gregbooras said:
I am very interested in these probes, but decided to do a test today of my own.
I did not have a bluetooth speaker for the test, but I do have a Samsung wireless headset which I tried this afternoon.
For the test I place my Samsung phone in the smoker and closed the door. Then I tried connecting from my headset to the phone, seemed to work for about 12-15 feet (line of sight). But when I stepped behind a wall and was not line of sight, signal was lost completely. I also tried from inside my house (1 sliding glass door) and after about 6 feet signal dropped.
This is pretty much what I expected, but maybe the probes are better at getting the signal out of the box...
For those that purchased the pre-sale, please let us know how they perform.
Thanks Greg
Bluetooth range is pretty poor in general for most things. Will Meater have a better range than others? I'm not sure. That's why I went with the Meater "block". My understanding is you only need a bluetooth connection between the block and your probes (you would place the block within bluetooth range). The block then communicates with your home wireless network, so range is only limited to your own wireless equipment. And also with the block, you would be able to access the Meater Cloud, so you could see what is going on with your smoke from across town, or anywhere in the world you can get an internet connection. For those who only purchased the probes and charger, then the bluetooth distance and obstacles will be more of an issue. But if you purchase the block, I don't see much of a problem. If you had to, you could place the block right on top of the smoker.
I actually have several uses for the probes other than the SI. I use probes in my oven regularly too, and I would think the regular bluetooth connection might be okay for that, but I would still recommend for anyone to splurge and get the block.