…..rookie mistake (too hot)…..

Temp reading 1

Didn’t round roving on the sear then moved them up too to roast to come up to temp….. pulled the blue steak at 121 ish…..

Pulled the red steak at a few mins later at the same INT….

Put them on testing racks when I pulled them….

Here is my rookie mistake…..I had the probe dead center and the grill was screaming hot…..so major carry over because of the over sear……this is where they topped out…..

Let them continue to rest to come back down…..here was the slice INT….

The slicing….. not intended, but a perfect medium….the wife will be really happy!

Tonight the moves went in some Lad Na……

Oh man, even though I over shot the INT temp…..this was fanfreakingtastic!!!

Verdict 1 is the Meat probes are spot on temp but need to use proper temp on the grill and probe placement (slightly of center in the thin side. The required depth the probe needs will affect this…..

Test 2 is in the wing…..dry brining in the fridge…

 

[civilsmoker]

I did this cook last weekend and finally found time to make a post.....

I wanted to test both Meat probes as well as the gateway air temp probe in comparison to my probes on the RT 1250 (I am on my second set of RT probes). This cook was done at 265 degrees on the RT 1250. It was rather cold outside temp (in the 20s) and I did this on the top shelf so interested to see how the internal air temp is vs the RT camber temp.

Sample 1: The RT probe was reading just a bit below but close enough....

Sample 2: The RT probe is still a bit lower.....

Sample 3: At completion....about 2-3 difference between the RT and the NW.

Overall this was a 7.5 hour cook and the probes functioned spot on. I will also not that I tested the alerts/alarms and they were prompt and quick, were as my RT alerts/alarms often lag so this was a nice add.

I will note that after the 7.5 hours the gateway was at 80% battery, probe 1 (red) was at 10%, I did get a warning it was low. Probe 2 (blue) was at 60%. The much lower and faster batter burn of probe 1 jumped out to me, but I did notice that the end was in contact with the foil pan when I covered it (I'm suspecting this was causing a higher draw). I am going to do another test to verify that something isn't off with the battery either. It should have about a 50-60 hour charge which is what the probe 2 was at for battery burn. Now that it has had a near full draw down and charge, I'm hopping it will be full charge running, but I will have an update when I run it again.

I thought I should also post the results.....OH man this Walmart black angus was very very good!!!

 

[gmc2003]

Nice write up and even nicer food Cortney.

Point for sure
Chris

BTW you need to send that insta read back. It appears to be off by a degree. LOL

 

[civilsmoker]

Nice write up and even nicer food Cortney.

Point for sure
Chris

BTW you need to send that insta read back. It appears to be off by a degree. LOL

View attachment 711726

Thanks Chris! Yup….Yo shouldn’t it be within 0.1%….I think I’ll toss it….lol nope these are keepers! The executive needle is my fav all around! It’s a bit slower but not even enough to notice!

the glass water temp varied top to bottom/side to side…..I found I’m not capable of mixing ice water placing 4 probes and taking a pic all at the same time……

I really hope I can get the XFire up and running this spring/summer…..these RFXs will rock for that!

 

[civilsmoker]

Since I was testing it I have both the gateway and Meat probes set to transmit on the quickest setting (most battery consumption). As I said in the post above, I believe the fact that it was in contact with the tray likely was causing a quicker battery burn, but I will be fully testing them many times over and will report results back. So far I don’t have anything negative to say about them, and in fact I really like it so far!

I view temp units (hand heads, gateways and probes) as consumables, because they do stop working at some point. I have used 6 different brands over the past 10 years and I only have two brands left in the house, my go to is ThermoWorks and Inkbird is my back up. I have no hesitation recommending either one. However when I cooked $225 worth of A5 NYs I reached for a ThermoWorks executive needle probe, I have a very high regard of trust in them and my experience using them has been spot on!!

 

[Brokenhandle]

Since I was testing it I have both the gateway and Meat probes set to transmit on the quickest setting (most battery consumption). As I said in the post above, I believe the fact that it was in contact with the tray likely was causing a quicker battery burn, but I will be fully testing them many times over and will report results back. So far I don’t have anything negative to say about them, and in fact I really like it so far!

I view temp units (hand heads, gateways and probes) as consumables, because they do stop working at some point. I have used 6 different brands over the past 10 years and I only have two brands left in the house, my go to is ThermoWorks and Inkbird is my back up. I have no hesitation recommending either one. However when I cooked $225 worth of A5 NYs I reached for a ThermoWorks executive needle probe, I have a very high regard of trust in them and my experience using them has been spot on!!

Got ya on that one!

Ryan

 

[civilsmoker]

Ok todays test is with a pulled pork….. doing this cook my usual way at 265....first up the RT app.

The TW app......Things looking pretty good except for my RT meat probe is a showing a bit higher.....gonna keep an eye on it cause I got one of them wet by accident a couple cooks ago.....

Put a pan of apple cider vinegar, apple cider, sweet soy sauce, sugar in the raw, and some chicken powder......

Just a follow up check after opening......I also added my second RT probe to run the test with...

The TW air probe is reading a higher temp...... will be watching

Next check......

OK even a higher difference..... checking....

OK temp difference found......in my rush, ie i'm still working today, if put the pan right next to the probe so creating a lower temp right around the RT probe......

Did a quick move and bingo......

Bingo......

Verification check once everything normalized after moving the pan.....

Ok, enough fussing with, just going to follow along till time to wrap....What I will say is the ThermoWorks add a lot of data to a cook. Just note that it could cause someone to over think it but in the case of me putting the pan in a bad spot it showed that rather quickly.

I will also add that both Meat probes were at 100% charge and 3 hours in they are both still showing 100% charge. I did change the setting of the Meat probes to sending a data point at each 3 degree of temp change vs the 1 degree, this is the recommended setting for a 15 hour cook. The 1 degree setting is recommended for a 5-6 hour cook. I am very interested to see the battery life at the end of a 9-10 hour cook but right now I would recommend making sure the probe exposed tip (the top part, the area with the TW symbol) does not contact foil wrapping or pan.....more to come!

 

[civilsmoker]

The PP ready to wrap……

Progress check

Looking good except the battery life

So the battery on both probes was at 10% when I pulled it, so I called TW help to see if the settings I had would cause a quicker draw. And talked through it and I discovered that this setting would cause a faster draw….ie I had screen on all day and was watching numbers….. I am going to do another test to see, but I will say the CS told me if the charge doesn’t hold they would sent me some new ones…..but we are going to see how the new settings do.

After a 10 min charge I put them back in to watch the rest…..bingo the house oven right at 140

The reward for the days test…. peanut satay, has a side of chicken with it….YUM

So more testing to come. So far I still like them, and now that I understand the settings I’m hopping that will make them run for a longer cook at the higher frequency. I still didn’t have the long life setting though and honestly for a 4 hour plus cook the long life setting is more than good enough.

 

[ThermoWorks]

Nice write up and even nicer food Cortney.

Point for sure
Chris

BTW you need to send that insta read back. It appears to be off by a degree. LOL

View attachment 711726

We do love to see a good ice bath for testing - great work here. I would guess that if you put more ice in the cup to create that 32-degree temp. The water beneath the ice will have a temperature above 32°F.

 

[ThermoWorks]

The PP ready to wrap……
View attachment 712142

Progress check
View attachment 712143
Looking good except the battery life
View attachment 712144
So the battery on both probes was at 10% when I pulled it, so I called TW help to see if the settings I had would cause a quicker draw. And talked through it and I discovered that this setting would cause a faster draw….ie I had screen on all day and was watching numbers….. I am going to do another test to see, but I will say the CS told me if the charge doesn’t hold they would sent me some new ones…..but we are going to see how the new settings do.

View attachment 712146

After a 10 min charge I put them back in to watch the rest…..bingo the house oven right at 140
View attachment 712145

The reward for the days test…. peanut satay, has a side of chicken with it….YUM
View attachment 712147

So more testing to come. So far I still like them, and now that I understand the settings I’m hopping that will make them run for a longer cook at the higher frequency. I still didn’t have the long life setting though and honestly for a 4 hour plus cook the long life setting is more than good enough.

Thank you for putting these probes to the test - we stand behind our products and truly enjoy seeing when y'all put them through the wringer to ensure they are as great as expected. We're excited to see what you cook next!

 

[civilsmoker]

ThermoWorks" data-source="post: 2564616" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

We do love to see a good ice bath for testing - great work here. I would guess that if you put more ice in the cup to create that 32-degree temp. The water beneath the ice will have a temperature above 32°F.

Thanks and agreed! As an Engineer, I believe in standard deviation as a mater of practice so wasn’t too worried about a precise water bath but close enough……yes more ice and more time to normalize and they would have been spot on! They were when I held them together but couldnt get a picture of that….not enough hands….lol.

ThermoWorks" data-source="post: 2564617" class="bbCodeBlock bbCodeBlock--expandable bbCodeBlock--quote js-expandWatch">

Thank you for putting these probes to the test - we stand behind our products and truly enjoy seeing when y'all put them through the wringer to ensure they are as great as expected. We're excited to see what you cook next!

You are welcome and thank you for being a sponsor on the forum! SMF allows for all us to share in this passion of cooking! It’s been fun testing them as I have been able to learn all the settings and options.

I’ve been waiting for a nice brisket to show up in the meat counter……still waiting for the right one…… I am really looking forward to using them in the Copper Pot smoker when it’s warmer and not windy!

 

[Brokenhandle]

Thanks and agreed! As an Engineer, I believe in standard deviation as a mater of practice so wasn’t too worried about a precise water bath but close enough……yes more ice and more time to normalize and they would have been spot on! They were when I held them together but couldnt get a picture of that….not enough hands….lol.

You are welcome and thank you for being a sponsor on the forum! SMF allows for all us to share in this passion of cooking! It’s been fun testing them as I have been able to learn all the settings and options.

I’ve been waiting for a nice brisket to show up in the meat counter……still waiting for the right one…… I am really looking forward to using them in the Copper Pot smoker when it’s warmer and not windy!

I miss the copper pot!

Ryan

 

[civilsmoker]

I miss the copper pot!

Ryan

How about a throw back

Miss the green grass too!!!!

 

[civilsmoker]

These are up for the next test, ie a couple of reverse sear rib eyes!!!

These baby’s are 22-24 oz each of certified black angus……. Scored them on sale for 9.99/lb. Normally 19.99/lb

All salted up for a 48 hour dry brine!

 

[Smokin Okie]

These are up for the next test, ie a couple of reverse sear rib eyes!!!

These baby’s are 22-24 oz each of certified black angus……. Scored them on sale for 9.99/lb. Normally 19.99/lb
View attachment 712715
All salted up for a 48 hour dry brine!
View attachment 712716

My goodness !