Six years ago, I first saw the Meater+ at IFA Berlin and came away impressed. Soon after I reviewed it. The concept was brilliant: a wireless temperature probe that takes the guesswork out of cooking meat, with smartphone monitoring and a sleek charging dock. It seemed like the perfect convergence of my love for cooking and tech.
Now, after plenty of real-world use and seeing the product still on the market, I need to be honest. While the initial experience was promising, the long-term reality tells a very different story.
What is Meater?
For those unfamiliar, Meater is a wireless temperature probe designed to monitor meat while it cooks. You insert the sharp pointed end into your meat before cooking, and it measures both the internal temperature (at the tip) and ambient temperature (along the exposed shaft). The Meater+ model I tested connects to a stylish charging dock that extends the wireless range, allowing you to monitor your cooking from another room via a smartphone app.
The system works through a straightforward app where you select what you’re cooking and how you like it done. The app tracks temperatures in real time, notifies you when the meat is ready, and even reminds you to let it rest afterwards. There’s also Alexa integration if you want to ask your smart assistant for updates.
The Initial Appeal
I’ll acknowledge what impressed me initially, because these aspects do have merit. Cooking with a temperature probe genuinely removes guesswork. Watching the internal temperature rise gradually, then seeing it continue to climb during the resting period, was genuinely enlightening. That visual feedback changed my understanding of how meat actually cooks.
The Meater app is well-designed and intuitive. Setting everything up was straightforward, and the notifications for when to remove meat and when it’s ready to serve are helpful reminders. For someone learning to cook meat properly, these features have real educational value.
The Connectivity Reality
Here’s where things started falling apart. Even with the Meater+, which promises extended range through its charging dock, connectivity was frustratingly inconsistent. During that initial test with the spatchcock chicken, the connection dropped several times, forcing me to reposition the charging base repeatedly. This wasn’t a one-off issue; it became a persistent problem.
The base Meater model relies entirely on Bluetooth connectivity between your phone and the probe. In practice, this means you need your phone within a few metres of wherever you’re cooking. The Meater+ extends this slightly through its dock, but not reliably enough to justify the premium. If you want genuinely dependable remote monitoring, you need to step up to the Meater Link WiFi model, which adds even more cost to an already expensive gadget.
For most home cooking scenarios, you’re not wandering far from the kitchen anyway. The promise of monitoring your roast from the living room sounds appealing until you realise you’re checking the app every few minutes regardless, and you could just as easily glance at a traditional thermometer.
Durability Concerns
After roughly a year of fairly light use, my Meater+ simply died. Stopped working entirely. I wasn’t using it constantly; perhaps once or twice-monthly at most. For a premium kitchen gadget at this price point, that’s deeply disappointing. I’ve had budget kitchen thermometers last far longer with heavier use.
This is the critical issue I’ve come to after six years. For the vast majority of cooking I’ve done since that original review, I’ve had absolutely no use for a thermometer that I can monitor remotely.
Using a temperature probe is essential for many dishes. I’m not disputing that. Understanding when meat is perfectly cooked, rather than guessing or cutting it open repeatedly, transforms your cooking. But you don’t need wireless connectivity or smartphone integration to achieve this.
I now use a ThermoPro TP17 Digital Grill Thermometer with dual probes for nearly all my meat cooking, whether that’s steaks in a pan or salmon baking in the oven. It does everything essential: measures internal temperature accurately, has an external display you can glance at, and alerts you when your target temperature is reached. It costs a fraction of what Meater charges.
Who Might Benefit from Meater?
To be fair, I suspect Meater makes more sense for a specific type of cooking that’s more common in the US: long-term smoking or extended outdoor barbecuing. If you’re smoking a brisket for 12 hours, being able to monitor temperatures from inside your house without constant trips to the garden has genuine value.
But for the average person doing oven roasts or stove top cooking, that use case simply doesn’t apply. You’re in the kitchen already. You’re checking on things periodically anyway. The wireless monitoring becomes a solution looking for a problem.
The Verdict After Six Years
The Meater is an elegant piece of technology that solves a problem most home cooks don’t actually have. The initial wow factor of seeing temperature data on your phone wears off quickly when you realise you’re still hovering nearby, and the connectivity issues add frustration rather than convenience.
When my unit died after minimal use, I didn’t replace it. That tells you everything about whether it became indispensable.
If you’re serious about cooking meat well, absolutely invest in a good temperature probe. They’re essential tools. But save your money and get something like the ThermoPro for €20-€30 rather than spending €89-€109 on the Meater. You’ll get the same core benefit, reliable connectivity to a display unit, dual probe capability, and money left over for better ingredients.
The only exception? If you genuinely do regular long-form smoking or outdoor cooking where you need to monitor from a distance, and you’re willing to invest in the WiFi-enabled Meater Link model for reliable connectivity. For everyone else, this is an expensive gadget that solves a problem you don’t have.
ThermoPro TP16
Simpler. Better.
Buy nowAffiliate link: we may earn a commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you.
