Meater 2 Wireless Thermometer Can Use Signal Boost
When I first heard about the Meater Smart Thermometer, I was intrigued by the idea of a wireless probe. I’m primarily lazy by nature, and a great wireless thermometer means I’ll have less time running to the stove or grill and more time on the couch.
While there’s a lot to like about the new Meater 2 , including a stylish design and an attractive app, those advantages were overshadowed by its refusal to stay connected in seemingly simple settings.
We just couldn’t stay in touch
I ran eight tests simultaneously with the Meater 2 and a couple of other wireless probes on a variety of cooking media and proteins. In the first round of five tests, Meater disconnected very often, which meant endless notifications on the phone and, more importantly, loss of temperature readings. This happened in almost every environment I tried, often within 20 feet of the probe and transmitter. Under other circumstances, it would be reasonable to chalk this up to my house (perhaps there are hidden RF signals interfering with Miter 2), but in all cases other probes, such as Combustion , had no problems in the same range. I make a lot of connections to various Bluetooth devices throughout the day, and I have no problem connecting to devices further away.
The problem was so bad in the first five tests that I contacted Miter and they sent a second probe, which they tested internally before it arrived. I ran three more tests with the second sensor and still had the same problems. I’ve read a lot of other reviews and a lot of reviewers had no problem connecting the Meater 2. The Meater guys suggested it was because the probe was having an issue with my oven, the pot I was cooking sous vide in, or the metal of my barbecue. These are all valid arguments, but where else should I cook? If the thermometer cannot work in such conditions, it should find another job.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention an option I didn’t enable, which is setting up a Wi-Fi connection for Meater 2, but this requires the use of two wireless devices such as tablets or phones. One next to the probe for transmitting and one next to me for receiving. While this could be successful (I generally prefer Bluetooth Wi-Fi connections), it would require hardware not included or offered by Meater, meaning you’d have to ditch the device entirely. It wouldn’t solve the Bluetooth problem either; that would just be a workaround.
Elegant probe and charger design
Putting all that aside, let me talk about what I liked about Meater 2. The latest version of this thermometer is much smaller than its predecessor. It’s sleek, metallic, and comes with a wooden charger that doubles as a receiver. I really liked the wooden block with magnets so it can be attached to the oven, refrigerator or barbecue. However, I didn’t like that it’s powered by a battery rather than a USB-C battery.
Great app, but it takes some work
The Meater app doesn’t trust the user to just get started. I had to watch a lot of information screens and videos on how to do everything before I could actually use the probe. If you don’t want to watch the videos, you can “watch them later” at the button prompt, but the app doesn’t tell you that you can’t continue until you watch them, so I kept thinking I was on the wrong setting screen. Even worse, you’ll have to do this every time you add a new probe. The application does not remember that you have already read and watched everything. Indeed, the application is so simple that it shouldn’t require any detailed instructions, just a few hints along the way.
Once I registered my probe with the app, I was able to start “cooking.” The nice thing about Meater is that you can tell the app what you’re cooking and it will suggest a temperature range. The USDA has recommended “safe” temperature ranges for this meat that will cook the meat well. Since most cooks tend to err on the side of lower temperatures, I decided to choose the temperature myself.
Once cooking begins, Meater displays the internal temperature, the target you set, and the ambient temperature. When I touched the internal temperature icon, I saw a breakdown of the temperatures for each of the six sensors. One of Meater’s competitors, Combustion, also shows surface temperature, a useful but completely unnecessary indicator.
However, the graph for the existing chef is visual, colorful and easy to interpret.
Lack of communication leads to misunderstanding
Like Combustion, Meater 2 will try to tell you when your food is ready based on your target temperature, and like Combustion, it doesn’t do a very good job of this. It becomes more accurate as it approaches the target temperature, which doesn’t so much predict as perform mathematical calculations with increasing accuracy.
To its credit, Meater does what I really like, which is tell you that your food is ready 10 degrees ahead of the set temperature because the temperature of the food actually rises an additional 10 degrees out of the oven. However , Meater doesn’t tell you why it says your dish is done at 120°F when your target is 130°F, so you’re left guessing or annoyed if you, like me, set a target temperature when you want to remove it . , not when it’s “done”. This made me distrust the fortune teller and challenge him, which is probably not what Miter wants. I watched the predictor countdown, assuming that my roast, currently sitting at 117 degrees Fahrenheit, would somehow reach its goal of 130 degrees Fahrenheit in two minutes, which couldn’t be true. So I didn’t take the predictor into account.
The Meater app comes with alerts, but this seemed like a tough choice. Of course I want to know when the thermometer goes off, when my food is predicted to be ready, or when my food is ready. This resulted in me constantly being bothered by a lot of alerts when Miter disconnected, reconnected, and then created a forecast. Overall, Combustion offers a much more enjoyable and functional app experience.
It’s also worth mentioning that Meater has MasterClass integration in the app, so if you want to learn how to cook a specific dish, this will set you up for success later on. If you’re a new chef and can get Meater to stay connected, this could be a great idea. But as an experienced cook, I would prefer that the thermometer do a good job of the job I hired it to do.
Bottom line: Meater 2 needs better connectivity and some app improvements.
All products have their pros and cons, and I take no pleasure in expressing negative opinions here. The Meater team was a pleasure to deal with and I was willing to assume that the connection errors were due to a faulty device or something wrong in my home. But for some reason the other wireless sensors worked fine in the same conditions and stayed connected, which is number one in terms of performance.
Despite all the messages Meater has, from videos of how the app works to notification options, it fails to communicate a few key things, such as: “Your food will continue to cook at 10 degrees after you remove it.” “Knowing this, is this still the target temperature you want to set?” Although the Meater 2 is cheaper than the Combustion ($119 for the Meater 2 vs. $149 for the Combustion), I still can’t recommend getting the Meater 2 due to connection issues. If you have Meater 2 and have better luck, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.