Thermoworks RFX First Impressions

[bwana_don]

Note to ThermoWorks: If ever you decide to include “some enhancements to their application for preconfigured cooks, etc.“, PLEEEASE provide a simple way to turn it off. Please, I’m begging you. Do not turn your product into a Meater2+. I have one and it’s a pain to ‘trick’ it into working around their stupid, supersecret carryover algorithm to allow me to cook the way I want. One of the reasons I leapt on the TW early-adopter bandwagon (among other reasons) was to have the freedom to not be forced to choose my protein and have my pull-temps dictated to me. I just want an accurate instrument to measure cook temps and the ability to set my own alarms thank you very much. I’m perfectly capable of determining how to cook my chicken.
Please, I’m begging you.

Suggestion: Please change the app to be more ‘Signals-like’ where you can see and control each probe(s) on the same screen. Even better would be to add RFX probe(s) to Signals screen, that way we could conveniently see, monitor and control a mix of your products, wired and/or wireless.

Thanks for listening!
-Fraser

Agree with wanting to do my own, I have an old weber one that allows me to start with their recommendations, and then change as needed. Taking the time to do all the settings for multiple probes for multiple pieces of meat is a pain. I like a 10 degree warning alert and then a done alert. Maybe better would be to allow us to set up a library of our own cooks we can easily use again.

 

[ThermoWorks]

Note to ThermoWorks: If ever you decide to include “some enhancements to their application for preconfigured cooks, etc.“, PLEEEASE provide a simple way to turn it off. Please, I’m begging you. Do not turn your product into a Meater2+. I have one and it’s a pain to ‘trick’ it into working around their stupid, supersecret carryover algorithm to allow me to cook the way I want. One of the reasons I leapt on the TW early-adopter bandwagon (among other reasons) was to have the freedom to not be forced to choose my protein and have my pull-temps dictated to me. I just want an accurate instrument to measure cook temps and the ability to set my own alarms thank you very much. I’m perfectly capable of determining how to cook my chicken.
Please, I’m begging you.

Suggestion: Please change the app to be more ‘Signals-like’ where you can see and control each probe(s) on the same screen. Even better would be to add RFX probe(s) to Signals screen, that way we could conveniently see, monitor and control a mix of your products, wired and/or wireless.

Thanks for listening!
-Fraser

Fraser,

Thanks for the feedback. We are working on several new app features. One of which will be a way to group multiple devices into the same graph so you can see them without switching back and forth. We have no intention of taking control of your cook away from you.

– The ThermoWorks Team

 

[dr k]

Agree with wanting to do my own, I have an old weber one that allows me to start with their recommendations, and then change as needed. Taking the time to do all the settings for multiple probes for multiple pieces of meat is a pain. I like a 10 degree warning alert and then a done alert. Maybe better would be to allow us to set up a library of our own cooks we can easily use again.

I just do the warning manually on any therms to whatever temp you want, then bump up to the finished temp after the warning alert. Same with the PID heating element controller set to single stage manual ramping vs a programmed ramping every hour because with fish and sausage I want to extend lower temp 145F smoking to make sure I maximize time in the smoke before hitting finished IT too soon. I like less automation and prefer to set the warning alert and ramp with my phone timer. Also, going backwards to rechargeable rf transmitter and receiver therms vs bt. The bt range was fine just crashing apps. The rf 2,000' open pit or 1,050' closed pit TempSpike XR with booster for rotisserie cooks, bbqing and smoking is great but I just don't need them for Sous Vide or for grilling a thick steak and an instant read handy.

 

[jimboc22]

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One of which will be a way to group multiple devices into the same graph so you can see them without switching back and forth.

Yes! I was hoping this would happen.

 

[Ansio]

Has anyone used this with aluminum foil? Apparently it blocks the signals.

It works with a Dutch oven but not foil.

 

[geek with fire]

Has anyone used this with aluminum foil? Apparently it blocks the signals.

It works with a Dutch oven but not foil.

I logged on today to post exactly this. So disappointing. Had to pivot on the brisket last night. Had 2 probes in that worked flawlessly for about 13 hours. But wrapped in foil and lost both.

 

[redneck6497]

I just got my probes the other day and am testing for Thanksgiving. I have had 2 of the four channels in one of the probes show "Error Range". Anyone else experience this?

 

[Ansio]

I logged on today to post exactly this. So disappointing. Had to pivot on the brisket last night. Had 2 probes in that worked flawlessly for about 13 hours. But wrapped in foil and lost both.

That's exactly what happend to me. I called tech support and they said it's the aluminum foil. They said wrap in foil then put in the probe. To poke it through.

I'm super disappointed with thermoworks over this. I have used them for home and business for over 10 years. I feel really let by them. The way they promoted this thing. They could have told us this stuff ahead of time so we knew how to pivot.

 

[jimboc22]

Has anyone used this with aluminum foil? Apparently it blocks the signals.

It works with a Dutch oven but not foil.

I just learned 20 minutes ago that covered aluminum baking pans block the signal.

 

[Ansio]

I just learned 20 minutes ago that covered aluminum baking pans block the signal.

Did you learn the hard way? Lol

 

[jimboc22]

Did you learn the hard way? Lol

Luckily didn't ruin any food. My wife asked what the turkey temp was, I looked on the app and saw inactive. Took the lid off and temps came back, placed the lid back on and they went inactive again.

 

[cwood]

My testing experience....just got all the stuff and won't be doing a smoke until I am comfortable with everything. Prior a flameboss and meater user. Flameboss fan on a battery. Figured I would try running a more integrated system and being a Thermoworks thermapen junky, this made sense. Decided to try my little Ryobi 150w power inverter as the blower power source vs the pack I have for the flameboss as its not USB output.

Setup and configuration:
Seamless, including a gateway firmware update. Only gripe was it didn't show me a list of wifi networks to pick from, had to type my ssid directly.
Meat probes x2 instantly added.
Billows instantly added and detected
Strange that you can't edit the temp alarm limits on the ambient. Fixed at +-25.

Put setup on bench in a cold (48 deg) garage at 3pm ish yesterday......still running now

At 16 hours now, and both probes at 60% battery, although one of them showed 100% up to 15 hours. Happy with this duration. Is there a place to see more granular battery info?

Gateway / Billows power source gave up early this morning, probably at about 12 hours on a 6mah battery. No alert thrown on that.....probably should be some record that a blower has stopped. For kicks I had the update set at 15 seconds so perhaps it will go longer with less frequent updates?

Web sharing of data on one meat probe gave strange view of 5 channels? This was with only one probe active! Not sure what the other data is?

Android app
Charting is very basic and clearly will be updated / advanced at some point. Really needs to be a view of all probes and ambient. I find this very useful on meater to see ambient and probe tip at the same time as you can see how meat is responding to temperature trends and changes.

Clunky navigation and if you hit "back" to go back to a prior screen it exits the app....very frustrating

Device view does not use the probe names you used in the view so you need to open each to find the one you are wanting to see.

Anyway, impressed so far. The foil blocking is a frustration but not the end of the world for me as I don't mind having a probe piercing foil....but a bit of a surprise given the bravado in the marketing about signal robustness. The Meaters work through foil.

 

[cwood]

My testing experience....just got all the stuff and won't be doing a smoke until I am comfortable with everything. Prior a flameboss and meater user. Flameboss fan on a battery. Figured I would try running a more integrated system and being a Thermoworks thermapen junky, this made sense. Decided to try my little Ryobi 150w power inverter as the blower power source vs the pack I have for the flameboss as its not USB output.

Setup and configuration:
Seamless, including a gateway firmware update. Only gripe was it didn't show me a list of wifi networks to pick from, had to type my ssid directly.
Meat probes x2 instantly added.
Billows instantly added and detected
Strange that you can't edit the temp alarm limits on the ambient. Fixed at +-25.

Put setup on bench in a cold (48 deg) garage at 3pm ish yesterday......still running now

At 16 hours now, and both probes at 60% battery, although one of them showed 100% up to 15 hours. Happy with this duration. Is there a place to see more granular battery info?

Gateway / Billows power source gave up early this morning, probably at about 12 hours on a 6mah battery. No alert thrown on that.....probably should be some record that a blower has stopped. For kicks I had the update set at 15 seconds so perhaps it will go longer with less frequent updates?

Web sharing of data on one meat probe gave strange view of 5 channels? This was with only one probe active! Not sure what the other data is?
View attachment 708306

Android app
Charting is very basic and clearly will be updated / advanced at some point. Really needs to be a view of all probes and ambient. I find this very useful on meater to see ambient and probe tip at the same time as you can see how meat is responding to temperature trends and changes.

Clunky navigation and if you hit "back" to go back to a prior screen it exits the app....very frustrating

Device view does not use the probe names you used in the view so you need to open each to find the one you are wanting to see.

Anyway, impressed so far. The foil blocking is a frustration but not the end of the world for me as I don't mind having a probe piercing foil....but a bit of a surprise given the bravado in the marketing about signal robustness. The Meaters work through foil.

now at 20 hours and both probes at 60%

 

[bwana_don]

Here are the results of my 10 minute charge test with the TBIS set to 3.
1 over 50 hours, 1 is 4 hours short of 50 hours and 2 are 12+ hours short of 50 hours (same 2 that have been underperforming. Their brochure states up to 50 hours on a 10 minute charge. Technically, I guess that is true for all of them.

Test 4 - 1.1.29-46
Serial # , TBIS, Battery Life (hrs) , Battery Charge Time, RITC, Battery % @ start
M100006599 3 54.98 10 180 60%
M100009080 3 37.68 10 180 60%
M100006601 3 37.57 10 180 60%
M100006598 3 46.95 10 180 60%

TBIS = Temperature Based Interval Setting
RITC = Reading Interval when Temperature Constant

Next test is the 20 minute charge.
Of note, my probe that has had the longest battery life to date is starting out with an 80% charge while the others all read 100%.

Don

 

[ThermoWorks]

My testing experience....just got all the stuff and won't be doing a smoke until I am comfortable with everything. Prior a flameboss and meater user. Flameboss fan on a battery. Figured I would try running a more integrated system and being a Thermoworks thermapen junky, this made sense. Decided to try my little Ryobi 150w power inverter as the blower power source vs the pack I have for the flameboss as its not USB output.

Setup and configuration:
Seamless, including a gateway firmware update. Only gripe was it didn't show me a list of wifi networks to pick from, had to type my ssid directly.
Meat probes x2 instantly added.
Billows instantly added and detected
Strange that you can't edit the temp alarm limits on the ambient. Fixed at +-25.

Put setup on bench in a cold (48 deg) garage at 3pm ish yesterday......still running now

At 16 hours now, and both probes at 60% battery, although one of them showed 100% up to 15 hours. Happy with this duration. Is there a place to see more granular battery info?

Gateway / Billows power source gave up early this morning, probably at about 12 hours on a 6mah battery. No alert thrown on that.....probably should be some record that a blower has stopped. For kicks I had the update set at 15 seconds so perhaps it will go longer with less frequent updates?

Web sharing of data on one meat probe gave strange view of 5 channels? This was with only one probe active! Not sure what the other data is?
View attachment 708306

Android app
Charting is very basic and clearly will be updated / advanced at some point. Really needs to be a view of all probes and ambient. I find this very useful on meater to see ambient and probe tip at the same time as you can see how meat is responding to temperature trends and changes.

Clunky navigation and if you hit "back" to go back to a prior screen it exits the app....very frustrating

Device view does not use the probe names you used in the view so you need to open each to find the one you are wanting to see.

Anyway, impressed so far. The foil blocking is a frustration but not the end of the world for me as I don't mind having a probe piercing foil....but a bit of a surprise given the bravado in the marketing about signal robustness. The Meaters work through foil.

Thanks for sharing! It looks like you've done some serious research!
While RFX MEAT™ Wireless Probes are designed to maintain strong connections even through thick smokers and grills, aluminum foil can act as an RF barrier or Faraday cage. A small crinkle or fold in the foil can change and disrupt the signal.

To avoid any interruptions, we recommend gently pushing the probe through the foil once your protein is wrapped. This keeps the connection strong while still sealing in all those delicious juices. If you have any other questions, let us know—we’re here to help!

 

[ThermoWorks]

Has anyone used this with aluminum foil? Apparently it blocks the signals.

It works with a Dutch oven but not foil.

While RFX MEAT™ Wireless Probes are designed to maintain strong connections even through thick smokers and grills, aluminum foil can act as an RF barrier or Faraday cage. A small crinkle or fold in the foil can change and disrupt the signal.

To avoid any interruptions, we recommend gently pushing the probe through the foil once your protein is wrapped. This keeps the connection strong while still sealing in all those delicious juices. If you have any other questions, let us know—we’re here to help!

 

[Ansio]

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While RFX MEAT™ Wireless Probes are designed to maintain strong connections even through thick smokers and grills, aluminum foil can act as an RF barrier or Faraday cage. A small crinkle or fold in the foil can change and disrupt the signal.

To avoid any interruptions, we recommend gently pushing the probe through the foil once your protein is wrapped. This keeps the connection strong while still sealing in all those delicious juices. If you have any other questions, let us know—we’re here to help!

Yea. That's what you said on the phone. All I was saying was since you knew your product had short coming that you never disclosed, a little heads up woud have been nice. Not all the rhetoric of how your product never drops.

 

[BigW.]

Works in a dutch oven...that is impressive! Having to poke thru foil...easy. I always poke my wired therm thru foil, would not have any issues or complaints.

 

[bwana_don]

Results of battery life test with a 20 minute charge.

I think this is probably the most important test everyone should do with their probes to determine if the probe batteries are performing as advertised. It will also give you a feel for how long your probes will last after they alert about the battery.

Serial #, Temp Based Interval Setting, Battery Life (hrs), Start %, Battery life after 10% alert (hrs)
M100006599, 3, 68.96, 80%, 19.2
M100009080, 3, 50.06, 100%, 12.4
M100006601, 3, 53.86, 100%, 13.9
M100006598, 3, 74.43, 100% , 15.9

Two of my probes that have been consistently underperforming did not last the advertised 60+ hours on a 20-minute charge. Since I battery life appears to be proportionate to charge time and TBIS I will be requesting to return those two probes. Probes that last 30% less on with a TBIS of 3 will underperform by as much with a TBIS of 1 where it will be more critical to me. Those same two probes only made it 37+ hours on a 10-minute charge. One other probe only made it 46 hours on a 10-minute charge.

Note - a full charge (stop blinking) provided up to and additional 25 hours.

Results of battery charge test – how long it takes to stop blinking with fully discharged probes.

Serial # , full charge -stops blinking in minutes
M100005699 49.25
M100009080 42.35
M100006601 37.45
M100006598 49.01

Note - the underperforming probes took less time to stop blinking.

Prior to doing the stop blinking test I decided to test the probe charging batteries (original batteries that were included). All read well into the green on my battery tester. However, 1 out of the 4 battery compartments had a stripped screw. Took a while to get it out, a few shavings left behind. Going back in was equally difficult, not sure I got back to the point where the gasket sealed. They are very small screws, seems like a potential issue over time.

Identified what I think is another software bug or at least somehting that generates confusion. When changing the time based interval on the Gateway while the Gateway is turned off, it will update the "Last Seen" Timestamp to the time the change was made. Given that it also continues to show a temperature reading that is from the last time a probe was plugged in, it makes the information displayed misleading and obviously inaccurate because the gateway was not seen. Similar issue with the probes, when turned off (in their charging stations) or fully discharged, changing the Temperature Based Interval Setting will update the "Last Seen" timestamp to the time it was changed in the application.

Upcoming tests:
Gateway battery life - fully charged (left on charge turned off overnight), no probes
Gateway battery life – 4 hour charge, no probes
Gateway battery life – 4 hour charge, 4 probes TBIS = 1
Penetration and distance tests

Don

 

[Smokin Okie]

I'm using my RFX for the second time.

Its going great, my only complaint is how the phone app displays. I like to see the ambient temp and meat temp at the same time, without having to toggle back and forth.