The Meater Plus review

My kids gave me a cool present for father's day. It was a bluetooth enabled meat thermometer from the brand Meater. They have various models, the one I got is the Meater Plus. The Plus denominator stands for the extended bluetooth range.

I have both a Weber Gas grill, as well as a Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. The best way to know if the meat is ready is the check the internal temperature of the meat. So far I used a simple analog meat thermoter which worked pretty well. However to check the temperature of the meat, it requires opening the hood of the grill or take the lid of the smoker. That immediately lowers the temperature in the grill/smoker, especially with the smoker it can delay finishing your meat 10-30 mins for everytime you remove the lid.

There are thermometers with a wire that that goes into the grill which is an improved as now you don' t have to open the grill/hood. But you need a compatible grill / smoker with a hole for the wire.

This makes the Meater wireless thermometer so great. The thermometer sensor includes a battery, 2 temperature sensors and a bluetooth transmitter. Which is pretty amazing for a stick about 4 inches long and the diameter of 1/4 inch. The sensors measure the meat temperature and the ambient temperature of the grill/smoker.

The Meater comes in a case that triples, not only as a case, but also as a charger for the stick and as a bluetooth extender, giving it a range of upto 165 feet to connect to your phone. The case includes 1 double battery that is used for charging the meater and powers the bluetooth extender.

The Meater comes with a nice phone application. In my case the IPhone version. The phone application shows the meat temperature and the ambient temperature. It allows you to specify the target meat temperature and based on these 3 temperatures calculates the estimated time the meat will be at that temperature.

The application also provides help setting up the correct target temperature. It asks you what kind of meat and how well done you want to have it and based on that suggests a target temperature. Once set it will automatically sets up an alarm that goes off once the temperature has been reached.

So far I used the Meater for smoking can chicken, burgers, smoking pork ribs and grilling a steak. Evertime the meat came out perfect.

The smoked chicken was almost done by the time I inserted the Meater. It had suggested a temperature of 165F and it was spot on, we saw the meater temp slowly rise to 165F and the chicken was ready.

For the New York strip steak (1 inch thick) I had inserted the Meater before I put it on the grill. The Meater had recommended searing the stick in the beginning for 1 min each side and then let it reach the target of 145F (medium) on low heat.

I did not turn the steak anymore and just let it sit until it reached the target temperature, it came out great, with a thin well done outside with a pink (not bloody) inside.

The next test came with smoking the ribs, this would take about 8 hrs and I was actually concerned that the Meater's battery would not last long enough, fortunately it did. Interesting with smoking ribs is that with the ambient temperature of about 230F the meat temperature rose to about 155F within 90mins, but then stayed at that temperature for hours. Apparently it is a common phenomenon with smoking meat. Then after 6 hours it started to rise again and got to the 203F in 2 hours. The ribs came out really nice.

So overall really happy with this new super power (magically when my meat perfectly cooked). Cleanup of the Meater is simple, just some hot water and soap and a dish brush. Be carefully when pulling out the Meater from the meat, the Meater is hot. so you use something to protect your hands from the heat.