Best WIRED-tested Wireless Meat Thermometers (2024)

Yes. The probe can withstand temperatures from 800 to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit before risking damaging the sensor, which typically produces more energy than charcoal briquettes, which are hotter than traditional gas grills. There are some scenarios such as caveman cookingwhere the proteins sit directly on the coals, or using an infrared gas grill, which can be risky for the probes as this could expose them to temperatures above 1,000 degrees, but for most everyday cooking, These probes will handle anything you throw at them.

While the probe can withstand temperatures up to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, don’t expect to see a 400-degree Fahrenheit reading on your steak. Sensors embedded in food typically track temperatures from 14 to 212 degrees Fahrenheit. You can use a probe to confirm that the refrigerator is running at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, the refrigerator is freezing at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and the poultry is at 165 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about the maximum internal temperature of the protein you’re eating. If the sensor temperature on the main part of the probe exceeds 212 degrees Fahrenheit, you will receive an alert asking you to cool down. For example, you can’t put a probe into a bucket of oil and use it as a fry thermometer. The notification may mean that part of the probe is contacting a metal grill or being exposed to ambient temperatures above 212 degrees, such as in an air fryer.

The outlier is the environmental sensor at the end of the probe. This particular sensor is located on the outside of the food, so it’s designed to receive more heat than the main probe because it’s hit with more convection, conduction, and infrared energy. Those who bake, broil, and grill at lower temperatures for longer periods of time tend to be more concerned about ambient temperature than those who grill hot and quickly.

Not really. Many of these probes are laboratory checked and are accurate within the plus or minus range they provide, usually around 1 degree. If you suspect the probe’s accuracy is inaccurate, a quick way to check the probe tip is to immerse the probe in boiling water, it should read 212 degrees Fahrenheit (at sea level) then enter a Ice water bathshould be 32 degrees Fahrenheit (if you avoid touching the cube). If the probe readings deviate outside the specified range, contact the manufacturer.

The lowest temperature inside food. Once you set your target temperature, the probe will tell you what the coldest reading will be within your dinner. While the app displays a number (a bird’s eye view), most apps allow you to dial in and view the temperature from individual sensors within the probe, which is useful for cutting larger cuts like brisket or rib roasts. Helpful. The temperature read by the environmental sensor is not factored into what the thermometer displays.

Yes, but the accuracy of a specific reading varies, and the various probes don’t all check it the same way. Most probes have an environmental sensor on the bottom and are designed to withstand the highest heat, since the air, frying oil, or sous vide water around the food is hotter than the center of the food you’re cooking. ThermoWorks is the only system that tracks ambient temperature through a wired probe that plugs into the base station.

The reasoning is the second law of thermodynamics: Insert a conductive metal probe into cold food, and as the heat turns cold, the temperature will move away from the onboard environmental sensors. In addition to this, in a hot oven, large pieces of hot mass (cold food) are covered with a layer of cooler temperature, caused by water evaporating from the surface. Unfortunately, the location of the environmental sensor inside the probe (an inch or so outside the food) is in a misleading area that reads lower than the actual ambient temperature. To solve this problem, ThermoWorks uses a wired probe held by a spring clip that is designed to be placed on an oven rack or grate on a grill or smoker close to the food, but far enough away to not absorb evaporative cooling. Ambient temperature tracking isn’t as important if you’re cooking steak or pork chops, but it’s something backyard grillers are very concerned about because the name of the game is keeping the temperature low for hours.

Each probe shaft is marked with a minimum insertion line. You actually bury about 3/4 of the length of the thermometer in the food so that the main sensor is protected from the heat. Aim to place the probe tip in the center of the fattest part of the food, avoiding bone or cartilage or fat, which can affect temperature. Because probes have more sensors, electronics, and batteries embedded in them, placement can be more finicky than with wired probes that only take readings from the tip. You might be able to insert a wired probe through the top of a cut or at an angle into a thick steak, but this won’t work with wireless probes, which are generally heavier and floppier and require the sensors on all axes to be submerged in water. alarm. Cordless probes will not work well in all situations, such as thin chicken steaks, narrow sausages, or very delicate fish, which have a wider diameter than wired probes. Best practice is to position the probe so that the end (which usually houses the environmental sensor) does not come into contact with the grille or any other metal, which may produce false readings.

My process for setting up the probe started by syncing it to the app on my phone so I could see the thermometer record the room temperature. I then set a target temperature on the app and double-checked for low-battery warnings. Finally, I inserted the probe into the thickest part of the food to make sure the temperature was changing, which is what it should be since the protein is usually around 40 degrees Fahrenheit when it comes out of the refrigerator. If you have questions about the probe working, you can always hold or pinch the probe with clean hands and wait for the temperature on the app to rise a few degrees.

In most cases, consultation with a smartphone app will be helpful and may be necessary. Not all probes have a base station with a screen, which means you’ll need an app to adjust the target temperature and receive notifications. Some probes offer the basic functionality of the Apple Watch app to handle current temperature communication.

Won’t. Read the thermometer. Instant-read thermometers are also thinner, making it easier to regulate the temperature of foods like chicken tenders and wings.