Article updated on August 14, 2024 at 9:40 AM PDT
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Chris Wedel Home Tech Editor
Chris Wedel is a fan of all things tech and gadgets. Living in rural Kansas with his wife and two young boys makes finding ways to stay online tricky — not to mention making my homestead smarter. However, by utilizing his years of experience in the tech and mobile communications industries, success is assured. When not conquering the outdoors and testing new gadgets, Chris enjoys cruising a gravel road in his UTV with some good tunes, camping, and hanging out with his family.
Expertise Smart home devices, outdoors gadgets, smartphones, wearables, kid's tech, and some dabbling in 3D printing Credentials
- Covered the mobile and smart home tech space for the past five years for multiple large publications.
James Bricknell Senior Editor
James has been writing about technology for years but has loved it since the early 90s. While his main areas of expertise are maker tools -- 3D printers, vinyl cutters, paper printers, and laser cutters -- he also loves to play board games and tabletop RPGs.
Expertise 3D printers, maker tools such as Cricut style vinyl cutters and laser cutters, and traditional paper printers Credentials
- 6 years working professionally in the 3D printing space / 4 years testing consumer electronics for large websites.
When it comes to cooking meat, if you ask any professional chef or backyard grill king, what is the number one thing that leads to a perfectly cooked and juicy protein? It's temperature. Not to mention the safety factor of eating undercooked meat. Regardless of whether you are trying to grill up some burgers for a family cookout or smoke a brisket for 15 hours, temperature matters.
Plenty of great grilling tips and grilling tools can help you along your way, but if you aren't cooking your meat to the proper internal temperature, you're doing it wrong. This is why you need the best meat thermometer (often called a meat probe) you can get. There are smart wireless options, like the excellent Meater 2 Plus or instant-read thermometers, like the ThermoPro Lightning.
What's the best meat probe?
Throughout our testing, the Meater 2 Plus came out on top. It's accurate, like all the probes on this list, but the added benefit of the 1,000-degree maximum temperature makes it the most well-rounded probe overall.
We've gathered the top meat probes on the market to ensure you can grill, smoke, roast, bake or however else you want to cook your meat to perfection every time.
Best meat probes
The first time I saw the Meater 2 Plus, I knew I had to use it. I live in southern California, and the weather is pretty much always good enough to throw a rack of ribs or a spatchcock chicken on the grill. I do a lot of cooking out in the backyard, but it takes a long time to cook. You really want to cook slowly and evenly on a grill to keep the juices in.
The Meater 2 Plus lets me put the temperature probe into the meat, close the grill lid, and maintain a connection to my phone. Not only is the connection tremendous, but if you tell the app what meat you are cooking, it can work out the resting time, too, giving you a perfect piece of meat every time. The update to the Meater 2 means it can be much closer to the heat, including deep frying turkeys!
Read more: Our Meater 2 Plus hands-on
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I've used digital meat probes plenty of times, but often, when I need to use them, the battery is dead. When it works, the display is hard to read and takes around 5-10 seconds to get an accurate temp reading. The ThermoPro Lightning solves those issues and more.
Right from the top, the ThermoPro Lightning takes accurate readings of ±0.5°F in one second. This means your grill or oven lid is open for less time, reducing heat loss. It also means that you can make better decisions about when your food will be ready based on reliable readings.
As for solving the battery issue, the ThermoPro Lightning automatically shuts off after 90 seconds if you don't fold the probe closed. When you are using the probe, the large LED screen rotates based on how you're holding the probe to ensure you can always read the read-out without issues, even if you're left-handed. This instant-read meat probe is a must-have for any cook.
The Typhur Sync has been one of my go-to probes for a while now. I like how solid the case is and how easy the LED display is to read. While the app works fine, and having it connected to the phone is great, the display makes it perfect for those quick steak and chicken cooks on a griddle rather than a slow roast. I especially like the flared base of the probe, too. It makes it much easier to pull out when your hands are greasy.
The Typhur Sync is a little pricey, but the dual probe setup and vivid display make it a great purchase if you cook meat every day.
ThermoPro's Twin TempSpike gets a whole lot right for a great price. The retail price of $180 isn't cheap, but it is regularly on sale and packs some really great features into the dual probe package.
For starters, making the probe handle different colors (black and white) to coincide with the charger, booster, and LED readout on the base makes a big difference when using the probes. It allows you to quickly know which portion of the meat or piece of meat you are checking without needing to do specific labeling yourself. When you pair to the app, you can change the labels for your cook if you choose.
As for that base, not only does it keep your probes charged up and ready for use, but it also acts as a booster to extend the wireless range of the probes to 500 feet. The LED readout on the booster helps you to keep tabs on your cook when you don't want to use your phone, and the backlight means you can use it for late-night cookouts. The phone app lets you get notifications, check temps and choose from recommended meat profiles to get the best results.
I do wish the maximum internal temp was a bit higher. It is limited to 212°F, which is usually more than enough. When cooking things like a brisket where you're going to aim for closer to 225°F, the extra headroom would be helpful.
Ensuring you cook your meat to the proper temps for tenderness, juiciness, and safety is as important as how you season your meat.
Chris Wedel/CNETHow far do wireless meat probes reach?
This depends on the model and features it includes. For example, ThermoPro's Twin TempSpike has a 500ft Bluetooth range, the Meater 2 Plus is 250ft typical, and Typhur uses both Bluetooth and built-in Wi-Fi for nearly unlimited range. Although Meater claims a 2,500-ft rant on the 2 Plus, that is an open-air range, and that is why 250-ft is going to be more realistic.
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How accurate are wireless meat probes?
Accuracy has really improved in the past few years, with most of the top brands claiming their sensors are within ±0.5°F. This is generally pretty common for high-end meat probes and when compared to a dedicated thermocouple close to the claims.
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Are wired or wireless meat probes better?
Much of this will depend on your cooking setup and needs. Wired probes will generally have longer battery life and provide more real-time readings. You'll have to be content with wires coming from your grill, and if you have to run the wires under the lid, you risk heat and smoke loss from your grill. Wireless are more convenient and usually more expensive. You'll still get highly accurate readings and not have to worry about losses from a grill lid that isn't sealed shut.
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The most important part of any thermometer testing is accuracy. We weight this criteria most heavily when compiling entries to the best list, and it is the most scientific of the tests. We use a medical-grade thermometer as our baseline for accuracy and test the meat probe variance to that temperature.
Ice water testing
Testing the accuracy of a thermometer usually involves a cup, some ice cubes, and water. Due to the nature of water it can be a liquid and a solid at 32F (0C) so we can reliably get it to be that temperature. By filling a tall glass with ice cubes and adding water — chilled water so the ice doesn't melt — you can bring that water down to 32F.
We then insert both the medical-grade probe and the meat probe we are testing and stir it until the medical grade thermometer reads 32F. When that happens we record the temperature reading of the meat probe we are testing to see what, if any, variance there is.
Why don't we use heat?
You would think that using heat would make more sense. After all, these are probes for grilling meat, so high heat is more important, right? Unfortunately, heat is dependent on many factors, such as altitude and pressure, that we can't always control. The freezing point of water is always the same, though, wherever you are, so we can ensure accuracy independent of location.
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