I’m sure there are some very high-tech home smokers these days. I’m happy with my very low-tech but solid, reliable Weber Smoky Mountain smoker-- but I might be ready to upgrade to a more high-tech ‘continuous read’ style meat thermometer, now that I’ve seen how accurate an instant-read thermopen is. I saw one advertised recently on a cooking video that has a probe that, for large cuts of meat like a roast or a pork butt, gives separate temperature readings for the middle part vs. the outer part of it.
This is why I’ve bought wireless meat thermometers (meater and combustion brands. )
But i realize i use my thermopen for all sorts of things other than checking the temperature of the roast. Today, i used it check the temperature of the garage and the laundry room, to see how suitable they would be for “extra fridge space”.
I also use it to check the temperature of my countertop before rolling out pie crusts, and i just used it to quickly check the interior temp of a scone that looked done, but was pretty cold when i put it in the oven.
I did get a wireless meat thermometer years ago, but it quickly fell out of use. I think it turned out to be no more accurate than the ‘probe / wire’ variety, or it was somehow more trouble than it was worth just to get more distance between the probe and the readout. I seem to recall that the wireless connection kept failing. But like I said that was years ago, and maybe I didn’t give it enough of a fair shake, or maybe wireless thermometers weren’t as good or accurate back then.
Do you have a make and model of wireless thermometer you’d recommend? And what’s the difference between a ‘meater’ and ‘combustion’ brand?
They are just two different brands. There are several, now. These are the two I’ve purchased and used.
Meater: i bought the “meater block” back when it was a Kickstarter. It’s an attractive block of wood that plugs in, and holds/charges 4 separate probes. I’ve never used more than 2 at once, Ave haven’t even taken the tag off one of them. The block talks to my phone by Wi-Fi, and has good range. Sometimes the block and the probe lose contact (after all, the probe is in a big metal box, aka, the oven) but so long as i leave the block really close to the oven, it works.
Mine is old, and only has one temperature sensor. (The new ones have a few, so you don’t have to be very careful about placing it.) It makes a fairly fat hole, and it can be hard to grip the probe to remove it. It’s been pretty reliable.
Combustion: i think this was the first to have a bunch of sensors up and down the probe, including the exterior. It is much thinner, so you can put it in a steak. It’s easy enough to remove. It talks to my phone over blue tooth, very reliably because it doesn’t need to pair. (Don’t buy this is you are worried about your neighbors knowing how hot your meat is) But the range is mediocre, and although either the probes or the additional gadget i bought so i don’t need to use my phone if supposed to use Wi-Fi, i never succeeded in setting it up. It reliably talks to my phone if I’m in the kitchen, but i sometimes lose signal if i go to another room.
The multiple sensors are nice. The external one doesn’t tell you how hot your oven is, because it’s close enough to the roast that the roast keeps it cooler. You do have a very good sense of the exterior temp of your food, should you be interested.
It gives a lot of detail, which you can also hide if you prefer. (So, anything from a colored graph of every sensor over time to a single number for the “core” temperature, which is just whichever is coolest. It also has a magic feature of knowing the integrated FDA food safety charts (integrated time and temp) so if you want to cook your chicken to 150 and know it’s pasteurized, it will tell you that. It’s messier when not in use, because each probe has it’s own charging sleeve, and each one needs to be plugged in. (The sleeve has a battery, and holds a charge for a long time. But just leaving it plugged in is so much easier.)
In practice, i usually use the combustion, and have two of them.
The exterior of these probes (all brands) is designed to be safe in ovens and even in hot grills. But the interior (usually protected by the food) contains a battery and is more fragile. I killed a combustion probe by forgetting that and trying to use it as on oven thermometer.
Thanks, great info. I’m definitely going to be in the market for a new meat thermometer in 2026.
That’s getting to be a hijack, so i started a new thread. See the link immediately above this post.