Thermoworks Smoke Thermometer and Holster

[addicted-to-smoke]

I was looking at one of these today since they are on sale.

It is too bad that they do not offer the smoke in a WiFi-only package where you get the gateway instead of the proprietary receiver. Apparently, you can use just the wifi bridge then you can throw the other controller in a drawer and never use it.

Agreed! And that is exactly how I now use mine: The receiver stays in the drawer. I did not expect that to happen, but here's why:

1) The receiver comes with a convenient lanyard, but the receiver is heavy around your neck enough not to want to hang it there. And there's no belt clip or stand, so it gets put down on a table, facing the ceiling.

2) In my case, the receiver's range is shitty. Truly not anywhere in the same league as the Maverick. I will test it's open distance some other day, but 300 ft? Doubtful.

I realize Thermoworks says keep it "line of sight" but c'mon, this is a RADIO. Gimme some extra oomph to get through normal house walls that don't even have a foil insulating barrier, yeah? I do NOT live in a Faraday cage, so throw a brother some legit RF love, OK?

I get about 25-30 feet of range if the sender is out by the cooker (which, of course, it must be) and I'm relaxing on the couch right inside the door. Go to the kitchen? Dicey. Another room? Forget it, "con" on the display for sure and it's dropped the connection. Again.

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The Gateway is indeed it's own entity. Once you get it setup on your Wifi, with help from your sending unit, you have a better remote because you have your phone. Bring up the app and it updates in about a second. Works the same if over cellular, so take that, Bluetooth!

The only downside is that it does not pick up on the alarms you've set for the sending unit. You have to set them up again for the phone app, and be advised, just as with the regular remote, when one goes off you have to cancel each one separately.

It's really dumb to have the sending unit's alarm still going off after you've muted the remote's notification alarm, and I suspect it's the same if using the phone app. The solution seems to be to not set alarms on the sending unit when using ANY remote, physical or phone app.

[Edit] Not quite true. If using the physical remote, SET the alarms on the sending unit. The physical remote picks them up, and it's the only way the remote will know about alarms. You'll still have to hit a button to silence alarms, once on the remote and once on the sender. Dumb.

Love my Smoke and remotes overall, however. Ain't never going back to a Maverick.