iGrill 2 ambient probe advantages?

B4tn · May 27, 2015

I just picked up my igrill 2 and was all excited until I realized the two probes that it comes with are meat probes and the ambient probe is an extra $24. I automatically assumed that it had one probe for cooking and one for ambient temps.

Looking at the probe range it looks like it reads low enough that I could use it as an ambient probe. So why get special one just for ambient temps? Is it supposed to be more accurate? Or will I be ok just wrapping the extra meat probe in a ball of foil and calling it good?

Ron_L · May 27, 2015

I don't have specifics of the iGrill probes, but typically the ambient probes use a different sensor/thermocouple than meat probes. Meat probes are designed to be in contact with the meat and may not be as accurate when in the air.

nickmv · May 27, 2015

Ron_L said:
I don't have specifics of the iGrill probes, but typically the ambient probes use a different sensor/thermocouple than meat probes. Meat probes are designed to be in contact with the meat and may not be as accurate when in the air.

No, that's the opposite issue. Using meat probes for ambient air causes TOO much accuracy. The point of a grate probe is to measure overall temp of the cooking environment, but not to respond instantly to changes. It's a slow process. Otherwise, controllers would be going absolutely nuts because they'd be receiving info from a probe that's changing temps way too rapidly.

If you hook up a meat probe, you're likely to see feedback like so over just a few secs' time (using 225 at setpoint arbitrarily here):
225.0
225.9
223.8
227.1
224.4
225.6
224.2
226.5

It's all over the place, ya see? Why? Simple -- airflow. And that wreaks havoc on a controller when youre getting readouts on both sides of the setpoint.

tldr -- meat probes are TOO accurate, grate probes are thicker and slow on purpose.

Ron_L · May 27, 2015

nickmv said:
No, that's the opposite issue. Using meat probes for ambient air causes TOO much accuracy. The point of a grate probe is to measure overall temp of the cooking environment, but not to respond instantly to changes. It's a slow process. Otherwise, controllers would be going absolutely nuts because they'd be receiving info from a probe that's changing temps way too rapidly.

tldr -- meat probes are TOO accurate, grate probes are thicker and slow on purpose.

I would call that being too responsive, not too accurate. It's not possible to be too accurate :-D Either way, they are different that ambient probes.

nickmv · May 27, 2015

Ron_L said:
I would call that being too responsive, not too accurate. It's not possible to be too accurate :-D Either way, they are different that ambient probes.

True, good correction. It's not accuracy technically.

smokeacholic · May 27, 2015

Great thinking nickmv. I always learn something on this site. Thanks

Richard1233 · May 27, 2015

Ron_L said:
I don't have specifics of the iGrill probes, but typically the ambient probes use a different sensor/thermocouple than meat probes. Meat probes are designed to be in contact with the meat and may not be as accurate when in the air.

So does this mean I should get a regular probe for my ET-733? It came with 2 meat probes that says u can use them for pit tempS as well. This has me wondering if my pit temps are right in my et-733

Ron_L · May 27, 2015

Richard1233 said:
So does this mean I should get a regular probe for my ET-733? It came with 2 meat probes that says u can use them for pit tempS as well. This has me wondering if my pit temps are right in my et-733

Not sure. If they say they can be used for both, then they probably can.

2liter · May 27, 2015

I just bought the igrill2 and used one probe for the meat and one sticking through the grommet on the side of my WSM. Seem to work fine. Still plan to getting the ambient temp probe later on.

Zrexxer · May 28, 2015

I just ordered an iGrill2, and have been struggling with that same question. I even called iDevices, and of course they told me that the probes were different, but they couldn't offer any details, other than telling me that the ones that come with it "are for meat."

I ordered mine from Amazon, who doesn't sell the ambient probe, so I want to evaluate it and decide if I want to keep it before I order the separate ambient probe directly from iDevices.

In the meantime, I'm going to try the second probe in a ball of foil - it should at least work well enough to tell me if the bimetal dial thermometer in the lid of my WSM is anywhere close. If I like the iGrill2 and decide to keep it, I'll probably order the ambient probe later.

SmokinFisherman · May 28, 2015

I have the iGrill2 with the 2 meat probes that came with it in addition to 2 extra ambient probes, thus far i couldn't be happier, I chose this configuration so that i could monitor both ends of my smoker and meat at the same time. I saw people complaining about connection issues saying it always drops signal, from personal experience i can tell you that is NOT the case, I live in an all brick house built in the 60's and had no connection issues at all.

Smoking Westy · May 28, 2015

My experience has been the same as SmokinFisherman's. The only time I had signal issues was over the winter on a -6 degree (Fahrenheit) cook. I think my batteries got cold as it worked for a while and then started giving me a sporadic connection. Since that cook, I've had no issues.

I can't say I've used a meat probe to monitor the pit temp but their ambient probe does work well.

peeps · May 28, 2015

They look to just be different designs but both are the same cost and the ambient one comes with a grate clip. My guess is they include 2 meat probes because many grills come with built-in dome/lid thermometers, so 2 meat probes were probably the preference when they were deciding how to package the unit. I see no issue with using one for pit and one for meat.

http://store.idevicesinc.com/igrill2-igrill-mini-pro-meat-probe/

http://store.idevicesinc.com/igrill2-igrill-mini-pro-ambient-temperature-probe/

nickmv · May 28, 2015

Yep, it's a much bigger issue if it was an airflow controller, but it's just a monitoring device. THat's prob why they toss in 2 meat probes instead of 1/1

basuraman · Jun 22, 2015

Thanks for the info. Just got one for fathers day and was just asking these questions.

bbqwizard · Jun 23, 2015

basuraman said:
Thanks for the info. Just got one for fathers day and was just asking these questions.

I got one for Father's Day too, so thanks for asking the questions

iGrill 2 ambient probe advantages?

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