Wireless probe options

[Mhp]

I've been reading with interest the evolution of the Combustion thermometer and Chris Young's comments here. It has started me on a search. It seems from reading that the closest competition is the Thermopro TempSpike. The price discrepancy is not small. The Combustion unit seems to run $149 for the probe alone or $199 with the display. This contrasts to the TempSpike which has a cost that seems to vary anywhere from $60-$90.

Does anyone have experience comparing these two? The multiple temp sensors in the Combustion and Chris' involvement here are definite pluses, but are they worth 2-3x the cost? I'm just learning to grill on a new (to me) infrared grill and I'm afraid I may kill the probe with the heat. I'd rather kill a $60 probe than a $149 probe.....

Thanks for any insights

[STEbbq]

I know quite a few folks that have one or the other but not both. I guess we will see who replies!

[chefchrisyoung]

To be clear, I’m very biased. But here are some thoughts on this question.

Up to a point, both of these products will do the job of measuring the temperature at the tip and transmitting it wirelessly up an app. If that’s all you want, save some money and buy the cheapest wireless thermometer that will do this.

Things the Combustion Predictive Thermometer tries to do a lot more (at a cost):

First, accurately and quickly respond to temperature changes. Our internal sensors are accurate to no less than 0.2C (and typically more like 0.1C). And our sensors responded to changes in a few seconds, rather than 1 minute or more for competing products. Where this matters most is making accurate cooking predictions, and working as a reasonably good instant read thermometer.

Second, robust connectivity. We designed our system to avoid the need for a pairing process and to always attempt to recover when the signal is interrupted. In the real world, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are imperfect technologies and we prioritized architecting a system that connects within one second from power on, doesn’t require account creations or brittle pairing processes, and logs all the data so that if the connection is interrupted and a transmission fails, the missing data is transmitted as soon as the connection is restored. No system is perfect and lots of things can block radio signals, but I believe we have the easiest to use and most reliable connectivity on the market.

Third, 8 sensors. Why is this useful? It’s easy to misposition the tip of the thermometer by a fraction of an inch, which can actually be the difference between medium-rare and medium-well. Our extra sensors do a pretty good job of always finding the center of your food as long as some part of the thermometer passes through it.

And for barbecue, being able to measure the real temperature at the surface of your food let’s you control the true cooking temperature, despite differences in humidity from the food, the wood dryness, airflow, etc. Put simply, measuring the temperature at the surface of your brisket, ribs, whatnot and keeping it consistent will give you sous vide like control over the end result. This was actually the original reason I decided to build this thermometer, I wanted the control of sous vide for my barbecue.

All these sensors also let us measure how heat is flowing through the food, which allows our machine learning algorithms to make predictions that are pretty accurate. And now that folks are giving us more data we’re working on training the algorithms to predict carry over cooking and duration of the stall. Based on current results, I’m optimistic we’ll get these into beta later this summer. I don’t think you’ll see our competitors investing in this kind of deep algorithm development.

For me, these are the biggest and most valuable differences—oh, and not needing to use my phone in the kitchen with the display. We’re aware it’s not a cheap tool, but we set out to make a no compromise product.

[DogFaced PonySoldier]

I've got three TempSpikes and they do the job - but with a bit limited range, being Bluetooth. I would prefer if they would connect to WiFi.

Not using 'em tonight, I have 6 probes from my Fireboard and 4 from a Thermpro BT 4-probe unit going. Didn't bother to charge up my TempSpikes, it's a bit of a pain to charge multiple things for a cook.

I'll end up with a Combustion one eventually, I'm sure, but at $150 per probe, it's quite an investment.

[Jerod Broussard]

I've just started using Bluetooth with my ear pod thingees. I thought something was up with the product when I realized I could spit farther than these things picked up a signal.

[GolfGeezer]

I have both and agree with most of what Chris says above. The TempSpike is a very basic temp probe with limited range, a very limited App relative to other temp device Apps and the probe is rather thick similar to a Meater probe. CI's probe plus display are definitely a step above the TS - faster response, greater range, thinner probe, captures more data (which some of us overly obsessive folks love!), and the App is much better. In fact, I've already asked a buddy if he wants the TempSpike as I'll never use it now that I have CI's appliance.

My only difference with what Chris says is that I much prefer WiFi over Bluetooth. I am not daunted by WiFi and have many devices that successfully use it in my cooking world (my MAK, my Anova sous vide cooker, my Fireboards and Signals).

Worth the price? As a guy who has a Fireboard V2, a Fireboard Spark, a Thermoworks Signals and a bunch of Thermoworks MKs & DOTs, plus now the TS and CI, how I judge cost does not go with the least-cost approach.

[RichieB]

I have the TempSpike. For what I want to do, monitor ambient and internal temperature and alarm me when IT is reached and ambient gets too high or low. I have 2 Probes. App works fine IMO.