The Best Wireless Meat Thermometers
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A lot of what goes into making a great meal—be it a Tuesday steak dinner or Thanksgiving—is your ability to manage temperatures. No amount of chopped parsley or sprinkled fennel fronds can zhuzh up overcooked meat. (Though mayo can rescue a leftover turkey sandwich). And that’s just the unpleasantness of chewing on leathery supermarket steaks, because accidentally tucking into raw chicken is more serious. Yet only about one in four adults say they use a thermometer often when cooking proteins.
Wireless leave-in probes aimed at outdoor cooking, which have been out for years, struggle with connectivity. These probes work … until you close the oven door on a bird, the lid on a pellet smoker barbecuing a brisket, or walk away from that T-bone on your grill. That’s when the glitchy behavior starts: dropped connections, requests to repair, timeouts, or temperatures that didn’t seem to move. Some hold a stable connection, but they can be fussy to work with, especially for an amateur backyard cook who might put them to work a couple of weekends a month. What good is a wireless probe without the confidence to walk away from the stove or smoker and take a nap inside while the collagen breaks down in the pork butt?
I spent a few days testing these probes: using the apps, checking responsiveness, and checking connectivity in my kitchen and the backyard. Then I subjected them to the Ironman test: putting the probes in a Staub cast-iron Dutch oven sitting in a Yoder pellet smoker (8/10, WIRED Recommends), one of the most robust cookers on the market, and checking whether they stayed connected. I also grilled steaks over glowing-hot charcoal to see if high heat bothered the probes. Kamado cooker diehards don’t fret: While ceramic grills have thicker walls than any metal smoker, steel is generally more difficult for these frequencies to penetrate, so these probes should work with your Big Green Egg too.
Check out the WIREDs Gear team’s other kitchen-related coverage, including the Best Meal Kit Delivery Services, Best Meat Subscription Boxes, Best Grills, and Best Pizza Ovens.
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Can You Use These Probes When Grilling?
Yes. The probes can withstand temperatures of 800 to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit before you risk damaging the sensors, which is usually more than the energy generated by charcoal briquettes, which get hotter than a traditional gas grill. There are some scenarios, like caveman cooking, where the protein is sitting directly on the coals, or using an infrared gas grill, that might be risky for the probes because this can expose them to temperatures higher than 1,000 degrees, but for most daily cooking these probes will handle whatever you throw at them.
What Is the Temperature Range These Probes Track?
While the probes can withstand up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, don’t expect to see readouts for a steak that’s reached 400 degrees. Sensors buried in the food generally track temperatures from 14 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use probes to confirm the freezer is humming at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the refrigerator is chilling at 40, and poultry reaches 165, which is just about the hottest internal temperature of the proteins you’re eating. If the sensors in the main part of the probe get hotter than 212 degrees Fahrenheit, you’ll receive an alert to cool things down. For example, you can’t drop the probe into a vat of oil and use it as a deep-frying thermometer. A notification could mean part of the probe is touching a metal grill grate or is exposed to ambient temperatures hotter than 212 degrees, like in an air fryer.
The outlier is the ambient sensor on the butt end of the probe. This specific sensor sits outside of the food, so it's designed to accept more heat than the main probe because it gets pounded with more convection, conduction, and infrared energy. Those who bake, roast, and barbecue at lower temperatures for longer periods tend to care more about ambient temperature than those who grill hot and fast.
Can You Calibrate the Probes?
Not really. Many of these probes have been checked by a lab for accuracy within the plus-or-minus range they provide, which is usually around 1 degree. If you suspect the accuracy of the probe is off, a quick way to check it is to submerge the tip in boiling water, which should read 212 degrees Fahrenheit (at sea level) and then into an ice water bath, which should read 32 degrees Fahrenheit (if you avoid touching a cube). If the probe’s reading is off by more than the stated range, contact the manufacturer.
If the Probes Have Multiple Sensors, What Temperature Is Displayed on Your Smartphone?
The lowest temperature inside your food. Once you set your target temperature, the probe tells you what the coolest reading is from inside your dinner. While the app displays one number—a bird’s eye view—most allow you to dial in and see the temperature of individual sensors within the probe, which can be helpful for bigger cuts like brisket or a rib roast. The temperature the ambient sensor reads isn’t factored into the display the thermometer shows.
Do All Probes Track Ambient Temperatures?
Yes, but the accuracy of that specific reading varies, and various probes don’t all check it the same way. Most probes include an ambient sensor at the butt end, designed to withstand the most heat since the air, frying oil, or in the case of sous vide, water, around the food is hotter than the center of whatever you’re cooking. ThermoWorks is the only system that tracks ambient temperature with a wired probe that plugs into a base station.
The reasoning is the second law of thermodynamics: sticking a conductive, metal probe into cold food pulls temperature away from the onboard ambient sensor as hot moves to cold. Beyond that, in a hot oven, that big block of thermal mass (cold food) has a blanket of cooler temperature covering it, caused by water evaporating off the surface. Unfortunately, the location of the ambient sensor within the probe, sticking an inch or so outside the food, is in that misleading zone that reads colder than the actual ambient temperature. To get around this, ThermoWorks uses a wired probe held by a spring clip that is designed to rest on the oven rack or the grate of a grill or smoker near the food, but far enough away that it’s not picking up the evaporation cooling. Ambient temperature tracking is less important if you’re cooking a steak or pork chop, but it is something backyard barbecuers pay a lot of attention to, because the name of the game is low, consistent heat held over hours.
How Do You Stick a Probe Into the Food?
Each probe shaft has a minimum insertion line marked on it. In practice, you bury about ¾ of the thermometer’s length in the food so the main sensors are shielded from the heat. Aim to rest the probe’s tip in the center of the fattest part of the food, avoiding bones or pockets of gristle or fat, which can throw off the temperatures. With more sensors, electronics, and a battery embedded in the probe, placement can be finicky compared to wired probes, which only take readings from the tip. You might be able to stick a wired probe into a thick steak through the cut’s top, or at an angle, but that won’t work well with a wireless probe, which is usually heavier, floppier, and needs all the shaft’s sensors submerged in meat to avoid a high heat alert. Wireless probes won’t work well in every situation, like thin chicken cutlets, narrow sausages, or very delicate fish—these probes are wider in diameter than wired versions. It’s good practice to situate the probe so the end, which often houses the ambient sensor, isn’t touching the grate or any other metal, which can give a false reading.
My process for setting a probe starts by syncing it to my phone’s app so I see the thermometer registers room temperature. Then I set the target temperature on the app and double check for low battery warnings. Finally, I insert the probe into the thickest part of the food, making sure the temperature changes, which it should since the protein is often around 40 degrees Fahrenheit out of the refrigerator. If there’s ever a question about the probe working, you can always grip or pinch along the probe, with clean hands and wait for the temperature to tick up a few degrees on the app.
Are You Going to Need an App?
In most instances, consulting the smartphone app helps and might be required. Not all probes have a base station with a screen, which means you’ll need an app to adjust target temperatures and receive notifications. Some probes offer Apple Watch apps that handle the basics of communicating the current temperature.
Is This the Only Thermometer You’ll Ever Need?
No. Wireless probe thermometers are a good option when roasting or searing indoors, or grilling or smoking outside, and while they are responsive, they are not a replacement for an instant-read thermometer that can show the temperature inside food in a couple of seconds. Instant-read thermometers are also thinner, so it’s easier for them to temp things like chicken tenders and wings.
- Photograph: Sal Vaglica
Best Overall
ThermoWorks RFX Wireless Probe Starter KitThe RFX, a two-part system with a probe and base station, aced every performance test. This thin probe looks like a ballpoint pen cartridge. It was the fastest to register temperature swings from boiling to ice water, which can take 30 seconds or longer on some of the less responsive probes. But its reaction time to subtle changes in temperature was more impressive.
Connectivity was excellent, both around the house over Wi-Fi and over cellular to the cloud. I walked about 430 feet away from the backyard to the end of the cul-de-sac, holding the base station, and it was still connected to the probe sitting in a sponge, within a cast-iron Dutch oven, resting in a steel smoker. Once paired, the RFX’s two parts connect to each other and your phone quickly. Grilling over high heat, even with the occasional flare-up, didn’t present an issue either. The wired ambient probe, while a cumbersome separate piece of gear to set up, seems like the price you pay for accuracy.
There are a couple of shortcomings with the RFX, some of which ThermoWorks plans to address in future updates. You can’t connect to the base station over Bluetooth alone, so this won’t work at the beach or at a tailgate. While the app is one of the few that displays the strength of the connection, which is a great way to confirm if you suspect it has dropped, the overall user experience isn’t the best for new cooks. The app handles the basics of showing you the temperature, but there are no quick presets for common temperature settings, such as medium-rare beef.
Probe length 4.7 inches Minimum insertion length 3.15 inches Diameter 0.21 inches Number of sensors Four in probe shaft; one wired ambient sensor plugs into the base station Temperature range From 14 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit for the shaft. From -58 to 572 degrees Fahrenheit for ambient sensor. Probes can withstand temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit; ambient sensor up to 700 degrees Fahrenheit Accuracy ±0.9 degrees Fahrenheit Connectivity Probes connect to base station through Sub-GHz (433 MHz). Smartphone connects to base station through Wi-Fi or cellular for cloud access anywhere. Works with Apple Watch Probe run time More than 65 hours with a full charge. A 10-minute quick charge provides 52 hours. Base station run time Up to 24 hours on a full charge. IPX rating Probes: IP69K; base station: IP66 Warranty Probes: 1 year; base station: 2 years; ambient probe: 6 months - Photograph: Sal Vaglica
Best With a Display
Typhur Sync Gold QuadThe Typhur is the best mix of performance and user experience. The base station has a large, bright, organized, black-and-white screen that, at a glance, shows your target and ambient temperature, along with a predictive timer tracking how long it will take for the food to hit your mark. You don’t need to use your phone unless you’re out of range. The probes, which are numbered at the butt end and correspond to slots in the base station, are nearly the same diameter as the ThermoWorks until they get to the chunky black ceramic end. I found a wider end like this is easier to grip when yanking out a potentially grease-covered steel stick lodged in a strip steak.
Without using your phone, the slick, Apple-ish base station lets you punch in temperatures and an alert so you know to pull a steak off a few degrees before the 135-degree Fahrenheit target. The frequency was powerful and consistent enough inside to work everywhere over Wi-Fi, and it had a decent Bluetooth range. Outside it punched through the Dutch oven and the smoker, and I was able to get up to 170 feet away while carrying the base station before the signal started dropping. I noticed there was a bit of a lag between the temperature on the base station and my phone’s app, which needed a few seconds to catch up. I appreciate the notification that you’ve lost connection, which not every probe provides.
For newbies, you can set up a cook by picking a protein like beef or pork, then a cut, and select doneness that comes with a programmed temperature. Typhur predicts cooks in two ways: In smart mode, it provides a recommendation to remove the food before the target, so carry-over cooking can finish it the rest of the way. In manual mode, where you’re punching in your own target temperature, it determines how much longer it will take to reach the target. The downside to Typhur is the accuracy of the ambient sensor probe, based not on the quality of the sensor but on the evaporative cooling that might throw the reading off.
Probe length 5.08 inches Minimum insertion length 2.875 inches Diameter 0.22 inches Number of sensors Five in probe shaft; one ambient sensor on the end Temperature range From 32 to 221 degrees Fahrenheit for the shaft. From 32 to 932 degrees for the ambient sensor. Probes can withstand temperatures up to 932 degrees Accuracy ±0.5 degrees Fahrenheit Connectivity Probes connect to base station through Sub-GHz (915 MHz). Smartphone connects to base station through Bluetooth, locally, Wi-Fi or cellular for cloud access anywhere. Probe run time About 26 hours with a full charge. A 2-minute quick charge provides 2 hours. Base station run time 26 with an internal battery that can charge the probes about 12 times each. IP rating Probes: IPX8; base station: IPX2 Warranty 1 year; 3 years with registration
- Photograph: Sal Vaglica
Best for Use in the Kitchen
Meater Pro XLThe Meater system excels in two situations: Where you can leave the base station next to the stove or if you have a spare Wi-Fi-enabled device to act as a bridge to the cloud. Because the Meater uses Bluetooth, not a Sub-GHz, connecting the probes to the base station over a long distance causes a drop, as it would with a Bluetooth speaker. But, if you can situated the base station next to the stove it works well to track a cook in the oven. Outside, you’ll need a second Wi-Fi device (phone or tablet) connected to the same network as your phone to act as a bridge to get the Meater’s readings to a cloud.
During kitchen tests, the Meater remained connected even while in a Dutch oven, but when I walked outside with the base station, the connection dropped and the screen turned off. In the smoker test, the connection was stable provided the base station was on the shelf right next to the smoker—if I moved 9 feet away, it dropped. But for most daily cooking, happening inside the house, the system would work well. Connecting the device to an older, unused iPhone and syncing it all to my network was easy, but kind of annoying. Still, the cloud-based access when outside of the house worked well.
You can use the Meater over Wi-Fi or in stand-alone mode, using the base station’s screen. The Meater’s screen is very limited and has Game Boy-level graphics vibes. I would only rely on the standalone mode when cooking off the grid, like a park. Meater’s app is a much better experience with easy-to-set targets, presets for common doneness, and a robust option of notifications you can opt in for, like predictive timing.
Probe length 5 inches Minimum insertion length 2.56 inches Diameter 0.19 inches Number of sensors Five in probe shaft; one ambient sensor on the end Temperature range From 35 to 221 degrees Fahrenheit for the shaft. From 35 to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit for the ambient sensor. Probes can withstand temperatures up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit Accuracy ±0.5 degrees Fahrenheit Connectivity Probes connect to base station through Bluetooth. Smartphone connects to base station through Bluetooth, locally, or through a second Wi-Fi-enabled device, like a tablet or phone, for Wi-Fi or cellular for cloud access anywhere. Probe run time About 24 hours with a full charge. A 5-minute quick charge provides 2 hours. Base station run time 24 with an internal battery that can charge the probes about 12 times each IP rating Not IP rated Warranty 1 year - Photograph: Sal Vaglica
Best for Barbecuing Large Cuts Away From Wi-Fi
FireBoard PulseFireBoard’s approach is more a la carte than the other brands. Pitmasters and serious backyard barbecuers know the FireBoard brand well, and the Pulse is better suited for experienced cooks already within the brand’s ecosystem. The probe connects directly to a smartphone without a base station, in the simplest setup. But, it also can transmit using 900 MHz if it has a device to talk to—so to get the most out of this thermometer’s potential, users really need the brand’s base station or one of the pellet cookers that comes with a FireBoard controller built in, like a Yoder.
While I was about 6 feet away the Pulse, by itself, wasn’t robust enough to connect to my phone from within the Dutch oven in my stove, though the connection improved when I moved closer. I repeated the test using the brand’s FireBoard 2 base station, along with the accessory antenna designed to receive the radio frequency, and the connection was rock solid anywhere I walked in the house. It was the same result outside with a much better connection when paired with the base station and antenna, which allowed me to get nearly 200 feet away and maintain readings with the probe sitting in a Dutch oven, within a metal smoker. For users who have a FireBoard 2, adding the antenna is a relatively inexpensive way to get the increased range out of the Pulse.
FireBoard’s software is aimed at pros who want a history of cooks, with graphs. While the display on the base station was clear and bright, overall this app was the most confusing one to use. For weekend cooks who want to use the Pulse and your phone to see what temperature a pork loin is at, there are easier options.
Probe length 5.87 inches Minimum insertion length 2.76 inches Diameter 0.19 x 0.23 inches (hexagon) Number of sensors One in probe shaft; one ambient sensor on the end Temperature range From 14 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit for the shaft. From 32 to 662 degrees Fahrenheit for the ambient sensor. Probes can withstand temperatures up to 806 degrees Fahrenheit Accuracy ±0.4 degrees Fahrenheit Connectivity Probes connect to smartphone through Bluetooth. For extended range, pair the probe with FireBoard’s base station, fitted with a Sub-1GHz antenna, which connects to the Pulse at 900MHz frequency. That configuration syncs the base station to Wi-Fi, or cellular, for cloud access anywhere. Works with Apple Watch Probe run time About 24 hours with a full charge. A 10-minute quick charge provides 24 hours. Base station run time 20 on a full charge IP rating Probes: IP67; base station: IP54; antenna: IP66 Warranty 1 year on all components
How I Tested
- Accuracy and responsiveness: The first test I threw at the probes was to start each at room temperature and then submerge them in boiling water, timing how long it took to register 212 degrees Fahrenheit (or as close to it as the probes could get). Then I immediately dunked each into an ice bath, timing the duration until it registered 32 degrees Fahrenheit (or as close as possible). I ran six heats with each probe, averaging out the responsiveness to its app over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The extreme temperature fluctuation also stresses the integrity of the probes.
- Speed: While these are not instant-read thermometers, faster is better. To see how quickly the probes registered subtle changes in temperature, I pinched the tips, timing how long it took the app to show an increase. I ran six heats with each probe, averaging out the responsiveness both over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
- Connectivity in the house: To test how reliable the connection is between the probes and my phone, I stuck each probe into a damp sponge. Then set the sponge in the oven on a baking sheet, warming to 200 degrees Fahrenheit, and shut the door. I checked to see if the connection remained as I walked around my house, downstairs, out to the street, and then the farthest part of my yard. I repeated this test by connecting over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth (with Wi-Fi off over cellular), and with airplane mode on while the Bluetooth was on. I repeated this test by putting the sponge in a Staub cast-iron Dutch oven.
- Connecting outside the house: To test how reliable the connection is between the probes and my phone through thick walls of metal I put each probe into a damp sponge. Then set the sponge in a cast-iron Dutch oven set inside a Yoder pellet smoker with 1/8-inch-thick steel walls cooking at 225 degrees Fahrenheit. Then I checked the range of the connection by walking from my backyard down the cul-de-sac and measuring where the signal dropped. I repeated this test by connecting over Wi-Fi, over Bluetooth (with Wi-Fi off), and with airplane mode on while the Bluetooth was on.
- High heat: To ensure the probes didn’t quit in the presence of glowing hot charcoal, I set them in similarly sized strip steaks. I started a measured amount of charcoal and poured the ashy gray briquets into baskets, to concentrate the energy, just below the surface of my grill. Then I cooked the steaks, flipping every two minutes, for the first 10 before finishing them off heat until the internal temperature registered 134 degrees Fahrenheit.
Why Do I Need a New Wireless Thermometer?
Bluetooth is the limitation that most of these new wireless leave-in probe-style thermometers address because it’s a high frequency, usually 2,400MHz, that struggles to penetrate the thick metal walls of a cast-iron Dutch oven and barbecue smokers. Most of these newer probes opt for a sub-GHz radio frequency—usually 433 to 915 MHz—which is lower, so it handles metal better. It’s similar to what gas utility providers use to beam information from your meter as they drive by. The catch? Your phone won’t understand these radio frequencies, so these probes usually rely on a middleman: the base station.
The communication chain of command is usually something like this: The probe, using sub-GHz, sends information to the base station which can be 1,000 feet—or more—away, with a clear line of sight. Then, using the companion app, your phone connects to the base station through Bluetooth—locally, if there is no network around, like if you’re cooking at a campsite or picnicking in the park.
At home, the base station syncs to your network, giving you access to the temperatures on your phone whether you’re in the basement or second-floor bedroom, or through the cloud when you’re out of the house and on a cellular network. Along with the connectivity upgrade, these silver spears can pack up to six sensors, whereas earlier generations might have only had one. They can usually track the temperature inside your food along with the ambient heat just off the surface of the protein outside.
