Meater Plus

[PW01]

Seriously interested in the Meater Plus. Anyone have any experience with these?
https://store-us.meater.com/products/meater-plus

 

[Pelican]

Been toying with the idea, but one has to do a LOT of low & slow BBQing to justify the price.

 

[RhondaHonda]

Interesting that it is completely wireless. I have a similarly-priced Thermapen for grilling or spot checking smoked meats and a single probe that transmits to a receiver in the house.

I’ll probably get a 4-probe Thermopro for $60-80 as my next purchase.

 

[Pablo]

Interesting that it is completely wireless. I have a similarly-priced Thermapen for grilling or spot checking smoked meats and a single probe that transmits to a receiver in the house.

I’ll probably get a 4-probe Thermopro for $60-80 as my next purchase.

Yep same set up here. Not one problem.

I use it a lot, but last week I did a dry rub pork butt completely monitorless in the Pitboss upright. Filled the hopper with alder. Put the meat in a disposable aluminum serving tray. Set the machine temp at 250°F and farmed all day.

Came back to the patio and it was fall apart perfect.

Sometimes I think I overuse temperature. Basics are good too. It's useful, but two probes in the same hunk of meat?, yeah I can be nuts.

 

[RhondaHonda]

I’d like a 4 probe model to do 2 Costco pork butts and a brisket or chicken at the same time, although I rarely do that much at once. I agree temp, especially on pork, is probably not as crucial but I still shoot for 203.

 

[fsdork]

I got one around Thanksgiving last year, and have used it about a half-dozen times for rotisserie chicken on a natural gas grill. Although we still probe a few places on the chicken with a manual thermometer before ending the cook to be sure it's ready, the Meater+ has been really helpful for monitoring ambient temperature within the grill, and having a sense of how the timing of the cook is going. I'll grill during outdoor temps of anywhere between -25°C and +35°C, so combined with the fact that my grill is newer and therefore less familiar, it can be tough to know what the sweet spot settings are for the four main burners and rotisserie burner. I can set an alarm in the Meater app to let me know if the ambient temp is running away on me, and go tweak the grill settings accordingly.

A couple minor issues I've encountered:

1. The probe has to be inserted to at least the indicator line so it doesn't get damaged by heat, but can't be too far into the meat or the ambient sensor on the external end of the probe will contact the meat and skew the ambient reading low. This can make it a bit tricky to position the probe where you want it in a chicken thigh, for example. This is probably not unique to the Meater brand specifically - more of a general comment on wireless "leave-in" probes.
2. The range between the base and the probe isn't amazing. My grill is only a couple feet away from the sliding glass door to my deck, and even with the base sitting just inside the patio door it can be a bit finicky about maintaining connection. Not a huge deal if the weather is good and you can leave the base outside closer to the grill, but if the weather is poor (rain, super cold, etc), I'm not sure the base would fare well if left exposed to the elements. If you've got a covered grilling area and don't experience ridiculous cold, this is not an issue as long as your Wi-Fi is strong enough to reach the base outside.

Overall, I'm glad I bought it. I agree with comments above that it's not particularly useful on faster-cooking, thinner cuts of meat. I haven't bothered trying to use it on steaks, for example.