Welcome!


This is a membership forum. Guests can view 5 pages for free. To participate, please join.

[ Pitmaster Club Information | Join Now | Login | Contact Us ]

Only 4 free page views remaining.

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Weber iGrill2 Review

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Weber iGrill2 Review

    Every once in a while you come across a device that is awesome, yet suffers from a fundamental flaw….that isn’t exactly the device's fault. Such is the Weber iGrill2 for me.

    I’ve used this now for several cooks. It’s well built. It has a handy magnet on the back and the display is bright red and easily readable. The probes are repeatedly consistent with one another and appear to be quite accurate. The iPhone app is intuitive and very easy to set cooking temperatures, alarms, and monitor them in single temp/multiple temp and single graph/multiple graph views.

    Its flaw is – wait for it – its Bluetooth. Now, if you are someone who stays outdoors the entire time, this might not be a problem, but even line-of-sight to my grill through a window 25 feet away, my iPhone SE loses connection with the iGrill.

    The other issue is that it is really only a phone app. (The display on the iGrill 2 itself only illuminates when you are next to it.) My phone goes to sleep every few minutes. I’m actually cooking a slab of ribs right now and it is an enormous pain to keep waking the phone up to see what is going on. (Yes, I can set it to never go to sleep….but then I have to keep toggling that on and off.)

    A large part of me really can’t blame the iGrill for this. (Incidentally, the iGrill 2 seems to be manufactured by a company called iDevices and is just rebranded by Weber.) I’m an IT professional and I know full well Bluetooth was never designed for long-range RF communication. (The technical term is a PAN – Personal Area Network, meant for things 5-10 feet away.)

    Maybe if my house was not made of brick or the iPhone SE had a better Bluetooth antenna/transceiver, perhaps these problems wouldn’t exist for me, but they do.

    I most definitely will be getting another remote monitoring digital grill monitor. (I got the iGrill as a gift.) Not all is lost, of course. Using the iGrill 2 over the last several cooks has shown me what features I really want and some I can live without. Moreover, I can easily repurpose it as an oven thermometer. Indeed, the first use of the thing was to verify that my oven is 25 degrees over what it is set at.

    --Michael

    #2
    I had one and it was great for what it is but it died within a year. Probably more like 6 months actually

    Comment


      #3
      I have been through several remote monitors. Started with one from Home Depot years ago, can't remember the brand. Graduated to a Maverick ET-732. Currently running with a Maverick XR-50. The Mavericks are both bluetooth. I usually cook when I am home so I don't need extended range monitoring - the Mavericks work easily between my bedroom and the deck. Lots of our AR brethren swear by the Fireboard system; I may get one when I grow up.

      Comment


        #4
        I don't have to tell you, because you obviously know - get something with a wifi base next time.

        Comment


          #5
          Sounds like my experience. I too am tech savvy, and unfortunately the BT protocol was never finished.
          Your analysis is spot on: having to wake your phone every time just to check temps is a pain.

          I switched to FireBoard some time ago, couldn’t be happier.

          Comment


            #6
            I’ve been using mine for a year and a half now. I’m probably the only person here for whom it works well - I just don’t have the BT range issues. I can be in my closet (3 walls and hallway thru the house) and my iPad Pro stays connected. I have to go upstairs to the bonus room over the garage (opposite side of house) before I lose connection. My cookers are on my deck, so I’m not generally wanting to leave the house when they’re fired up. All that said, will I get a Fireboard instead of another iGrill when this ones bites the dust? Yeah probably so.

            They just made some updates to the app that are kinda cool, tho I have only spent 5 min looking at them. You can create a WeberID and save cooks, which includes probe graphs, you can add notes, and pics (max of 5), and a nice "Repeat grill session" button. I’ll attach a few screenshots.

            Lastly, I just went to Home Depot in hopes of finding $3 bags of Weber charcoal like a bunch of others, but no luck. However, they did have Weber iGrill 2 & 3 thermometers on sale for $25! At that price, I think it’s a steal.

            FWIW...
            Attached Files

            Comment


              #7
              Your iPad Pro may be the secret. The Pro has more robust bluetooth/wifi antenna, running down the right side.

              Comment


                #8
                I used mine for the first time today. It stayed connected to my galaxy 8 okay. Waking the phone up is a pain. I'm not sure of the accuracy of it though. The probe showed one temp. But my instant read showed another. 5°-10° difference. Recived mine as a consolation for a part of my performer deluxe having a broken piece right out of the box. I give Weber kudos for stepping up and doing this.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Mine has worked well with the exception of the short Bluetooth range. It barely covers 35’. I have used it along with a PartyQ on my Big Green Egg. I recently bought a Smobot and am loving the WiFi which let’s me monitor on my phone from anywhere and make temperature changes whenever necessary.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I just used it again tonight. Again, the concept is excellent....everything about it is awesome....except the reliance on Bluetooth. Also, it seems, that as one's phone's battery goes down, the Bluetooth power also goes down. I had to be within two feet of the silly thing to pick up a signal with my iPhone SE's battery down to nearly 20%.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Agree with everything you said. Really wish Weber came out with a Wi-Fi version before I bought my Thermoworks Signals. Now, I’m wishing Thermoworks had an AppleWatch app like the iGrill. 😂

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I agree....it seems at the ~$100 price point, it is either RF or Bluetooth/app.

                        Comment

                        Announcement

                        Collapse
                        No announcement yet.
                        Working...
                        X
                        false
                        0
                        Guest
                        Guest
                        500
                        ["pitmaster-my-membership","login","join-pitmaster","lostpw","reset-password","special-offers","help","nojs","meat-ups","gifts","authaau-alpha","ebooklogin-start","alpha","start"]
                        false
                        false
                        {"count":0,"link":"/forum/announcements/","debug":""}
                        Yes
                        ["\/forum\/free-deep-dive-guide-ebook-downloads","\/forum\/free-deep-dive-guide-ebook-downloads\/1157845-paid-members-download-your-6-deep-dive-guide-ebooks-for-free-here","\/forum\/the-pitcast","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine\/national-barbecue-news-magazine-aa","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine\/national-barbecue-news-magazine-aa\/bbq-news-magazine-2019-issues","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine\/national-barbecue-news-magazine-aa\/bbq-news-magazine-2020-issues","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine\/national-barbecue-news-magazine-aa\/bbq-news-magazine-2021-issues","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine\/national-barbecue-news-magazine-aa\/bbq-news-magazine-2022-issues","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine\/national-barbecue-news-magazine-aa\/current-2023-issues","\/forum\/national-barbecue-news-magazine\/national-barbecue-news-magazine-aa\/current-2024-issues","\/forum\/free-deep-dive-guide-ebook-downloads\/1165909-trial-members-download-your-free-deep-dive-guide-ebook-here"]
                        /forum/free-deep-dive-guide-ebook-downloads/1165909-trial-members-download-your-free-deep-dive-guide-ebook-here