MEATER® Smart Meat Thermometer
reviews and complaints

I have the MEATER Plus. When it works, it’s great. It just doesn’t always work. The app and Bluetooth/Wi-Fi is way too buggy. I don’t think I’ve ever gone through a whole smoke without it disconnecting at some point. The cloud is lousy. I have to have a device at home connected to the base, and the internet in order to see what my meat is doing remotely. Even at home sitting on the couch 10ft away (inside with a huge window between) it still disconnects anytime I turn my screen off.

So the base, that has to be connected to my iPad, which is connected to my phone through the cloud. It always disconnects. I guess it’s too cloudy. I smoke enough stuff, I could easily use the four pack, but I’m not about to spend that kind of money for a product that still has a lot of bugs. I’ll probably end up going with the MeatStick for the four pack bundle.

For the $$$ I expected better connectivity, no matter how it’s setup (BT,Cloud,Block,WiFi) it still disconnects a lot causing cooks to be off, most of the time mine does not even reconnect until I do it manually…for example I mowed my front lawn (50ft) total and the Block was outside with me I ended up overcooking one of the two $25(each) Pizmo Filets. The app never alerted me to the disconnect, upon checking the Block the probes in use were just spinning even tho the Block was 2-3ft from the grill…Almost $300 is alot for this product and considering I’ve lost a $25 Filet and $65 Roast…I utilize the WiFi option on my grill again now to avoid issues…I bought this to avoid wired probes but the wired ones and my grill have never failed plus I can truly connect to my grill without disconnects thru the grills app…

Now for the APP layout itself it’s pretty great…

I wish the time trend display had internal and ambient temperatures at the top. Target seems unnecessary. I wish actual clock time was available when I touch the trend line, along with duration into cook. my iphone doesn’t update the readings or alert unless the display is on, even though background app refresh is on. Might just be my phone *I hate it that the app automatically ends my cook as it approaches target. Sometimes I like to let it go a little over target to account for a temp drop that occurs when I unwrap the meat and put it back in the smoker to get a nice bark. This just confuses the app so it auto-ends my cook and I lose visibility and history before the actual end of the cook. *I wish I could set up a cook ahead of time with steps, estimated timing and other notes and then add observations throughout the cook and maybe a couple of photos during and after the cook. This is key to learning and improving the quality of my cooks.

I was given a smoker and a Souvide water heater as presents. I used the device thermometers and my dishes came out good but I always wondered about how well the meats were cooked. I then decided I needed an internal thermometer that could withstand the rigors of being in the heat of the cooking session and decided, after some research, that the Meater was the best tool for this.

Since I began using the Meater in smokers and Souvide cooking methods plus regular oven cooking, my dishes have stepped up to be the envy of my family. I enjoy watching the temperature graphs because it lets me see how the food is cooking. I also enjoy the “resting” phase of cooking since before Meater, it was a guesstimate. The other thing I enjoy is sharing the data with friends in the office at the water cooler. We can criticize and share recipes.

One last thing. If using in smokers, take care to clean the end (with vinegar) or else the thermometer does not charge.

I like gadgets, and was seduced by Meater’s level of gadgetry. It would be fun to use, too, if it were even remotely accurate.
Every single time I have used it, probably a dozen times now, it has always fallen short. Today was the perfect example.… I made a beef Wellington, and when the meter said it was at 140° inside temperature, I let it rest, and cut into it. It was raw inside and not even warm to the touch.
And yes, I had placed the thermometer properly.

Thank goodness it was undercooked rather than overcooked which would have ruined a very expensive piece of meat.

I’ve had the same experience with other cuts of meat in the oven, and out on the Weber Grill, (by the way, the Bluetooth signal will scarcely penetrate the lid on a weber kettle, so if you go any further than about 5 feet away, you lose the signal. Not very practical), and I just can’t rely on this anymore. I’ll just consider this a very expensive lesson in “let the buyer beware.”

I love to grill and cook in general. I’m not sure how I grilled and broiled meats in the past without MEATER. This is the greatest addition you can make to your grilling arsenal of tools.

MEATER is very easy to use. The app is excellent. I get great results now on every piece of meat. It is perfectly cooked. Visiting with guests and forget to check your meat on the grill or in the oven? You’ll never have that problem again with MEATER. It sends you alerts that you can set up. I love how you set the meat you’re cooking and how well you want it done and it alerts you when to pull it from the heat to let it rest. Perfect every time.

MEATER even can broadcast across your WiFi from the monitoring phone to others. It would be better if MEATER could directly connect to WiFi so you don’t have an intermediate phone device, but it’s still very usable as is.

If you love to grill and cook different meats, get a MEATER. You won’t be disappointed!

Grilling and searing frequently use temperatures in excess of 500 degrees but, astonishingly, this dumb thermometer doesn't work at such temperatures. Trust me, when the ambient temperature gets over 500 degrees, the stupid app loudly blows the klaxons every few seconds and then blocks the entire screen with a bright red warning message so you can't see anything else. I mean it, you really can't see anything. You can't even see the meat temperature anymore, which was the entire point of all this. The product designers and app programmers must not know anything about grilling, because these are very stupid problems to have.

As for this app, its hard to give even one single star for this abomination, a thermometer app that, deliberately by it's design, doesn't show the meat temperature. It's only exacerbated by the fact that the underlying product won't work over 500 degrees, a temperature that most home ovens and even some toaster ovens can achieve.

Update: After working with their support staff, I was able to update the block and since then, it’s worked much better and has only had an occasional disconnect. I love the idea of these and the consistency of meats I cook has been better than anything I’d ever done before. So if you have the block and it tells you to update the firmware, do it. And if it doesn’t work, contact their support staff and they’ll help you out.

First review, before firmware update to block. The block works but is super frustrating because it constantly and randomly disconnects. The firmware update process always sparks hope, but never updates. Support staff are nice but still have not given me any solutions that make things better. Instead, I spend what seems like hours trying to get it to update and work properly, but so far, I’ve been unsuccessful. As soon as it starts working as advertised, I’ll submit another review or update this one. For now, I’m jus left feeling frustrated.

I’ve been using the MEATER for a couple of weeks now, purchased shortly after I also purchased a new gas grill. The gas grill has a rotisserie and I wanted to be able to monitor internal meat temperature on my roasts without bothering with wires. The MEATER works perfectly for this! I find accurate internal meat temperatures, accurate estimated time to completion, and the convenience of being able to monitor the internal temperature inside my grill during cooking. All of this with the convenience of no wires and being able to use my phone application for monitoring all of the above. What a game changer! I have now used the MEATER to cook a whole turkey, a prime rib roast, and a pork shoulder on my gas grill using the rotisserie, and I couldn’t be happier with the probe and the app.

Update: I continue to use and love the MEATER probe and phone app regularly, now going on 6 months. I have no complaints whatsoever and fine the device to be quite accurate. I purchase extra MEATER probes often as gifts for friends.

Today marks the 5th meal I pulled my MEATER device out for, input a new battery in the dock every time after using it. Here we are, rib roast goes into the oven, open the MEATER app and the probe can’t connect to the base. Assuming it’s the battery, which I had already cleaned the head off of the probe, I now scrubbed the head with a Brillo pad until it’s like chrome and have it back in the dock. I am trying to use the app to check the charge level of either the base, or the probe, because I want to 1) use it as soon as it’s charged. 2) know for sure that it is actually charging and at what rate. 3) know if I charge it to say 50% that it will last for 3 hours I need for this rib roast.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, fix these things or I’ll keep writing bad reviews, I cannot stand poorly designed artist type gadgetry that doesn’t have basic functionality to prevent things like this from happening. This should have never been released to the market like this. I am very angry. Would not recommend this to anyone.

How can a company possibly make a thermometer look sexy? I didn’t know it was possible but [censored] they did it. This thing is amazing. Honestly amazong is an understatement- more like revolutionary. I’m actually taken aback. I have had several “digital thermometers” in the last but this ….this is in a completely different league. Besides being a conversation piece and is on display in our kitchen, when used with the app, it’s a complete powerhouse of metrics delivered instantly to you when you need it: ambient temp, target temp, internal temp, alarms for notifications, when to pull it off the heat for resting periods…it’s also filled with features. It has been 100% accurate so far and I’ve used it about a dozen times. It completely takes the guess work out of cooking. Firstly, no wires. That’s huge. Secondly, you can choose from pre-determined meat temp settings or do your own! There are presets for all kinds of meat amd fish. A countdown helps you gauge time and timers alert you when you’re not actively watching your phone. I could go on and on but the app itself is ROCK SOLID!

It worked well for a few cooks. Maybe 15 to 20 cooks later it doesn’t like to maintain a connection. It is frustrating, to say the least, to put your steak on the grill and start watching your cook then out of nowhere the connection is lost even if the phone is literally touching the probe. I end up having to use my trusty hardwired probe and sometimes the MEATER starts working again. I really loved it when it worked. And yes I have kept it clean and charged.

The Company asked that I reach out to them which I did. They were able to review my cook information and apparently I had at least one cook that exceeded the maximum temperatures. My thermometer was also just outside the warranty. Despite these two things, and even though I did not ask for it, they offered, and did send a replacement thermometer. I think I will not use this on the grill which is where I think I probably exceeded the maximum temperature. I don’t cook that hot on the grill but flareups can definitely happen while not being closely watched over. I haven’t looked to see what other peoples experiences were with customer service, but mine was top-notch.

I have now used the MEATER 7 or 8 times and it has yet to be anywhere near accurate. This time we made a really nice thick pork chop. It was out in room temp for an hour. The MEATER was placed right down the center of the pork chop. From our past experience we set it for well done. Pre-heated the air fryer and placed it in when it reached 450. We set the time on the air roaster for 24 minutes and that was 2 minutes short of what the MEATER showed. It did not take long and the MEATER time was shorter than the time we selected. The MEATER went off telling us the pork chop was done, our air fryer showed 1 minute to go. We took it out and cut into it, and the blood just ran out of it, again not any where near well done. We put it back in for 12 minutes and then it was med well just the way I really wanted it.
I am soooooooo upset that I wasted 100.00 on this piece of junk. I forgot to mention that 5 times while cooking it lost connection telling me the box needed to be closer to the probe. It was only 4 feet away, how much closer does it need to be.
Go to Walmart and for .99 you can get temp gauge that is 100% more accurate and will save you 99.01.

Been using this for about a year. If I take the meat off the grill and place on a cutting board to rest immediately upon the app telling me... the meat will cook 10-15 degrees past my target internal temp every single time. I’ve unfortunately had to learn to just remove meat as I see fit, as the app’s predictive analytics are worthless. This is my biggest complaint. Apparently the app thinks meat carries over just 3 degrees while resting.

Also frustrating is the lack of range when cooking. If you close the lid on even a standard Weber kettle grill, the phone has to be within 5ft (sometimes less) of the grill to work. Pretty much makes the MEATER useless for low and slow cooking.

As for cooking hot and fast, well, 500 degrees is the ambient temp limit before potentially damaging the meater, so it’s useless for that as well. It seems this device was designed without grilling in mind.

The range is decent when using with a glass door oven (the phone can be anywhere in the kitchen).

If I’m being picky, I will also say that because the meater is so large, it can be a bit odd looking for presentation purposes when all your slices of steak or pork tenderloin have a pencil sized hole in them unless it’s convenient/possible to stick the probe in against the grain (not always possible depending on your cut).

I’ve recently gone down the rabbit hole of barbecue and smoking. This thing has been my right hand tool through the journey. They say the journey is the reward but that’s an understatement. A lot of the comments I’ve read say that it disconnects, it has not disconnected one time for me (20+ cooks). I do keep the probe clean and scrub it down after each use like the directions say. Other than that my only suggestion would be to keep the notes synced across devices. If I start a cook and add notes on my iPad, I cannot see or add to the same notes on my iPhone.

UPDATE***
At first, I thought it was my grill’s probe, but after a smoke with 1 meater probe in the brisket and the other resting on a pan (2” up from grill surface) , the temperature fluctuations are ridiculous. Initially I will set my grill to 200° and the meter would only read the ambient as 150°. It will have this wide gradient for most of the cook. The closer to the stall and subsequently after, the ambient reading from the meater and the setpoint for the grill start to align. I can trust the meter only for an internal temperature. Other than that the timing and ambient are not anything I can trust. I realize that initially there’s not a good predictive estimate on timing for large blocks of meat because of the stall but this is like that across all cooks, whether it be a steak, fish, etc..

I’ve tried a number of “wireless” thermometers that nonetheless used wired probes to connect to a transmitter connected wirelessly to its own receiver. Not only did the braided metal wires of the probe always end up fraying, but the receiver simply reported the current temperature. The exception were units with dual wired probes to read both meat and ambient temps. The probes would fail, but not before the broken braid would puncture my fingers a few times.

MEATER changed all that. No wires of any kind at all. Just a smooth spike that contains both internal and ambient probes in a single unit. The real clincher is the MEATER app. It does so much more than simply report the current temps. You tell the app the kind of meat you are cooking and how well you want to cook it. It tracks the internal and ambient temps, calculates how long the cooking will take, fine tuning as the cook progresses, warns you five minutes before final doneness is reached, and alerts you to remove from heat to let the meat rest. Finally, it tracks the resting period and tells you the final temp and doneness after the meat’s internal temp starts to fall instead of rise.

My results have been great every time, so far. I’ve used MEATER with briskets, steaks, turkeys, whole chickens, chicken breasts, and pork chops. Nothing else has come close to the ease of use and the perfect guidance that the MEATER probe and app provide. I won’t recommend any other type or brand. MEATER has fully won me over.

Amazing that there are no beef or pork rib cook options. Please add the ability to add our own cool options. Not just rename existing.

Please stop the app from freaking out when I’m only using some but not all of the probes in the MEATER box. That is what I bought. I love it and it’s very accurate and works great but it is EXTREMELY annoying to have it constantly pinging my devices that the probe isn’t connected. Two ways this happens. Using only 1 - 3 probes but not all causes the other probe not in use to alarm. We need a do not monitor or not in use option please. Also when a cook is done and I’ve removed that probe please make an option for not in use or do not monitor. Whatever you can come up with I would appreciate. It also kills the battery faster on the meater box because it’s constantly checking for the probe. It is frustrating how sensitive it is but I’ve figured out how to mostly keep it connected. I had probes outside the smoker and it’s pinging me saying the probe isn’t connected.

One other thing I thought of is when I’m smoking meats for long periods of time I have to turn it off and back on again because it loses connection entirely. However this is a heating problem. I’m in the Southwest and it’s very hot here. With the probes not able to get through the smoker and 5 feet into my house I have to set the meater box very close to the smoker. With the hot summer it over heats the meater box. It’s shut down on me a few times. I now set a fan next to it and that keeps it from over heating or at least it’s better. Airflow for the meaterbox needs to be reconsidered.

Thank you for the product and I gave it 4 stars but for the cost, these issues should not at all exist.

I spend 20-30 min every time trying to connect this thing, and by that time, I end up using a $6 probe. I am not some 65 yo who doesn't know how the internet works either like cs keeps treating me like. I connect so many devices all the time and this by far has been my worst $100 investment ever. Cs has been no help as I've gone through all of ts,and they keep telling me to go through it. I was going to buy many more of these, but I'll try a different brand with a better return/replacement/warranty policy I guess

I am not able to complete any cooks without the probe disconnecting itself and going offline. I have to restart the cook in the app multiple times, and often find myself switching to a wired probe midway through the cook to establish a reliable temp gauge.

Speaking of the devil: as I have typed out this review I have received 4 separate error notifications from the app saying my device is disconnected. I will be switching back to my wired probe after pressing the submit button.

It is unfortunate, as the app is very user-friendly.

Was given a meater block from my family as a gift. It never connected. To anything. Even itself. No phone support anywhere. 4 days between email support submissions and each response. One person wants to replace it. The other wants me to wiggle the probes. It’s abhorrent customer service. The app will not connect to the probes. The Wi-Fi is connecting to my network but the app says the linking failed. I’ve never experienced anything like this poor level of service before it’s truly abhorrent - stay away at least until they get phone support. Zero stars.

Ambient temperature is always wrong. From 20 to 200 degrees off on every cook. Constantly looses connection despite the block being right next to the grill. The cloud is a joke and won’t keep other devices updated unless the app is always open and screen is on. Tech support is a joke. They make excuses for all of these shortcomings. So probe does not work as advertised. They charge a rerun fee of 25%, so you can’t even try the item to see if you like it. Also the app has no ability to turn off marketing adds while leaving the other notifications on. All around poor product and poor app.

Get a continuous loop of "watch video" when trying to set cook up. The two times I was able to set a target cook temp, the probe kept disconnecting from my app on my phone even having the block situated a couple feet from the oven. The whole point of getting the MEATER thermometer block was because of the advertised message that you could be doing other activities elsewhere and be alerted on your phone when food was cooked. Apparently when you do get thermometers working you have to be in same room. There's no live chat or telephone on app to connect with a live person to resolve issues. So very frustrated.

The most disappointing thing about the MEATER+ is the lack of any customer support. I bought a probe but ever since I’ve had two, neither probe lets me know to pull the meat before the target temperature. So now in trying to problem solve this myself, I’ve ruined well over $200 worth of steaks. As I watch the resting temperatures, they go 7-10 degrees over how I programmed the cook. . All I’ve gotten from meater after filling out entire forms has been one generic email. UPDATE: MEATER responded here, but gives no contact person or way to actually contact them. How about an online chat, like every other product?

Every time I use the probe, I have connection issues. iPhone 14 latest firmware update. No improvement. iPhone XS Max. No improvement. Perfectly clean probe. Well charged battery, constant connection issues. Had I known it was going to be this much of a fight to take internal temperatures of meat I would’ve never bought it. Further, the meater probe does not work on long cooks such as shoulders, butts or briskets. The device is not smart enough to measure the cooking time through the stall.
If it doesn’t work during long cooks then as far as I’m concerned, there’s virtually zero competitive points of difference between the meter and a standard digital probe.

Have two blocks and one single, 9 In total.
The first block is apparently on its way out.
2 of the probes not communicating in spite of every possible move to reconnect.
3 rd probe is now loose in the middle.
Tried support on several occasion's.
Zero help.
Zero support.

This was a huge game changer for me. LOVED it.
I own 9 grills , 3 smokers.
Cook a ton.

I have recommended this to all my friends - probably sold 6+ blocks for them too. I hope they have better luck than I do.

I will use them till they all die and by then hoping a better company comes up with a wireless device that is eirther more reliable or has bested consumer support ,
Hugs to all,
David

Wanted this product to do one thing, check the internal temperature of the meat I’m cooking. This product acts like it needs friends, it won’t let you just use the thermometer without trying to keep you on the line for an hour. Once you’ve registered and downloaded everything you expect it’s finally time to see what temp the meats at...nope nice try, gotta sign up for just a few more things. Oh also we need to run you through 15 min of what cooking time means...and another ten minutes of downloading...meanwhile the pork is on the grill with this thermometer inside it. Need a wireless thermometer? Want it to do one thing without asking a bunch of questions? Definitely don’t get this product

We really enjoyed our Meater Block for the 6 months that we were able to use it. If it kept working I would give it 4-5 stars. I’d sure they will keep improving on it, but ours will no longer connect. I tried to find a number to call, none available. Went through 15 steps to get to fill out a support form that hasn’t been returned. Could be a great company/product, not there yet though. (Update) Meater replaced my unit and it is working like a charm now.

Update: We got our Meater Block back after a few weeks, thought it was fixed. It worked one time and then stopped working again.

Wanted it to work so bad, first block worked for 10 or so steaks, next one only lasted for 1. Back to the old fashioned way.

Whoever is in charge of the software for this device should find a new job. It’s overly complicated to connect to. There’s no way the range is even half of what is advertise. The probe is too thick. They update the software too much for something so simple. I just need it to tell me what temp my meat is, why’re you updating the software while I’m in the middle of a cook? Leaves little reason why this is better than my “wired” thermometers. So save your money.

Update*** I love how the app does NOT tell me when my food is ready or over done. However it when it has a cooking estimate (which is always wrong) it notifies me 3 times. Then notifies me SIX times that the estimated time is 5 minutes (which is wrong).

On second use, the MEATER would not connect to my iPhone. I filled out the support request detailing what I’d done:
Washed and scrubbed per video.
Deleted and reloaded app.
Verified the LED was lit.
Checked that battery was good.

Four days later I got an email instructing me to do all this. Two stupid emails and ten days later they asked me to test connections on the thing. I did, they were good and it now connects to my iPhone.

I never — nor did they — do anything. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t.

It worked ok on the occasion I used it. But it only makes sense on a big cut. There is not room to place in a hamburger or a pork chop.
Big meat equals company and a special event. Is an unreliable thermometer useful in that circumstance? Not for me.

This product looks like it’s good, until I want to actually use it that is. If I just take the probe and look at it on my phone, it’s great. I’m ready to start a cook, etc. But 80% of the time, when I do actually want to do a real cook, it says it can’t connect. Bluetooth is on on my iPhone; my home network is fine; I’m literally standing right next to the meat with the probe inserted properly. But the stupid thing says it’s not connected. Oh, and the @help” is really great too. It just says to “remove the probe from the charging station.” That’s it, like that’s the magic bullet I somehow missed. Very frustrating when you’re starting to make a nice meal to find that your probe won’t work at the last minute (because it works just fine when you’re only testing it.)

Recent app update ‘offers’ videos. Unfortunately the ad blocks the entire screen such that I cannot proceed to set up a cook. Customer service is entirely dependent on email. This is not useful. I cannot use this very expensive thermometer because the app developer thinks that his ads are more important. Doubt I will get a reply in time to cook tonight. There is really no excuse for this lack of responsiveness - at least a chat, for Pete’s sake.

Update: I did send this in to the “happiness team” who have not yet responded. I attached a screenshot of the ad which forces you to enroll in the cloud site. If you enroll then your thermometer becomes operable again. I did want this but MEATER forced me.

Perhaps the “happiness team” could look for my message where they will find a screenshot. I cannot upload it here.

Well, it’s wireless from the block to the probes. The Block needs to be plugged in to charge the probes. So, is it wireless?

But this review is about the app. Simply put, it requires the app to be running on the screen the whole time to work. Once you exit out of the app, the probes immediately disconnect. An app that expects you to not use your phone for the duration of your cooking is ridiculous in this day and age. Once you open the app, it takes 20-30 seconds to reconnect. If you accidentally exit out of the app or if your phone locks, it immediately disconnects. I paid nearly $300 for this. Huge rip off!

***Update***

As of 4.28.21

MEATER has reached out to me. Their customer support has been disappointing too. I have gotten the run around. The one thing that is certain, they will not refund me.

I bought the + model thinking I would have ample range in my small backyard. The probe will not stay connected even though all lights are green and the probe is charged. I’ve run all the trouble shooting tips with no joy. It’s the definition of insanity. I try the probe each time I cook a piece of meat and each time I’m disappointed. I’m very confident it’s not me.
Also, prepare to receive more emails than you ever dreamed possible from a meat probe company. I had to designate all the emails spam because I couldn’t stop the inundation otherwise. If I wanted an email from the company everyday (sometimes multiple in one one day) I would have asked for them. And, you are almost forced into the emails.
I was hoping for a simple to use Bluetooth thermometer but that isn’t possible with MEATER+. It’s waaaayyyy more complicated than it needs to be.