A meat thermometer for smoking has to stay believable after the lid has been shut for hours. If the tool lies at the stall, you'll wrap, rest, or slice on a number that never happened, and the cook goes sideways even though the fire was fine.
Where to go next
Roundup
Best wireless meat thermometer
Meater Pro, the two-probe TempSpike, ThermoMaven P2, CHEF iQ Sense, Combustion's Wi-Fi display kit, and the wired loggers that win when a radio cannot see out of the pit.
One probe
Meater Pro review
Ambient rated to 1000°F, five sensors in the tip, Bluetooth only on the single charger.
The split
Meater Pro vs Meater Plus
527°F versus 1000°F ambient, and chargers that do not share probes.
When it drops
Meater not connecting
The dock, the steel, and the ceramic end of the probe.
A wireless probe
A wireless probe is one hole in the meat and no wire across the grate. The useful ones also read the air at the handle, so you get a grate check if that hot end stays in the pit air. I cook on a Kamado Joe. The failure I keep hitting is a probe that vanishes when ceramic sits between the sensor and the phone. The range on the box is open air. The lid is the real test.
It is good at one piece of meat while you stay in the yard.
Pros
- A wireless probe is one hole in the meat and no wire across the grate.
- An ambient sensor on that same probe can stand in for a grate check when the hot end stays in the air.
Cons
- A wireless probe loses range through ceramic and steel. The number on the box is open air.
- A wireless probe will not run a fan. A wandering vent is a different tool.
It suits a single brisket or butt you cook near the pit. The Meater Pro review is the long version of one of them, and Meater not connecting is what to check when the graph dies.
A Wi-Fi logger
A Wi-Fi logger uses wires. The signal walks the cable instead of shouting through the dome, which is why the lid can stay shut and the graph still updates after you leave the house. FireBoard 2 is six channels. ThermoWorks Signals is four. On both, the fan that holds a kamado is a separate box, so the logger alone does not move air. You are buying cables on the grate in exchange for a cook you can leave.
It is good at pit temperature, at more than one piece of meat, and at any cook where you will not be standing there.
Pros
- A Wi-Fi logger keeps reporting with the lid shut, because the signal walks a wire.
- Several channels can watch the meat and the grate on the same screen.
Cons
- A Wi-Fi logger puts wires across the grate, and those cables are the thing you'll snag.
- The fan is a separate purchase. The logger by itself does not hold the pit.
It suits a kamado that wanders, or a cook you have to leave. Both loggers are in the wireless thermometer roundup, next to the probes, so you can see the split in one place.
Nothing here is a scored ranking from my pit. When a review quotes a limit, it says that number came from the maker. If the brisket plan is why you opened this, set the fire on the brisket calculator and put the probe in the flat before the bark sets. The stall itself is explained on the brisket stall.