Most helpful customer reviews

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
Indispensable tool, fragile probes
By Phil N. Tropic
If you cook meat, you need a thermometer like this one. Turn off the barbeque and/or smoker. Buy one.

I've tried the wireless models, and they're great but unreliable in our setting - some RF source appears to mess them up from time to time. I bough this one to have a failsafe.

My only complaint with this particular model is that the probes are a bit fragile. One probe failed almost immediately due to heat damage at the point where the cable enters the sheath, and there's no stress relief to avoid the obvious threat of damage due to flexing.

I added a heat shrink sleeve to protect the cable/sheath transition, and the second probe is doing well after a year of steady use.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful.
Works
By M. Hobbs
This thermometer works great at monitoring internal food temperatures and simultaneously monitoring the temperature inside my smoker. I have not used the alarm feature so I can't comment on that but I would recommend this unit based on monitoring temps alone. You will have to switch between probe 1 and probe 2 to see the different temps as they are not displayed at the same time but for the price paid, this is a bargain.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
DO NOT BUY
By J. Schueeller
First, we've had Polder digital temperature probes for years. We like them, which is why this item was such a surprise.

Our normal procedure was, buy one or two, use them until they die. Buying two let you test two pieces of meat, or have a replacement part when one probe died.

We thought, Hey, buy two of this, we have four probes, we have spares! Too bad this is such a POS. BTW, we bought from Amazon, but I don't hold this against them...

I expected what I've always gotten from Polder, a reliable probe that lets me set my desired temperature, and beeps when my food gets there. I've used them on the grill, in the oven, and they've been reliable.

Problems with this:

First, it took two probes to get through one steak. They just don't last. I'm used to a year and a half; I got maybe a minute and a half. Disappointing...

Second, it lets you choose a meat and a doneness, not a temperature. If you want, say 143 degrees, tough. You can set it for 140, or 145, but not in between.

Third, you'd think it would sit there, and beep when your food hit the temperature you selected. Wrong. It starts beeping when you are 10 degrees low, and goes to a more insistent beep when you hit your target. So you get a long, annoying period of "Hey, your food isn't done yet. Hey, your food isn't done yet." This was just the icing on the cake, the machine was already deep in my regret pile.

I've used and loved Polder for years; I will no longer assume their name means quality. I hope their profit on these two items was worth it to them.