igrill reviews?


 
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Dan Crafton

TVWBB Member
Think I'm ready to get my first remote therm. Looking at igrill since I have iPhone and iPad. Amazon reviews are fairly mixed with complaints mostly about Bluetooth connectivity and probe durability.

So igrill owners please give me your honest opinions.

Also I'm not ready to drill holes in my WSM yet and since my dome lid is fairly leaky anyway (always has been) I'd prefer to just sit the lid on top of the igrill cords....any problem doing this?

Thanks for your thoughts,
Dan
 
On my Maverick 732 I just run the wires thru the top vent and hang the Maverick on the handle of the WSM with a piece of tin foil underneath the Maverick and above the metal on the dome. I also make a small ball out of aluminum foil and place under the Maverick to stabilize the unit. Just ordered a igrill and recieved it a few days ago. Will use it this weekend. Looks well made and pretty cool features/options. I'll post a update next week. I have the iPod touch, ipad2 and iPhone 5. With the igrill I won't have to hang on the handle...probe wires are a lot longer which I wish the Maverick had that option.
 
I was fortunate enough to win the iGrill in the contest here on TVWBB. I've only used it once so the probe durability "jury" is still out. However, on my first use I cooked steaks and coupled the bluetooth without issue and had the iGrill send me an email with a graph of the cook which was pretty cool. I believe the iDevices folks update the app by listening to their users which, if true, is refreshing in today's world of "customer service".

I've yet to use it for a long smoke. That will come this weekend for the Father's Day butt cook. I hope it goes as well as the short steak cook.

I didn't drill holes in the cooker but I did cut a small slot in the top of the mid section so the wires won't get pinched.
 
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I run my wires under the lid as well. I think you have to really kink the wires to do much damage.
Water is the main enemy for probe life, I just wipe mine with clorox wipes, never wash them.
the iGrill connects fine to my Android phone, I haven't really experimented to see what the range is but I do lose signal when I go inside the house which is about 50 yards from the smoker. I can set my phone in a window facing that direction and it works.
I really like mine and would consider buying a second but I haven't been able to find out if you can run 2 at once, say one on my phone and one on my wife's iPad.
To answer my question, I emailed iDevices CS and had an answer back in just a few minutes:


iDevices (Customer Support)

Jun 13 10:34 am (EDT)

Hi Greg,

Thank you for taking the time to contact our customer support team. Yes, a second iGrill unit will be able to work with a second mobile device without any interference from the first device. And yes, we've definitely considered an external power source!

Thanks,


I asked about the power source as it seems a set of batteries will only last a couple of cooks.
 
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Thanks all. Dwain, will look forward to hearing about your upcoming smoke using your iGrill.

Think I will go ahead and get it as there seems to be good & bad reviews for about every similar device.


Thanks again,
Dan
 
Dan Crafton said:
...Dwain, will look forward to hearing about your upcoming smoke using your iGrill...
Click to expand...

Dan, The iGrill worked as advertised. I had absolutely no trouble with the device. I started the app, turned on the device, it paired, I placed the probes in the cooker, and it reported dutifully on my overnight Pork Butt cook without a hitch.

Based on what others have said, I did install a new set of batteries to ensure it wouldn't go dead in the middle of the cook. At the beginning of the cook I showed four bars in battery status. This AM it is reporting three bars.

The cool thing is the graph. I can see exactly when my cooker temps started to climb in relation to time and the temp of the food. I can also see the reaction of the cooker to the vent adjustments I made.

I guess like anything there are pros and cons.
 
Dwain Pannell said:
Based on what others have said, I did install a new set of batteries to ensure it wouldn't go dead in the middle of the cook. At the beginning of the cook I showed four bars in battery status. This AM it is reporting three bars.
.
Click to expand...

I talked to a guy this last weekend at a comp who said the reason I was going through batteries is because the iGrill was searching for my phone due to the distance I was away from it. This weekend I stayed pretty close to it and the batteries held up fine. Maybe he knew what he was talking about and maybe not, time will tell.
 
Greg Powers said:
I talked to a guy this last weekend at a comp who said the reason I was going through batteries is because the iGrill was searching for my phone due to the distance I was away from it. This weekend I stayed pretty close to it and the batteries held up fine. Maybe he knew what he was talking about and maybe not, time will tell.
Click to expand...

It makes sense that as the batteries discharge the Bluetooth distance decreases so he's probably right.
 
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