Wireless probe for rotisserie - does it exist?

[HouseHomey]

A really long cord.

[Huskee]

Long cord, big spool, problem solved!

[texastweeter]

resistance...

[Troutman]

This is such a good idea, hopefully they can get it to work. So sick of wires dangling all over the place. I am somewhat skeptical, as apparently Meathead is, that this piece of electronics will weather the riggers of long term exposure to heat. Electronics and high temperatures obviously do not co-exist very well. They also need to get over their launch issues with a little better PR campaign.

Please give us a report as soon as you've had time to test it, thanks for keeping us in the loop horo . I'm watching this one for sure.

[Petewinter]

The Meater Probe is probably the closest to this.

[horo]

The MEATER has arrived! I have nothing for the rotisserie right now, but I am smoking some ribs this weekend. If there is a spot on the slab that is deep enough to insert the MEATER as far as it needs to go, I will give it a workout.

Exciting!

[fuzzydaddy]

Congrats! Looking forward to hearing how it works for you.

[Ahab]

I used my new Meater probe on a long rib cap roast {about 5lbs) that i put on my rotisserie last week. My only complaint is the range of the bluetooth "broadcast" is quite limited. I have a heavily insulated house , so that may make some difference , and I did not wander across the yard to check the range outside cuz it was freakin cold . This was my 2nd cook w/ the Meater my 1st was Christmas day in a 7 bone prime rib. It takes a little while to figure out the app side as the app projects time to cook taking into consideration "rest time" (Meathead can jump in here now} and the creep towards your target temperature. I had a Thermoworks Digi-Q in the prime rib and the temps were disparate and I thought the Meater was inaccurate. Nope, just me being a dope and not reading directions. So far I am very happy with the product. I love to use my Weber rotisserie and have long longed for a wireless probe. If the probe is as well built as the packaging and charging station , i should be well served.

[RonB]

If you have an old smartphone laying around, you can use it as a bridge to convert the bluetooth to wifi. You may not be able to make calls with it, but other functions should still work. In bad weather, just seal it in a ziploc bag.

[Huskee]

I used my new Meater probe on a long rib cap roast {about 5lbs) that i put on my rotisserie last week. My only complaint is the range of the bluetooth "broadcast" is quite limited. I have a heavily insulated house , so that may make some difference , and I did not wander across the yard to check the range outside cuz it was freakin cold . This was my 2nd cook w/ the Meater my 1st was Christmas day in a 7 bone prime rib. It takes a little while to figure out the app side as the app projects time to cook taking into consideration "rest time" (Meathead can jump in here now} and the creep towards your target temperature. I had a Thermoworks Digi-Q in the prime rib and the temps were disparate and I thought the Meater was inaccurate. Nope, just me being a dope and not reading directions. So far I am very happy with the product. I love to use my Weber rotisserie and have long longed for a wireless probe. If the probe is as well built as the packaging and charging station , i should be well served.

Great to hear from you, Ahab! I/we appreciate your thoughts on the Meater. I too am waiting for mine.

[NWDave]

Mine is suppose be delivered today. Guess I'll stop by the local grocery store and pick up a chicken for Saturday. At least my weather is more tolerable. High 30's to mid 40's with LOT'S of rain. With a canopy with sides, we're Qing. Now, where did I put my galoshes?

[horo]

My first cook is underway. I did not have anything for the rotisserie, but I am cooking three slabs of ribs in my Pit Barrel Cooker, and I couldn't resist trying out the MEATER. There are some limitations of course: Even though I have the MEATER in the thickest part of the ribs, I don't trust the meat temperature because it is still thinner than a roast or chicken being cooked on the rotisserie. Also, the inside of a steel drum is not the best place to be a radio transmitting device.

We have a 10 foot deep deck behind our kitchen, and i had my iPad set up in a "garden window" that overlooks the deck. The iPad lost contact with the MEATER frequently, so I wound up moving the iPad outside and it is now a good connection. I also have my iPhone connected via Wi-Fi, so I can walk around the house and still see what's going on.

I had some confusion with the app at first, and wound up restarting the whole process a little while after I got the meat in the smoker. I think I am also supposed to be able to hook up with the "MEATER Cloud" and then see results on my phone even when I leave the house, but I apparently don't have it set up right because it didn't work when I left home.

I don't see the MEATER on my list of connected bluetooth devices in either the iPad or iPhone settings. I have to rely on the app to tell me it's connected. I had originally paired the MEATER to the phone to mess around with it before the cook, and I can't tell if it is no longer a device the phone pairs to when I get close. I want it to just connect to the iPad now.

Anyway, we had our first non-rainy day in the Pacific Northwest today, and it's about 55 degrees out, so you couldn't ask for a better day for a cook. There was no pre-set "ribs" choice, so I hijacked the Pork Tenderloin preset, and here are some screen shots from the iPad. The rise in ambient temperature is because the temp was dropping too low, and I opened the vent a little bit. I am thrilled beyond thrilled with the ambient temperature graph. With my wired-probe thermometer, I could only see "at this moment" temps, and couldn't necessarily see the trend. This graph told me (a) I had to do something, and (b) I did the right thing.

So, as this test run goes, the MEATER is working as advertised, and I am pleased as punch. Next weekend will be a rotisserie weekend for sure, and I'll be able to give a better report when I'm using it for the type of meat it's intended for.

[As I was finishing up this post, the MEATER said the meat had reached 203 and I am getting a "Remove from heat!" alarm, but I know it's premature. Again, not the MEATER's fault, since the meat is so thin. I'll be eyeballing and bend-testing the ribs from this point forward.]

Not sure what else to report, but so far so good! Any questions?

[Ahab]

My only real concern {outside of bluetooth range} is the size of the probe. I would love to use it for rotisserie chicken but the diameter and the depth you are required to insert it make me think finding the sweet spot on a normal sized chicken is going to be a real challenge.

[fzxdoc]

Thanks for the great report, horo . I'm following your experience with a lot of interest, because I'm thinking of ordering the Meater even though I just sprung big bucks for the whole Extreme BBQ Fireboard setup a couple of months back. Plus I don't have a rotisserie option on either of my smokers, although I do have one (never used) on my Summit gasser.

How did the ribs turn out?

And how soon are you going to smoke something more meaty for your Meater?

Kathryn

[horo]

Ribs were great - universal thumbs up from the household. I had to eyeball it at the end because the Meater warned that the temp was getting high and could cause damage. The regular handheld thermometer showed an internal temp of 195-ish in all the slabs right after I pulled them out.

My rotisserie is also on my Summit Gasser - and my plan is to pick up a pork roast later this week for an indirect + rotisserie burner session (reverse sear style) on the Summit. So far in the PBC, I've only done the Thanksgiving turkey and two rib cooks - I do need to get comfortable with something more solid. Brisket is intimidating, so not sure what's next!

[texastweeter]

what is the cost of the regular meator?

[horo]

$69

[texastweeter]

shipping time?

[NWDave]

Ordered 12/29. Received 10 Jan. Receiving location far corner north west Washington State.

Haven't been able to do a test run yet. Life and circumstances got in the way. Avidly following this thread.

[horo]

So last weekend I took the Meater out for its inaugural rotisserie flight. We got an 8.5 lb boneless leg of lamb from Costco, and I cooked it on the rotisserie of my Weber Summit E-470. Separate from the Meater performance, let me say I am still learning technique with this grill (Up until late 2017 I was a charcoal-only guy). My plan was to cook with indirect heat until I got to 105 degrees, then turn on the rotisserie burner (locate at the top rear of the cook chamber) to get a sear on the outside without running over temperature. I should also note that my Christmas prime rib roast (in the smoker, not the Weber) was a little overdone for my taste -- medium rather than medium rare. Because of this, My target temperature was 135 - a little lower than 140-145 generally recommended for lamb. The reverse-sear strategy did not go exactly as planned, and I didn't get as much of a crust on the outside. We also wound up being a little rushed to get it going that day, so while I salted the outside of the lamb, it only sat for about 1/2 hour before I had to get the rub on and get it onto the grill - so dry-brining could have gone better and a better rub application might have helped with the outside.

All of the above aside (and I'd love to learn taming the rotisserie burner in another topic sometime), the Meater experience was great.

I first set the target temp to 105, and then when it got there and I had turned on the rotisserie burner, I increased the target to 135. In hindsight, I could have set this 5 degrees higher. The attached pic show the finished lamb. The visible parts are "just right" but there were some small areas that were too rare, and we wound up popping them in the oven for a bit.

The graph from the Meater tells the story pretty well. The grill temp was over 300 when I started, and you can see it was heading upwards, which is not what I wanted with my indirect heat (I had just the far left and far right burners running, with the lamb on the spit, over a drip pan, in the middle). The downslope after the first section is me adjusting the burners down a bit to lower the temp.

The sharp dip is when I opened the grill to turn on the rotisserie burner, and the spike is where the burner was running. You can see where I turned off the burner and removed the the lamb from the grill.

I had the Meater inserted parallel with the spit, about midway between the center and the outer edge. The grill is on our deck, right outside the kitchen. I set up my iPad on the counter, just inside. It was probably 10 feet away from the grill, just inside sliding glass doors. The Wifi signal was good there, and the bluetooth connection to the Meater was flawless. I used the Meater's "link" feature to transmit over the wifi to my iPhone, which I was able to carry inside the house and see the current state of the cook. I also had the "cloud" feature turned on, which meant that, in theory I could have left the house and continued to monitor the cook. I did not do that, but it's a nice feature to have.

One odd side note -- apparently due to the use of the cloud feature -- about 30 minutes or so after I finished cooking, I got an email from Meater asking me to rate the cook experience. Creepy!! I'm not really concerned about privacy with regard to cooking, but others might feel differently, so it is interesting to know that the "Meater Cloud" is not just providing storage/transmission for your off-premises monitoring, but they are also looking at at least some of your data to determine when you cook and what you cook.

Anything I left out? The lamb was delicious, and other than my own decisions, I'd say the Meater performed flawlessly.

[RonB]

Thanx for the report.

[EdF]

Sounds like a good answer to the original question!

[Ahab]

I think I killed my Meater when I did the finishing sear on an indirectly cooked 2" thick rib steak. I guess you have to take the probe out before you go for a high heat finish .