Wireless Thermometer review

Tim M

<p />I got my wireless thermometer today and fired it up. I am still getting use to it - its a neat gizmo but its finiky. Like any high freq transmitter (433mhz) its got quirks like the transmitter and display stop talking to each other. Seems like once you put in the batteries (1 9v and 2 AA) you leave it going - cooking or not. There is no off control and once they stop talking to each other (wireless remember) you have to remove the back and press a button on each. Better to leave them on I think - I'll leave it outside and get outdoor temps. The display looks like a Palm Pilot - very nice. It has a built in thermometer, clock, alarm, and a dozen other whistles and bell features I have yet to figure out. [p]I have one transmitter (I got 2) in my refrigerator and the other outside right now. The display can flip between the two (its only 6 deg difference between the two now). I can see this being perfect for those overnight Butts!!! An alarm can be set to go off if too high or too low or both - neat. 199 deg seems to be the max but it indicates that its above that, good enough for pulled pork. [p]The probe is not compatable with a Polder. The plug is the same size but the Polder goes nuts when you plug this into it - so don't. The Nu-Tone probe is beefier but that may not mean anything - I will wrap it in foil anyway to be safe. Its nice to be able to use this unit as an indoor/outdoor/pool thermometer when its not doing duty in the Egg. It ain't cheap but its a nice addition to the Egg - glad I have it.
I have more pictures on the website under MSC Pictures.
Tim
[ul][li]--Tim's Place of Pictures --[/ul]

KennyG

Tim M,[p]I've got to get one of these. I could keep track of the temp of my PBR stash in the garage fridge from the comfort and convenience of my bed hehehe[p]K~G

Tim M

KennyG,
You could hide one in each can and if removed from the climate controlled building (I am sure you keep it in) it will sound an alarm. Perfect for you.[p]Tim

Unknown

Tim M,
Tim I dont understand why you need a thermo like that.
If it could register the temp inside your pit all
night that would be cool, but just the internal of
your meat I dont get. First you and most of the people
here can tell from 10 feet away when your stuff is
done just by looking at it. Why do you need to know
what the internal is in the middle of a cook. The
overnight stuff wont be close till sometime the next
day so why worry what it is all night. I guess for
short cooks of lean meats where you need to know when its
130* or something like that but the other therms. have
alarms that go off so you dont have to keep checking
them either. I'm just wondering thats all.
Dylan

Mary

Q.N.E. tyme,[p]I suspect you don't NEED one of these. It's just a new wireless gadget and if you have spare cash laying around and like to fiddle with electronic and radio toys, then this is another one. [p]Nice review, Tim[p]Mary

Gfw

Tim M, I took mine out of the box and put in the batteries - that's as far as I got - unlike the normal polder, it appears that I'll have to read the directions before I attempt to use - battery life should be interesting. It would also have been nice if the remote case came equipped with a magnet - I'm hoping to put it to the test tomorrow! Nice pics!

Tim M

Q.N.E. tyme,
You must do a 20+ hour cook better than me - or you worry about it less. I always wake up 2-4 times a night and wonder if my fire has gone out or is it now at 450 deg rather than 225. Actually at 225 you could poke the probe out of the meat and not too near the fire and even though it will read 199(its max reading) - if the fire goes out it will read 90 and you will know at your bedside that the fire is out. Actually it has an alarm you set to go off if it goes below your set amount - ie:180 deg maybe. I have looked at a perfectly good cooking egg at 3am too many times. [p]Even if its in the meat it will drop and sound the alarm, my last butt was at 90 internal when I got to it at 7am. No, its a good thing for pulled pork and other long duration cooks. I don't see me using it to do steaks or pork tenderloins in 45 min. [p]Tim

Tim M

Gfw,
Send me your address and I will drop a magnetic thing in the mail to you. Its the size of a business card and has sticky stuff on the other side - it for making door magnets from a business card. It should work for what you want.[p]You need to keep the back off the transmitter and push the set button on the back of the display. Then push and hold the trans button on the transmitter above the battery. You will hear a beep from the display when it connects. You have to do that again if you unplug the probe. They will have to fix that bug (only bug I have found though).[p]Tim

Char-Woody

Mary, I think somewhat like Q'N'E tyme (Daryl) that the cooker temperature is what I would want to monitor thru the night and if its a dual temp sensor, then both meat and cooker temp would be nice..If I had to chose, it would be the (ovens) temperature I would monitor. With the right fuel capacity and settings you can pretty much nail down the time element in hours. Back in the beginnings of just this forum, we didn't have even a Polder to prop us up.[p] As Tim M would agree...it's much like flying a piper and a F-16! One with just simple instruments, the other equipped with the latest in instrument flying. One you fly by the seat of your pants..the other is more or less automatic. There is a bigger thrill in flying by the seat of your pants..especially when the fog rolls in...heeeee
C~W[p]

Unknown

Tim M,
First off, I guess my first post sounded critical,
It wasn't meant to be in any way. I know you have to
put things different on this forum, I just dont have the
hang of it yet. I truly couldnt figure out why you
would want thermometer that only registered to 199
degrees. I que my shoulders butts and briskets on
my offset so no I dont wake up 2 or 3 times a night
because I'm up all night tending the fire. I can see
it would be of use in letting you know if your
fire went out in the middle of the night, never gave
that a thought as a potential problem. I do pay attention
to the temp in my pit much more than the meat though.
Dylan

Mark

Tim M,
If the probe will only read to 199, making it impossible to read internal dome temps, what about placing it on the outside skin of the egg. With a little experimentation I'll bet you could come close to the inside temp. or at least detect a fire out situation.

King-O-Coals

Q.N.E. tyme, It's hard to stay awake while you cook a cut of meat for 20 to 24 hours without passing out from exhaustion. I've listened to women talking about having babys, and that ain't nothing compaired to waking up in the morning to find your butt temp has gone down to 50 degrees or up to 300. We need even more higher tech gadgets than are currently on the market. We be's serious cooks! I even thought about installing a wireless remote surveillance camera to monitor my egg temp and my Polder and pipe it into my t.v. in the bedroom and set my alarm clock to wake me every 2 hours.. It's only around $500.00 for camera, transmitter, and receiver. If I ever ruin a prime piece of meat due to temp fluctuations, after all the prep care I put into my rub and marinade, I'm cutting my wrists! The shame would be more than I could bear.

Unknown

King-O-Coals,
Well King, you made me see the light. I didnt
realize about how you be serious cooks and all. Thats
different. One thing though, all you guys, (I'm guessing
here) have wives. Now I'm thinking they should be
pulling a night shift and keeping the fires going
while the men get their sleep. Now I've never been
married so I'm just assuming thats how it works. You
guys are all captains of your ships arent you?
Dylan

Char-Woody

Q.N.E. tyme, Captains???????..They don't call us mates fer nuthin!! Try going against orders sometime!! :-) And as far as lights are concerned, with all the "Q" trail blazing you have done,,,ya don't need further enlightenment...Kidding of course.
We all have some "larning" to do..Cheers..hang loose with us!!
C~W

Tim M

Mark,
I am assuming that it will still be ok. You can let it read 199 and that means the fire is over 200 deg and thats good. You won't know if it going to hot though. Or just leave the probe in and set the alarm to go off if the meat gets out of the 130-195 range. Low would mean the fires out and high would mean your almost done. I think it will be fine and sure alot better than going outside at 3am!!!!!!!!!!![p]Tim

King-O-Coals

Q.N.E. tyme,
You know,, you're exactly right. Why, I plum forgot about my little house winch. She could watch my temps while I rest. I usually keep her as far from the egg as possible while I make my magic, but really,, all I have to do is get one of them little chalk boards and draw her a picture of each gauge and indicate where I want the hands to point. I think I could learn her to do that! NAAAAH!