My temperature probe has gone on the fritz. Who makes the best temperature probe and phone app?
I don’t have any experience with app-enabled probe thermometers, but when it comes to cooking thermometers of any sort, my one and only stop is ThermoWorks. Their products are excellent.
Looking at their website, they appear to have a few different app-enabled thermometers at different price points.
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Ditto what Charles said. Get on their mailing list. They frequently have sales.
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Thermoworks is pretty much the gold standard in my book. Chris Young’s new thermometer project Combustion has also been getting much critical acclaim. There’s a discussion thread somewhere in the forum about it
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Depends what you’re looking for. I love my thermapen for a point-in-time temp check and the batteries last forever.
If you want a probe that stays in while you cook, with a programmable app that tracks current meat temp, ambient temp and then sends alerts to your phone, check out Meater. I use the Meater block, which has 4 wireless probes and connects to my wifi. Also pretty easy to set target temps, etc.
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Loving my Combustion with 2 probes.
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The Meater is good in theory but I have had a lot of problems. It requires very specific placement in the product because the battery is inside the probe and must be fully inserted into the product. That means it does not work well with certain items (pork ribs are difficult). Removing it when hot is difficult because it is a hard, slick cylinder (nothing to grab with tongs). The range is very poor and doesn’t work at all if wrapped in foil, which means that you need to pull the probe, wrap, and reinsert through the foil (hoping that you get the probe in a good spot). After four uses my probe stopped connecting with the base - I haven’t resolved that yet. Finally, I despise products without replaceable batteries (the Meater was a gift).
I heartily recommend all of the Thermoworks products. If looking for something that can be read remotely from a phone, the Smoke plus Gateway or the Signals will do that. There are a wide range of probes and I’ve found all the products to be both foolproof and bulletproof.
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Agree with Eric on all counts - Meater+ is good, but is about 2-5 degrees off as well, which is easy to work around. I always use it as my baseline on the ‘low and slow’ for reverse sear, then check with a Thermoworks Thermapen for more accuracy. The convenience of it being wireless is obviously it’s most significant feature, and the app is pretty decent as well.
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Funny to see the disparity in experiences. I don’t temp check thin cuts or ribs, so really isn’t an issue for me. I’ve also got a stack of kitchen towels next to my grill and smoker set-up, so again not a problem. Finally… I put the block on a wine barrel next to my grill, so have never had connectivity issues.
The biggest inconvenience I’ve had with it is that it leaves a hole in the meat which doesn’t photograph well for IG 
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Obviously the solution here is meat caulk
My use with ribs is primarily for monitoring ambient temp so that I can manage the grill - still need to stick the probe somewhere. Certainly others have much better things to say about the Meater. The idea for the gift came from a friend who is a big fan.
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All great recommendations. Thank you.
Or…caulk meat.