2.0 out of 5 stars
Designed by Hipsters choosing Form over Function
Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on 15 October 2021
This thing looks awesome in a box on a shelf that just makes you want to BUY BUY BUY it, but you will be disappointed when you get to know it. Like dating a model.
The first issue is its WiFi robustness. It is terrible. I had nothing but disconnect issues on our homes WiFi at first. Disconnected non-stop where our phones and other devices function perfectly fine. So I installed an extender because it is never a bad idea to boost of your homes WiFi. That knocked down the issue significantly now that a booster is roughly 10 feet away, but it still has issues, sending me roughly 1-10 disconnect warnings through a typical cook like a smoked pork butt at say 8 hours cook time. I still get about 1 disconnect an hour as the norm. I also plug in the base station to USB for every cook now because the stupid AA batteries inside can't cut it. It is so easy to accidentally turn or leave on the base station killing the batteries. Losing dinner because the battery dies is no good.
That leads me to WORTHLESS battery life. If you plan to use this on battery, stock up on AA batteries. Why on earth does this not have a rechargeable battery in the base station at this price point. Trust me, plug it into a USB battery bank and save yourself the endless battery costs hassles. If you want to BBQ and you turn on the base station to get going only to find your probes dead, well that is a 8 hour recharge mission using AA batteries with everything OFF, aka you can't use it while charging. If you put this away after using it on those AA batteries expecting it to be all charged up later, you will be screwed. Best to run on USB in use and leave the AA batteries just to recharge probes after you are done.
This leads me to the ridiculous wooden case. I don't know if I am the only one that BBQs outside, but this trash wooden case will not last in the elements. Within a few uses the thin wood battery door on the rear has warped. I live in Bay Area, California where it is alway nice outside and if this thing can't last here, I can't imaging other places with more weather. The case has also warped so that the kickstand is so snug, it takes 2 hands and often a pry tool like my pocket knife to open, not a big deal except the kickstand hides the USB port, so you must open it to use the device as I mention above.
More on the wood case. Looks great when you buy it and has a neat cut out to hold a cardboard box with small flags you install on the temp sensors. How long do you think that cardboard box will last snugly in that spot perfectly nestled for marketing photos.... not long. So isn a few months you will have a useless void on the front that can't hold the flags, because the box has withered. Your choice what to do with the flags then, but no pictures will be posted in Instagram once that cardboard box fails.
Going back to me being the rare person who BBQs outside... the finish on the wood is not lasting UV exposure and I don't have it sitting in blazing Arizona sun. I shade the devise as best as possible, but the sun you know moves during the day and the case is leashed by a USB chord (see above), so it gets some sun. Well, it does not like being in the sun! Finish is already failing and it is not a year old and I use it say once every few weeks. Not Heavy Use. It is also a varnish or poly finish , so you can't maintain it with oil like you would a cutting block.
Well maybe the software makes up for everything....... ehh. The software is easy to use and overall they did a great job with the interface, but its accuracy sucks probably due to hardware. The estimates for time till done are a joke. If it is a quick cook like a steak, nope. Changes way too fast to be accurate. How about a long cook like pulled pork..... OFF by hours. It really only handles small roast like a try-tip or loin roast with any accuracy. Thinking you are going to depend on the time predictions to run errands.... you better like over cooked meat.
What about the probe accuracy you say!!! Well I often put 2-4 probes in the same piece of meat since I have 4 of them and more is better. You would expect them to be in the same ball park, but they are way off from each other. More variance than you can justify as varying temps across the meat or cooker. The internals will often vary 20 degrees from each other and the outside temps have varied by 35 degrees. This likely explain the garbage time till done predictor. Garbage data in, garbage predictions out. I have had 4 probes in the same pork butt (not hitting bone, all placed just right) and have had one probe say it will be done in 4 hours and the other 22 hours with the others in between. This variance in cook times is directly a result of the probes variance. In one cook, one probe thought the ambient temp was in the 225-250 range and the other thought the cooker was in the 70s. One probe thought the meat was 130s and the other 160s. 4 Probes in one piece of meat you would think I could get say 2 of the 4 to agree.... NOPE!. (yes a clean and maintain the probes). Yes I have tried to ID a rogue probe, but the inaccurate readings are erratic, so that same probe reporting crazy info one time will look like it is ok another time.
Do I have more issues, probably. I am tired of typing. Will I still use this thing,,,, yah. I can't afford to throw away that kinda money and I'll just live with the inaccuracies. I use my quick read pen and fingers like I did before. Has the BBQ improved from this device, not at all. Has BBQing been improved, nope. Worse due to the frustrations this device has caused. I would go back to my old device, but I passed that on to a friend. It was one of the cheap ones with wired probes to a base base station that wirelessly connected to a pager type thing. WAY better and 1/5th the cost. Yah, it doesn't INaccuracy predict when the cook should be done, but I am OK with that because it would tell me when it was actually done, whenever that happened to be.
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