I can't in good conscience recommend the Meater BBQ probes
A digital thermometer is the most important tool in a cook’s arsenal. Thermometers save lives and money.
Meater probes sound like God's gift to BBQ thermometers: it's wireless, it has a slick app, it estimates variable cooking times, and you can even make cool graphs of the meat and smoker's temperature over time. But they fail with the most critical feature, connectivity. Oh, and they're expensive.
Meater+
Initially I owned the little solo probe. Unfortunately, it's complete worthless because of the bluetooth-only range. Your probe needs to be within a couple feet of that block, which means somewhere near your grill or smoker. Then, your phone has to be within bluetooth range of that block. If you go inside and put more than one wall between you and that block, your phone loses connectivity. That means you lose all visibility into temperature and time estimates.
I gave mine away to a friend, and I still feel guilty bestowing him with that burden.
Meater Block
I ordered the single probe Meater in July 2023 and by April 2024 I gave up and purchased the bigger-and-better Meater Block+ when it was on sale for $200. This one is much, much better. The probe connects to the block, which in turn connects to your Wifi, which eliminates the bluetooth range problem, mostly.
Pros
- I like that there's four different probes, which means I can do crazy stuff like put two into one brisket and get a more accurate temperature over time. The app doesn't really support this, however.
- I can look at temperatures on my phone from inside the house. 😮
Cons
- I frequently get false-positive alerts about connection errors. I ignore all those notifications on my phone and things cook like normal, but it's very annoying. Seriously, like 10-20 notifications per 10hr cook.
- I don't take advantage of sharing features like the time/temperature charts. Have I ever? Sure. Does it really matter? No.
- All the Meater products require an app, which lacks flexibility. You must select the animal you're cooking, then type of meat, and then the target temperature. Just... just lemme pick the temperature!
- You must scrub the probes clean before you place them back in the dock to charge, otherwise they won't make a good enough connection and won't charge. Like really scrub, and it's a 1cm square which snags my sponge.
- How do you know if the probes are charging in the dock or not? You don't. There's no indicator either way. You just pull out a dead probe next time you want to cook. Ask me how I know.
- The battery compartment in the block uses AA batteries, and since the compartment seating is somewhat loose, sometimes the batteries pop out just a little bit and won't charge anything. Once again, ask me how I know.
- It burns through AA batteries. A set of four batteries powers the probes for maybe two cooks. Not a huge deal if you use rechargeable batteries but still annoying.
Then what's the better option?
All that to say, I gave up the Meater for a simple wireless probe, and the cost/benefit ratio ($50 vs $200 on sale) gives it a big leg up. Just get that one. You get four probes, accurate readings, strong wireless connectivity, and the batteries last forever. The only downside is threading wires into your grill which is such a minor complaint I strained to think of it. That set is now my go-to.