Is Thermoworks Feeling the Heat?


 
Jon Tofte

Jon Tofte

TVWBB 1-Star Olympian
I received this email from Thermoworks. While it is not unusal for them the have sales, it seems like they are having them more often and at deeper discounts than in the past. If you look at the wording, I think you can feel their pain as the competition has gotten a lot "hotter" and the gap in quality not as large - at least in my opinion:

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Please don't get me wrong. I believe Thermoworks is THE BEST! I love my Smoke and even my little "Pop." But, I admit I did buy the below $20 ThermoPro instant read, and I like it, too. If you still are in the market, this pricing is definitely a great deal!
 
I agree. I have bought a couple things from them, always on sale, but it does seem like they are doing more and bigger sales than in the past.
Oh, and if you are after the best or top quality, they are going to be tough to beat for most things.
 
They are able to run more sales IMO since they decided to only go direct and pull their stuff from Amazon. Better margins no fees to Amazon like Lynn when I bought my mark 4 paid like $73 for it no need to ever pay full list for these.
 
Yah, pretty hard to compete on Amazon when there are a ton of 1/3 priced options. I imagine that Thermoworks figures that if anyone really wants a top quality device, they will know where to go to get it rather than sift through pages of pop up competitor adds. I am not advocating one product over the other, but just surmising the reasoning for selling direct rather than jumping in the muddy waters of Amazon.
 
Bruce said:
Yah, pretty hard to compete on Amazon when there are a ton of 1/3 priced options. I imagine that Thermoworks figures that if anyone really wants a top quality device, they will know where to go to get it rather than sift through pages of pop up competitor adds. I am not advocating one product over the other, but just surmising the reasoning for selling direct rather than jumping in the muddy waters of Amazon.
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Pretty good blog on why they went direct and I agree if anyone really wants their device Chris for example always seems to post their stuff when it goes on sale so for those of us interested not hard to find the sales like Jon since I have bought from them before I get emails all the time so turned a few neighbors on to their $69 sales in the past. My next door neighbor kept borrowing mine finally bought one think it was the grey or yellow sale when I texted her and she paid $69 bucks. She is happy but she got a free test drive. :)

Not wanting to get into the $25 or $30 Thermopro against the Thermoworks if your happy with the performance and the price point is certainly good that is all that counts. I bought a knockoff to test not got around to it yet might just give it to my daughter when I am done keep forgetting about it just grab the Mk4 out of habit.


 
$74 with the standard shipping option. It's certainly tempting. Still about 3 x what a similar thermopro costs.
 
I have a Thermapen MK4, 4 Dots and a Smoke.....love them all but the Dot is my daily driver.
I bought them when they were on sale and was gifted two Dots.. Lucky me.
 
Well I've always kind of wanted a thermapen even though I'm not displeased with my thermopro at all. So with this sale i pulled the trigger and bought one. It hasn't arrived yet. But I'm anxious to receive it and do a head to head comparison.
 
I had a ThermoPop that cracked where the metal probe meets the housing. I never abused it and the crack seemed like a sanitary issue and the probe was then loose. They wouldn't cover it under warranty even though it was within the warranty period. They did offer a discount on a new ThermoPop. Well, I took the discount, but was somewhat disappointed as I had really taken care of the thing. I've purchased at least 5 Thermoworks products and have been generally pleased. Hint . . . they make great gifts for friends and family that might be difficult to buy for. . . .
 
Yep, they certainly stepped up there. They could have just donated a Themapen or thermopop. Even a Smoke. But they donated their top line product.
 
Bruce said:
Yep, they certainly stepped up there. They could have just donated a Themapen or thermopop. Even a Smoke. But they donated their top line product.
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Wow that is great to hear Bruce so what a nice raffle gift that might be. Really wish I could have made the meet just did not work out.
 
Back in 2018, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of TVWB, ThermoWorks donated 20 ThermoPops, one for each year, that I gave away in a prize drawing. They've donated other products over the years, too. I appreciate their support, and as an affiliate, they help support the forum by paying me a small commission every time you buy one of their products using the links I post here on the forum.

But please don't interpret these comments as an attempt to tamp down discussion on other thermometer brands. When you buy those other brands using Amazon links posted here, you also help support the forum, so it's good either way for the forum. :)
 
Brian, We wish you could have made it as well. It is hard to find one day that is good for everybody however
 
I received my thermapen mk4 several days ago. I've gotten the chance to use it several times in close comparison to the $25 thermopro tp19. Some surprising and some not so surprising results from that comparison.

Accuracy and speed: the 2 thermometers were within 0.5 degrees of each other pretty much all the time. And as far as speed it was a dead heat. The thermapen might have been a fraction of a second faster but it was really close. Really no functional difference between the two for speed and accuracy.

Build quality: the quality of the thermopro seems pretty good. But the thermapen is heavier and just feels more substantial and better quality. I'm assuming it is.

Usability: it's good for both. But the surprising thing is I actually preferred using the much cheaper thermopro. For a couple of reasons. One is that I prefer the bigger and brighter display on the thermopro. It's just easier to read. I also really like the magnets incorporated into the thermopro. That is a handy feature that I really miss on the thermapen. It's just really nice to be able to stick the thermometer on the side of the grill and not worry about it falling.

So strictly from a usability aspect i actually slightly prefer the thermoworks at 1/3 the price. But durability is the big question. I suspect the thermapen will be more durable but I'm not 100% sure of that. Probably have to wait several years to know for sure.

Am I sorry I bought the thermapen? No. I do like it. And I'll continue to use both thermometers.
 
My wife bought me a Thermapen 6 years ago. It has been rock solid up until about 3 months ago. It started flashing on/off upon opening. I put a new Panasonic battery in it...no change. I read about this one from a guy who had tested many of these Amazon available quick read devices. I bought 2. One for our beach home, one for primary. They are excellent and gave a lifetime warranty: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S93EQUK/?tag=tvwb-20
 
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