Spent $200 on a pellet smoker thermometer that lied to me for months

I bought this fancy WiFi-enabled probe set thinking I'd get perfect brisket every time, but it was reading 30 degrees low the whole time so my meat was coming out dry and overdone. Found out when I used my old analog thermometer as a backup and saw the difference. Has anyone else had a high-tech gadget totally fail on them during a cook?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer_bell1d ago

Gonna push back a little here. A 30 degree offset sounds like user error not a gadget failure. Did you calibrate it when you first got it or just trust the out of box readings? Most WiFi probes need to be validated against boiling water or ice bath before you start cooking expensive cuts. Dry brisket could honestly be from opening the smoker too often to check your analog thermometer too. The constant temp swings from peeking ruin more cooks than bad probes do.

davis.keith1d ago

Spencer, you're right about calibration but a good WiFi probe shouldn't drift 30 degrees after a proper ice bath test, @spencer_bell.