Meater users: Measuring as pit comes up to temp?

sthamm · Nov 12, 2018

I just received my Meater+ in the mail. I'm reading that the meat probe end is not safe to expose to the ambient pit temp. With that said, anyone come up with a simple solution to measure the pit temp as it comes up to cooking temp before meat goes in? I'm thinking of submerging the probe in a coffee mug filled with water up to the safety notch.

SmittyJonz · Nov 12, 2018

Ain’t you got a thermometer on your smoker.?

keeperofsecrets · Nov 12, 2018

Stick it through the middle of a white onion and let it the onion rest on the grate.

Nuco59 · Nov 12, 2018

Use the thermometer you had before the meater came in?

I know you want to play with your new toy- we are all like that- but why to come up with a work around for something it tells you not to do?

W.I.T.W.A.G? · Nov 12, 2018

If it says it wont handle it I wouldn't test it. It sounds like you're going to have to use a different probe for pit temps.

sthamm · Nov 12, 2018

SmittyJonz said:
Ain’t you got a thermometer on your smoker.?

I do, but it's not always the most accurate or responsive. Plus, it'll only tell me my pit temp at one location in the pit. Reason I got the meater was to eliminate the need for wires entirely so I'm resisting that idea on principle. :heh:

The onion or potato trick seems to be a simple enough work around.

SmittyJonz · Nov 12, 2018

sthamm said:
I do, but it's not always the most accurate or responsive. Plus, it'll only tell me my pit temp at one location in the pit. Reason I got the meater was to eliminate the need for wires entirely so I'm resisting that idea on principle. :heh:

The onion or potato trick seems to be a simple enough work around.

Well then you’d know the temp of the potato or onion atleast............ but I usually just cook them till they’re Soft........

sthamm · Nov 12, 2018

SmittyJonz said:
Well then you’d know the temp of the potato or onion atleast............ but I usually just cook them till they’re Soft........

Haha nice. The Meater has the ambient sensor on the other end of the probe. Would be nice to cook the perfect smoked potato every time...

SmittyJonz · Nov 12, 2018

sthamm said:
Haha nice. The Meater has the ambient sensor on the other end of the probe. Would be nice to cook the perfect smoked potato every time...

Ohhhhhh...... Well that might work then.........

patrickd26 · Nov 12, 2018

I did finally receive my Meater Block. I've used it on a few occasions and realized that these things HAVE to be sensitive to temp. I'm going to baby them and use them on my 250-325 degree cooks. No way are they coming out for a 700 degree sear!

I feel like the ambient temps are WAY off. I might be wrong, but something tells me that ambient temps are much to be desired on this device!

ssv3 · Nov 12, 2018

Stick it in a tater. The ceramic ambient tip is good until 500 something degrees. You're not going to smoke anything at 500 so you're safe even if you smoke hot and fast.

robert-r · Nov 13, 2018

I use a Thermoworks Smoke to monitor ambient temps when using the Meater while getting the pit up to temp and during the cook. I really don't trust the Meater ambient temp part of the probe. It rarely agrees with the Smoke until the end of the cook.

SmoothBoarBBQ · Nov 13, 2018

I reached out to the makers of MEATER about this about a year ago and they suggested filling up a shallow cake pan with water, covering with foil, and then poking the MEATER probe into the foil. This would keep the internal probe protected from the heat and allow for a decent enough ambient temp. In practice I found it tough to use and if the probe "slides" and tears the foil you will end up getting a "Danger High" temp alarm pretty quickly.

I've also tried the potato but it is very difficult to force the probe into a potato. I had to use a different probe to start a hole to get the MEATER probe into the potato, and by this point it just didn't make any sense anymore. haha

As for a coffee mug, I did the same, but be careful as that is a small amount of water and it will boil quite quickly. The internal sensor doesn't want to be that hot and you'll end up with a "Danger Hot" alarm pretty quickly. It's certainly one of the big drawbacks of the MEATER, but not every piece of equipment can work for every single scenario.

SmoothBoarBBQ · Nov 13, 2018

robert-r said:
I use a Thermoworks Smoke to monitor ambient temps when using the Meater while getting the pit up to temp and during the cook. I really don't trust the Meater ambient temp part of the probe. It rarely agrees with the Smoke until the end of the cook.

This took me a long time to get used to as well, but the MEATER should show a different ambient temp than Smoke because of it's proximity to a large hunk of cold meat. I've found that as the cook goes on, maybe after about 2 hours, the temp difference between the MEATER and the Smoke is almost completely nil.

If you look at the MEATER website they also address this "issue" and explain why it happens.

https://meater.com/support/ Look under the FAQ and the question that is worded something like :

"The ambient temperature reading of the MEATER is wrong!"

It explains the thermodynamics involved with the probe being so close to a cold piece of meat and the effects that has on temperature in that area.

Jbowie · Nov 13, 2018

Hot Dog to the rescue

I bought a pack of cheap weiners just for this. I break one in half and probe it . works fine for me.

robert-r · Nov 13, 2018

robert-r said:
I use a Thermoworks Smoke to monitor ambient temps when using the Meater while getting the pit up to temp and during the cook. I really don't trust the Meater ambient temp part of the probe. It rarely agrees with the Smoke until the end of the cook.

SmoothBoarBBQ said:
This took me a long time to get used to as well, but the MEATER should show a different ambient temp than Smoke because of it's proximity to a large hunk of cold meat. I've found that as the cook goes on, maybe after about 2 hours, the temp difference between the MEATER and the Smoke is almost completely nil.

If you look at the MEATER website they also address this "issue" and explain why it happens.

https://meater.com/support/ Look under the FAQ and the question that is worded something like :

"The ambient temperature reading of the MEATER is wrong!"

It explains the thermodynamics involved with the probe being so close to a cold piece of meat and the effects that has on temperature in that area.

I contacted Meater customer support about this after one of my first cooks. I had done a rotisserie chicken. They said I had placed the probe incorrectly (it was at a 30* angle to the breast) and being so close to the bird, the temp was influenced by that. So I've been placing it so that it is as perpendicular to the meat as possible. The temp readings are better, but still leave a lot to be desired.

I bought the Meater mainly for use with rotisserie cooking. It works well for measuring the temp of the meat - not so good for pit temp, especially shorter cooks.

dadsr4 · Nov 13, 2018

Pick up one of these and see how many degrees the Meater is off and add it to the Meater reading.

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Meater users: Measuring as pit comes up to temp?

sthamm

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SmittyJonz

somebody shut me the fark up.

keeperofsecrets

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Nuco59

Babbling Farker

W.I.T.W.A.G?

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sthamm

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SmittyJonz

somebody shut me the fark up.

sthamm

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SmittyJonz

somebody shut me the fark up.

patrickd26

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ssv3

somebody shut me the fark up.

robert-r

is Blowin Smoke!

SmoothBoarBBQ

is Blowin Smoke!

SmoothBoarBBQ

is Blowin Smoke!

Jbowie

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robert-r

is Blowin Smoke!

dadsr4

somebody shut me the fark up.

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