Going Wireless?

[Parrothead1809]

I'm considering going wireless. Although my Thermapen is my gold standard for checking the final product, I do like to monitor the ambient and meat temps while cooking. Thus far, I've been using a Thermoworks Smoke - which is reliable - but just a bit of a pain with the probe wires feeding back to the Smoke. In the Traeger, not so much of a pain, since there is a port for the wires to go through (although that d@mn silicon plug always wants to fall out!). When I cook on my Weber Kettle or Gasser, the wires are a bit of a pain though.

So.... Any good/bad feedback on the Bluetooth vs. Wifi in the latest-and-greatest temperature gadgets? Thermoworks RFX still has wired connections for ambient - so that's a bit of a drawback. The Meater products seem to ride either BT or Wifi. Do those signals pass through the cooker lids?

Any feedback welcome.
-PH

 

[traeger860]

They'll all make it through the cooker lid. RFX and MEATER Pro Duo are both really popular right now. In my opinion, RFX is a better product. MEATER has a better app. If you have a wood-framed home, you'll be fine. If you have a concrete block home, you might run into some connectivity issues. There are a lot of InkBird users on here too. I've never tried any of their wireless products but they do make them.

 

[RayClem]

You might also want to check out the ThermoPro TempSpike. RFX is designed for professional kitchens and it is priced accordingly. The TempSpike is about half the price and still works well in my experience.

 

[Manannan]

I have an original Meater block and on balance it is good. Bluetooth probe to block is great with the signal from the food inside Traeger passing through the grill wall to the block a metre or two away with no issues. I need a 2.4 gHz WiFi extender in the garden and the Meater connectivity is better than the Traeger connectivity whilst the Meater app is nice. The Meater ambient temperature is just that, Meater's version of an ambient temp that doesn't reflect true ambient temp but is used in the estimated cooking time algorithm which is useful for short cooks but gets lost in long cooks where there is a stall. The Meater Pro Duo is a later version with further improvements and enhancements, don't have any experience of that.

More recently bought a Thermoworks RFX 2 probe starter kit which I would score 4/5 as opposed to 3/5 for the Meater. There is a trade off with the wired ambient probe in that it is wired (obviously!) but it generally mirrors the set temperature of the Traeger well if you place the probes close to each other, there is a divergence the further apart the probes are and the higher the temperature but this is useful information to help understand temp variations within the Traeger. A single wire running in to the grill is a small price to pay for such info and much better than your grill being wired up like an ECG machine! RFX probes are more easy to use and clean, they are slightly longer than the Meater which is a downside but connectivity is way better. I have mine connected to the somewhat basic RFX app on both an Apple and Android device simultaneously. My Android phone gives temperature readings via the Cloud without fail even when I pop to the supermarket to buy more beer!

Downside they are both premium priced items, as RayClem says there is the Thermopro TempSpike and whilst I only have experience of Inkbird wired units they are good quality and now make wireless units as well.

For me the future is the RFX!

 

[Like Smoke]

I have been very pleased with the ThermPro. There is a small gap on the bottom of the cover that allows the probe wires to pass thru without any pinching, and the wire clip on the back of the transmitter will slide over the front side of the pellet hopper and the pellet lid will close as normal. I can still put the receiver on the kitchen counter and keep an eye on the temps. If I am probing two pieces of protein, I can run a third probe to a separate readout to monitor the chamber temp. Reasonable cost and works well.

 

[Shedd]

I have two Meter plus and they work great from inside my Big Green Egg or my Traeger. However they loose signal after about 40 feet away from my phone. I’ve gotten to the point of not putting a probe into the meat on over night cooks until morning anyway but they are really spot on except the ambient temp. It seems to be right when it’s time to remove them.