RichPB (richlife)
TVWBB Wizard
My back-ordered ET-732 finally arrived! My wife pre-ordered it from yardandpool.com for $10 off list on 11/15. It was just finally released and came two days ago. I haven't had a chance to cook with it yet (just did a multi-meat smoke last Sunday), but it works and I can say a little about it. But I probably won't use it for another week or so.
Since I didn't have the ET-73, the operation and instructions took a little bit to understand, but after playing with it a while, everything appears to work as advertised including both thermometer functions and both timer modes (count up and count down) and, having figured it out, the operation is fairly straight forward.
To check the remote receiver, I set the transmitter (the one with the probes) on my deck next to the grill and smoker, then walked out to the far side of my workshop (about 130 feet and on the opposite side of the house) with no reception problems. Then I walked out to the far ends of my deer-fenced property (roughly 250 feet away) and had no reception problem despite the many large trees that potentially could cause interference. On my way to the opposite end of the fencing, the remote DID lose the signal when about 100 feet away from my cook area (I have no idea why). The alarm beeped about 6 or 7 times and then the signal was picked up again at the spot it was lost and held steady until I returned to the house after getting to the other fence extreme.
So through a complete test run, the new ET-732 is working basically as expected (despite the brief drop of the signal). The extremes I tested are all I ever expect from it (other than a full cook test).
I did find that Maverick has provided a small clip to hold the "barbecue" (cooker) probe up off the cooker grates. Don't know if the ET-73 had that, but "nice" -- hopefully eliminates the need for a potato.
The two minor negatives I found are that:
1) The probe wires are still too short -- a barely adequate 30 inches. Maverick should have recognized by now that the probe wires need to be long enough to allow some slack so the transmitter can be comfortably separated from the cooker and not be pulled off whatever it sits on.
2) The rain-proof transmitter requires removal of two small Phillips head screws to change it's batteries. I assume that's because of the water tight case, but again I would think that Maverick would have learned and provided a means to change batteries that didn't require chasing down a small screwdriver.
(BTW, all this testing was done with the batteries provided. I have NO expectations of those batteries and will replace them the first time I experience any difficulties.)
I'll add another report here after I have a chance to cook with it (my wife wants some NC barbeque pulled pork, so Boston butt coming soon).
Rich
Since I didn't have the ET-73, the operation and instructions took a little bit to understand, but after playing with it a while, everything appears to work as advertised including both thermometer functions and both timer modes (count up and count down) and, having figured it out, the operation is fairly straight forward.
To check the remote receiver, I set the transmitter (the one with the probes) on my deck next to the grill and smoker, then walked out to the far side of my workshop (about 130 feet and on the opposite side of the house) with no reception problems. Then I walked out to the far ends of my deer-fenced property (roughly 250 feet away) and had no reception problem despite the many large trees that potentially could cause interference. On my way to the opposite end of the fencing, the remote DID lose the signal when about 100 feet away from my cook area (I have no idea why). The alarm beeped about 6 or 7 times and then the signal was picked up again at the spot it was lost and held steady until I returned to the house after getting to the other fence extreme.
So through a complete test run, the new ET-732 is working basically as expected (despite the brief drop of the signal). The extremes I tested are all I ever expect from it (other than a full cook test).
I did find that Maverick has provided a small clip to hold the "barbecue" (cooker) probe up off the cooker grates. Don't know if the ET-73 had that, but "nice" -- hopefully eliminates the need for a potato.
The two minor negatives I found are that:
1) The probe wires are still too short -- a barely adequate 30 inches. Maverick should have recognized by now that the probe wires need to be long enough to allow some slack so the transmitter can be comfortably separated from the cooker and not be pulled off whatever it sits on.
2) The rain-proof transmitter requires removal of two small Phillips head screws to change it's batteries. I assume that's because of the water tight case, but again I would think that Maverick would have learned and provided a means to change batteries that didn't require chasing down a small screwdriver.
(BTW, all this testing was done with the batteries provided. I have NO expectations of those batteries and will replace them the first time I experience any difficulties.)
I'll add another report here after I have a chance to cook with it (my wife wants some NC barbeque pulled pork, so Boston butt coming soon).
Rich
