Yes, I do! I had typed up a bunch of random notes and observations as the cook progressed, so I needed to organize them a bit. I'm sure I'll learn more as I use these probes for other cooks, like chicken, etc. This will be a start. I look forward to additional observations by the rest of the Meater owners.
My overall opinion is one of love/hate. The bad: connectivity issues. Although the connection is never totally lost, there are multiple disconnects and re-connects, with lots of annoying phone notifications. The good: the probes seem fairly accurate, and when everything is working, I like it a lot. The app also works well. I would probably never trust just one probe with this, but then again, I never cook with just one probe. Always at least 2. So I would not recommend buying the single probe version. Overall I would probably not recommend (sadly) buying the Block version at this time either. I think the technology is great, but I’d maybe wait a year and see if the connectivity improves, or some other company in China comes out with one that works better/cheaper. I am very impressed with the quality of everything, from the block itself, the probes, the packaging, etc.
I'm will continue to happily use Meater, and hope I can iron out the connectivity/alert issues (alert issues could be resolved with an app update). Also, it will be interesting to see what the life of the probes are. I'm not very optimistic that they will last long due to the very sensitive electronics exposed to heat for prolonged periods.
The Fireboard performed flawlessly during this test, quietly, in the background. I almost forgot it was there. Just what you want. No annoying alerts, and uses WiFi. I’d recommend buying Fireboard for now, and dealing with the wires. But I think it’s a matter of time before the 100% wireless technology will be standard.
Here are various notes I took during my cook:
Bluetooth connection is not very good. I had to place the Block within a few feet of smoker. Probes disconnect when I take the block just inside the house and close the back patio door (distance of 8 ft). Probes constantly disconnect and reconnect even when block is directly on top of the smoker. Every few minutes I seem to be getting some sort of connection error, but it reconnects without any action from me. (Not sure if there is a way to turn this type of notification off, while keeping the others on.) 7-8 hours into the cook, I was having almost no connection issues for some reason. I’m not sure why. It coincided with when it became dark outside. It was on a weekday. Maybe less interference in the evening as opposed to during the day for some reason? Not sure why the bluetooth connections would have improved…
It’s possible that our SI (and similar) smokers, being the solid stainless steel tanks that they are, are responsible for the poor bluetooth range between the probes and the block. At some point I am going to try this in my home oven and see if the range is better. It also might work better in a grill, etc.
Also, there might be (I think…but I’m not sure yet) a second connectivity problem between the block and my home wifi that continually un-pairs the block, then appears to re-pair on it’s own, usually within seconds. Lot’s of annoying notifications for this too. And every time that happens, the shared web links stop working. Same thing, no action required from me. And these connection errors also basically ceased 7-8 hours in.
“Time remaining” is pretty useless for anything that has a stall (like brisket or butt). I’m assuming its a simple algorithm based on a sampling of the first hour of temperature rise, that doesn’t take the stall into account, which as everyone knows, can vary by several hours from one cook to the next, so I don’t see how they could even make “time remaining” accurate. “Time remaining” started showing up about an hour into the cook. It was wildly inaccurate at the beginning of the cook. Way too short based on the relatively quick temperature rise. Then I noticed that once the temperature rise slowed down, and it got into the stall about 8.5 hours into the cook, the “time remaining” went from 4 hours to over 10 hours, which is again wildly inaccurate in the other direction (too long). I doubt if it would ever be very accurate with butt or brisket or anything with a stall, but it might possibly work okay for something like chicken or turkey.
The web browser links do appear to still work if the app is closed and the phone is turned off. In the help notes, they recommend that you leave your phone turned on and plugged in during the entire cook. That’s nuts.
Web browser link temperatures come up in Celsius by default, even though I have my app set to Fahrenheit. (Can change these in the settings menu in the upper right of the browser window.)
I find the built-in rest time too short (I think it was something like 45 minutes), but I suppose that could be a minimum. Rest times are probably more realistic for steaks, etc.
There is a default alarm set for “5 minutes before done” which seems pretty accurate, but I don’t find this very useful for butts or brisket. I’d rather know 30 minutes or so in advance. Might be helpful for short cooks. You can set a variety of custom alerts and alarms if you would like.
The alarm went off when food reached target temp. There was no early alarm for “carry-over” cooking. Just the 5 minutes before done alarm. This is probably part of the Pork Shoulder program or “smoke” programs since there probably isn’t much carry-over when at 225. I’m thinking for a Steak on the grill, the program would probably include an alarm for when to remove for carry-over, but I’m not sure.
Once the target temperature is reached, the “Adjust Cook” option disappears, so you are not able to change the target temperature and reset the alarms (if for example you decided to set the target temp 5 degrees higher for some reason after the fact). Since you can set multiple alarms, there should be no need to make changes after the target temp is reached. If you do want to make changes at that point, you need to start a new cook.
If you do not pull the butt from the smoker, the app will automatically go into resting mode. Then it goes back to “Remove from heat”. It will then alternate between “Resting” and “Remove from heat” for what seems like indefinitely. I can’t remember if I got an alarm every time it switched back to “Remove from heat”.
Wish you could:
Set custom notifications with a lasting repeating alarm, rather than a single short sound. That will never wake me up at night.
8.5 hours in, internal temps (location of probe when facing door of smoker):
Probe 1 (front right) 180
Probe 2 (back right) 177
Probe 3 (front left) 189 (Upon inspection after the cook, this probe was clearly in a large fat pocket.)
Probe 4 (back left) 177
The attached graph shows all 4 Meater probes, plus the Fireboard Food and Ambient probes (the gold colors) superimposed. Meater colors are: Blue lines = target temp. Green lines = ambient. Pink lines = food. A few things to note: 1) one of the Meater target temps was set to 195, the other 3 were set to 190. 2) The meat temp probe that is much higher than the rest at the end of the cook is Probe 3, which was in a large fat pocket. 3) The Fireboard ambient probe registered much higher at the beginning of the cook. I believe the Fireboard ambient probe was most accurate. I would expect my analog SI to have huge temperature swings and overshoots at the beginning like the Fireboard shows. See explanation that follows (which I found in the Meater documentation somewhere).
Fireboard vs Meater Ambient Probe, especially in beginning of cook. A large mass of cold meat (such as butt or brisket) creates a “cool bubble” around the meat, which explains why the Meater ambient temps are cooler than the Fireboard. The Fireboard probe was clipped to the rack. I had the Meater probes stuck in a bit beyond the line on the probe (probably a bit too far), to make sure to protect them. If the ambient end is within 2 inches of the meat, it will be in this cool bubble. It also appears that as the meat heats up, the opposite is true, and that the meat creates a "heat bubble". (See at about 4.5 hours into the cook, when the meat is getting close to 160.) Soooo Goldilocks… you want those probes stuck in their juuusst right! ;D (Right at the line.) Although I rarely need to monitor my ambient temp, in which case I'd make sure they were plenty deep.
:-\ 
