Pellet Smokers

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I had a meater I threw it in the garbage. I only rely on thermoworks for all my temp needs now.

I got the set with the sliding bottom shelf, and one smaller top shelf, and the side brackets that give me two height options for the smaller shelf.

There's also this guy, which has something changed? Improved features (such as how the shelves are retained & removed) but doesn't have the two height options that the PCS does.

I move that upper shelf a LOT. If I want to do a big bacptch of wings while I wait on a butt, I put the wings on the bottom, the top shelf on the lower setting, and the butt on the top. Turkey breasts and cream cheese? Turkeys on bottom, shelf at top, cream cheese on top shelf.

Perhaps obvious, but using something like a Meater o get an idea of temp differences at different heights is pretty key. Can be 20° difference from top to bottom.

[rob_s]

I had a meater I threw it in the garbage. I only rely on thermoworks for all my temp needs now.

which Meater?

Like many things in life, that question matters a lot.

I have a Block, and while it's not perfect, having a little patience with the thing and being willing to ride out the invetibable temporary downtime with confidence has helped a lot. Getting to that level of confidence requires a couple of key things on my part.

• Clean the butt of the probe until it shines (charging can't happen through the grime)
• Plug the base in and don't bother trying to run it off batteries (they are just gonna die by the next time you use it)
• Turn the sound on on your phone (unless you're a boomer and already walk around with the phone beeping and binging)
• Use more than one probe whenever possible (you already own them, no reason not to)

Finally, any Meater other than the Block is pointless.

[RoyGBiv]

I had a meater I threw it in the garbage. I only rely on thermoworks for all my temp needs now.

What didn't you like about it? For a smoker I thought mine was fine.
Just don't try to sear a steak with it inside. It melts. DAMHIK.

[JAD]

What didn't you like about it? For a smoker I thought mine was fine.
Just don't try to sear a steak with it inside. It melts. DAMHIK.

My meater plus sucks. Loses connection and fails to charge too often. Would like a replacement.

[rob_s]

My meater plus sucks. Loses connection and fails to charge too often. Would like a replacement.

what he arrives at in this video is that the Thermoworks RFX and the Fireboard Pulse were the top performers, and if you have a smoker with a Fireboard, get that one, if not get the Thermoworks, with a nod to the fact that you have a wired ambient probe.

I'm hoping to pick up a Lone Star after the new year so I'll be in the Fireboard ecosystem after that.

[Erik]

If you have the Fireboard Drive2 and the app, or something similar, what does a wireless probe do for you that the wired probes don't?

[rob_s]

If you have the Fireboard Drive2 and the app, or something similar, what does a wireless probe do for you that the wired probes don't?

For one thing, gives you air temp at the meat vs at one single point in the cooker.

Also convenience of not dealingmwoth wires when moving things around, rotating, flipping, etc.

And, IIRC, most scoreboards max out at 4-6 wired probes. If you wanted to cook multiple items having the wireless probes means you can go way above that number.

Something you did just make me think of though is that buying the fireboard probes to go with a specific smoker means I wouldn't be able to use them in my grill, or oven, without an additional base anyway.

[UNK]

I had the block. I dont recall all the specifics but in my opinion its garbage. The net is full of bad reviews. It was an impulse buy which is pretty unusual for me. As i said thermoworks is the bomb. Ive got three of their thermometers sitting under the tree for Christmas gifts. When I ordered it was a really good sale. Might still be going on.

which Meater?

Like many things in life, that question matters a lot.

I have a Block, and while it's not perfect, having a little patience with the thing and being willing to ride out the invetibable temporary downtime with confidence has helped a lot. Getting to that level of confidence requires a couple of key things on my part.

• Clean the butt of the probe until it shines (charging can't happen through the grime)
• Plug the base in and don't bother trying to run it off batteries (they are just gonna die by the next time you use it)
• Turn the sound on on your phone (unless you're a boomer and already walk around with the phone beeping and binging)
• Use more than one probe whenever possible (you already own them, no reason not to)

Finally, any Meater other than the Block is pointless.

[rob_s]

I had the block. I dont recall all the specifics but in my opinion its garbage. The net is full of bad reviews. It was an impulse buy which is pretty unusual for me. As i said thermoworks is the bomb. Ive got three of their thermometers sitting under the tree for Christmas gifts. When I ordered it was a really good sale. Might still be going on.

I had the same experience but just short of tossing it but I did some research and figured out the “fixes” I posted. Most of the bad reviews are from others that didn't bother to research it (and “can't remember” specifics, lol). Also, and reason I asked which model, there's a lot of folks that don't know what they are buying when they get the OG (blue tooth only) or don't even know about the block and just want to shout at clouds as if all !eaters are the same.

I wouldn't suggest someone buying one today, but lots of folks get them as gifts or whatever and was simply posting my experience with “fixing” the known issues. Clean the butt, and ride out the signal loss, and keep the base plugged in and you're 99% of the way to easy cooking. Well, maybe not YOU but anyone else That hasn't thrown theirs out yet. lol

[Sasage]

At the risk of being laughed out of the thread.

Has anybody used one of these? https://www.ninjakitchen.com/product...ZNFFEha2UIt5Q7

I smoke stuff very frequently and I’ve only used a Traeger at work and a cheap master built vertical electric smoker at home, would like more space for ribs, butts, and brisket.