I received this product as a gift 18 months ago. It was not until 4 months ago that I purchased a smoker for myself. Since that time, I've used this for multiple smokes anywhere from a single tri tip to 11 shoulders. It definitely meets my expectations. I can link my iPad to the unit and head inside, even upstairs to our bedroom for long overnight smokes. With the alarm settings, I can get some shuteye and not worry about overcooking!
I generally use one probe for ambient temp and one for meat. The app has the ability to send charts of your cook profile. Nice to catalog different cooks and build a bit of a library for weights of meat, cook temp, and time. While not all meat is the same, with a little organization and practice, you'll get a good handle on how long the stalls will last, how long the cook will last, and how long you'll need to rest the meat.
I found I was having a lot of trouble getting the device to sync one day. I really thought it was broken. As a last ditch effort, I replaced the batteries and it linked up immediately! If you're having difficulty getting the bluetooth to connect, try replacing the batteries as that may save you some grief.
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I find that this product does everything as advertised! The beauty of the product, and the reason to buy it, is the remote readout on your iphone or ipad. I don't really care that the unit readout is difficult to see in sunlight again that is not why I bought it, and the strength of the device is the remote readout which is fabulous!!
BE CAREFUL OF THE AMAZON LISTING. It lists the unit twice with only $.04 different in price. So you can easily miss the price difference of $79.95 vs $79.99, BUT one has two meat probes and the other only has one! Clearly, an additional $.04 to get the second probe is the choice to be made, BUT again it makes no sense the probe must cost more than $.04. I think this is an inappropriate listing approach by AMAZON, and hopefully they will drop the single probe listing.
So, I blundered my way into buying the single probe, expecting the dual probe package. After I received it and found only one probe, I dutifully followed the AMAZON return policy, which was to first call the manufacturer. So, I called igrill and explained the situation to a customer support person who said that they would take care of it and all I needed to do was email my contact info. I also wanted to buy an air probe. The Customer Support Manager Matt Called me back within 5 minutes and took care of it without hesitation. He apologized for the AMAZON situation and said that they are receiving complaints from others about the confusing listings. So, he set up the order for the second probe at no charge and no shipping. He also packaged the air probe with the order. I received the package within 3 days. I couldn't be happier with their customer support. This was a great effort by a small company with a great product! Thank you igrill!!
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Likes:
Remote monitoring awesome!
Monitoring from my iPhone or iPad genius! I loved it on the iPad
Alerts are very useful
2-channel monitoring is very useful. I used this in a smoker and I monitored the turkey and the air temp
Dislikes:
Display on unit is unreadable in sunlight. LCD may have been a better choice than LED for the display.
My cooking temperature graphs were lost on my first cook. Could have been my error but I think an more automatic save feature for failsafe data preservation would be a great improvement
Recommendation:
I would recommend this thermometer to anyone who wants/needs the ability to remotely monitor food and/or air temperature
Nearly a "must have" when using an outdoor smoker as monitoring and maintaining the air/cooking temp is as important to high quality smoked meats as is monitoring the meat temperature
Honest reviews on iDevices iGrill Grilling/Cooking Barbecue Thermometer with Dual
Growing up in the 70s and 80's, I held the old (Jetson's-style) belief that computers and technology would simplify tasks in our lives. Although we didn't evolve to have robots cooking and cleaning for us, and I'm still waiting for that flying car, the iGrill made me stop and think about how far we've come.
I can sit inside my house, performing other tasks, while multiple cuts of meat roast low-and-slow on my smoker. I have a graphical log of the temperature increase, and can predict when the food will be done. If I only have one piece of meat, I can also connect an ambient probe to relay the current temperature of my grill. I can send all of this as an Excel spreadsheet for later analysis, satisfying the inner geek, and answering the question I always thought to ask ("how hot is my smoker at various settings?") but could never verify with such accuracy. Isn't technology wonderful??
Still, even though I very much enjoy and recommend the product, I think it's a 3-star. Firstly, it is IMPOSSIBLE to read in any sort of moderate light outdoors, which forces you to use it paired with your phone/pad. I have paired it with my iPad, so if I am outside and want to check the temp on the grill, I need to go INSIDE and look at the temp. Secondly, it's not completely bulletproof, and requires a reset quite frequently (remove batteries, wait 10 seconds, re-hook to the iPad). Thirdly, it eats batteries faster than I would like, although I admit as a fan of low-and-slow I probably stress it more than most. To work around the battery issue, I don't turn it on until well into the smoke.
That said, I still use it every week, sometimes many times a week, and have successfully used it for low and slow pork shoulder, lamb leg, beef roast, and salmon as well as hotter cooking for a cake (yes, a smoked cake!), steak, and many, many chickens. I enjoy the product and would recommend it, even with the hopes that the manufacturer continues to refine and improve the breed as time moves on. If you're not a tech geek, a standalone device is likely better for you. If you are... This is The One.
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I ordered my iGrill a few months ago. I've used it six times since then. One of my temperature probes is already reading the room temperature at approximately 180 degrees. I would send it for repair but the probes only have a 30 day warranty! The product itself is only 90 days. There is a reason the warranty period is so short. I wouldn't buy this product again. Like I said cool concept, neat product but poor quality and implementation.
