Ok, I have had lots of time to play around with these and this experience has shown that these are very nice probes to have in the toolbox. I will add some insight below on what I have learned going through this testing.
First: I have read a lot of other reviews and even experienced a faster battery burn than expected during my testing, note that this seemed to be not consistent with the noted or recommended time frames in the app settings. So, I did some analyzing of the cook data and compared to the operational function of the probe vs battery life.
From an operational perspective, the probes monitor the temp and send a signal to the gate way at a set time plus at an interval of degree of change in the cook. Each time the probe sends "data" to the gateway it uses "battery life". So, battery life is a function of overall time of the probe use plus the additional sent data signals based on the rate of temperature change it is monitoring. This means that any item that has a rapid rate of temperature change will draw the battery life down quicker. I tested this by just letting the probe sit idle at the same temp and the probes didn't drop in battery life (down from 100 to 80) till near the "recommended" time of cook for that setting. Next, I tested them by heating them up at a rapid rate and then cooled at a rapid rate (IE plus or minus 20 degrees), so the probe was sending a signal about once a minute for the 1.5-degree setting. This test dropped the probe battery life from 100 to 80 in one hour, vs the 13 hours it took to drop the same battery life at a constant temp range. I will also note that near the lower end of the battery life the draw per rate of change was faster near the end of the battery, which is typical of most batteries.
This test validated the lower battery life that I "thought" I was experiencing in my initial cook times. IE During my initial cooks it went 6 hours before the battery life dropped to 80% then over the next 3, they dropped to 20% and wouldn't not have got to 15 hours as the app said. So big NOTE: These cooks started with the protein un-wrapped and doing its 34-160 degrees increase over 6 hours.....IE then I covered them, and they went from 160 to 205 in 90 minutes and then back down to 160 in the next 45 mins while they rested. The latter part of the cook had dramatic temperature rate of change that is not typical of a low and slow long cook.
So based on my testing, I would offer the following "guidance" while using them to avoid the perception that the battery life is too short:
1 - for quick cooks 1-4 hours use the fast setting of 1.0 degrees per signal or the mid setting of 1.5 degrees per signal.
2- for cooks more than 4 hours but less than 7 hours use the mid setting of 1.5 degrees per signal. Note I personally believe this setting is good enough for even short cooks as I did the 3 hour cook/reverse sear thick cut rib eye on the 1.5 and it was as reliable and spot on temp as one can practically cook.
3- for cooks longer than 7 hours or ones that are wrapped use the extended setting of 3 degrees per signal.
4- if you "really" want to monitor the rate of change closer, you can easily pull the probe as it hits 20% and drop it in the cradle for 5-10 mins, this will put it right back to a 100%.
Oh, and please note that I don't believe that the noted expected battery life of the probes by
ThermoWorks is "not" labeled correctly or that it is "overstated". Under a number of set cooks, the probes will last "up to" the stated time, however not every cook over those times are equal to battery life draw and it would be impossible to define each case, and it wouldn't be reasonable to advertise the worst case either.
All that said, I believe they are a
very solid unit and I'm really happy to have them in my tool box for smoking and cooking! My RT has PID wired probes function very well and I will continue to use them, however, these will be replacing my "wired unit" probes for all my Copper Pot, XFire Grill, house oven, and Weber gasser grill cooks (ie I roast many things on the Gasser, and these will be perfect for those as no wire to get in the way for rotation as such).
My only suggestion for
ThermoWorks
would be to make a rate of change update (firmware) to have the 1.5 be the 4-5 hour cook, then the 3 degrees be the 15 hours cook and then code a 5 degree as the extended cook. Again, this is just my perspective for what I believe is "good enough" for bbq work and the range would cover more cooks. If you had a trigger point that would say your food is 5-10 degrees from being done, then the user to reset the sensitivity back to 1.5 to watch it closer, but either way, have a "notice" for the interval prior to being done and then when done would also cover it as well. However, as a user if it was that important to me, I would just set the notice for the lower temp and then I would adjust after that as the app makes it easy to do. I will note that my RT PID gives a pre notice which is nice, it is preset (non-changeable) at 5 degrees before the set temp.
In closing, I want to say thanks again to
ThermoWorks
for sponsoring the forum (and throwdown prizes) and providing top notch monitoring equipment for the BBQ community!
