remote meat thermometers...

Like this one for example:

http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Industries-ET-71-RediCheck-Thermometer/dp/B000FAB8GA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1296089219&sr=8-4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone use them? Good? Crap?

I have one from Williams Sonoma I’ve used for several years - fried a few and they’ve always replaced it. Okay for use in the oven but overheated it in the Weber charcoal twice. The past couple of years I’ve used my Thermopen instant more though when I’ve needed a thermometer.

Essential for some things. Low-temp rib roast is one of them.

I’ve fried a few on the grill too. I actually just picked up another one from Williams Sonoma last weekend that has a metal braided cord. I’m hoping this one lasts a little longer than the ones w the standard plastic cord.

FYI - the first time I tried to use the one I got from WS, the remote feature didn’t work. The base has a readout, so I was able to use that. I’m going to exchange it this weekend for a new one. Why is this such a hard product to make well?

Haven’t used it, but the iGrill looks cool for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad users.

Not for a Benji it doesn’t. Jesus, are these people kidding?

$100 seems a bit steep. But I love the concept.

i use an Acurite that I paid about 35. I have had to replace the probes but those are very cheap.
It has been reliable, perhaps more so than the Polder I had before.

I guess one area they come up useless for would be rotisserie cooking.

Actually, someone makes a wireless model.

Wireless? All of the wireless hardware would have to be contained in the grill. I didn’t think that would be possible given the high temps.

Here’s your Maverick Rotisserie Thermometer:
http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Industries-ET-75-Rotisserie-Thermometer/dp/B0012RPJ2E/ref=sr_1_27?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1296238586&sr=1-27" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have a Maverick model that has a voice alert that not only tells me when it’s done, but warns me that my “meat is almost ready” so I can pause the game, get up out of my recliner and start the side dishes.

Nice… Thanks Bob.

Damn. They need to make a model like that specifically for wives and girlfriends so they can be prepared for the onslaught.

Agreed, however I’ve had bad luck with several. It seems the probe on many of the cheaper ones are made of a singe piece of steel. This sound like a good idea until you put it in the oven/bbq as the heat warms the part of the probe that is outside of the meat and gives an artificially high reading. The effect is easy to test - put the probe in the meat and then place inside oven/bbq - the temp will suddenly jump up, only drop again when the meat is removed from your heat source.

It seems to me that the probe needs some kind of insulator near the tip that keeps heat from traveling down and giving the sensor a false reading. I had a Polder that seemed to have exactly that (there was a seam just before the very tip of the sensor - presumably where the sensor stopped and the rest of the probe began. This model also had a bulb on the top of the sensor (where the wire goes in) that would take the ambient temp of the oven/bbq. The thing worked like a champ until it was lost in the shuffle of our last move! I purchased it right before Linen’s & Things went out of business, and I haven’t seen one since…

I ordered the one from amazon that works with a rotisserie as well. I’ll do a little product review here once I get it and try it out.

best one i have owned was from Thermpen and they are on sale

RT106 timer

TW362B Oven Thermometer/Timer
Rated “Best of the bunch” by the leading home cook’s magazine, the ThermoWorks TW362B can be set to an exact temperature of your choice to determine the correct doneness of your food to your own taste. Buy in quantity and save!

Limited Time: Only $15! - Originally $19 each [more info]

Shop - Products - Other Tools - Current Specials - Page 1 - ThermoWorks" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Use them all the time.

Unless I’m misreading the ad, that one is not a remote, right?

The 362B is not a remote (it is the one I have that you may have used at my place). I nice thermometer but I don’t recommend using the 362 near an open flame if it could flame up on you. For a BGE or the like where the temp is kept low it should work fine, but it is not remote (other than being 3’ from the probe).

Follow-up on this: I was tired of the chepo thermometers breaking on me, so I went for a build-your-own set-up from ThermoWorks…

Started with this meter: http://www.thermoworks.com/products/handheld/mtc.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and then got the “Smoke House Penetration Probe - Stainless Armour” probe to go with it (scroll down on the page). $100 for the package, but it does exactly what is supposed to do - which is more than I can say for most of the consumer models. It reacts very quickly to changes in temperature, and does not seem to have the issue with soaking-up heat from the exposed portion of the probe to give an inaccurate reading. In addition, with the stainless armor, the probe is rated to 660 degrees!

The system was obviously not designed with long cooks in mind, as the meter cannot be programed to sound an alarm when it hits a target temp - but I never used the feature anyway, as I’m always checking progress.