Summer is when the best smart thermometers shine. After all, slapping meat on the grill while sipping a tinny is a summer ritual. The best meat thermometer can help you avoid bad meals and even save your life. Even if you don’t eat meat, the best cooking thermometer can still do the first of those two jobs.
Here comes the smart thermometer. They are temperature-monitoring gadgets, wired or Bluetooth-enabled—and can be paired with your smartphone or tablet. This ensures that the food you’re preparing is grilled, roasted, or baked to perfection.
How to Buy the Best Meat Thermometer
Another advantage of smart thermometers is that they help streamline cooking by removing a few possible variables. The first step is to install the relevant mobile app on your mobile device. The various preset options allow you to choose what type of food, temperature, and how long you want your food to cook.
A lot of smart thermometers feature clips for holding the probes in place while grilling or frying. Some use magnets to keep it in place on the stovetop, in the oven, or on the grill. You can keep track of your food by keeping track of your display, rather than carrying your phone or tablet.
BBQ Guru’s UltraQ Vs. Flame Boss
BBQ Guru created the first automatic temperature controller for a grill in 2003. It has now established itself as the industry leader and is well-known for high-tech temperature control products. Flame Boss entered the market a few years ago, offering automatic temperature controls for charcoal grills and smokers.
Price
Compared to the Flame Boss’ most prominent and best device—BBQ Guru’s flagship temperature control, the UltraQ, wins hands down.
While the primary function of both devices is technically the same, for $20 less, you get not only the most trusted brand but also an automatic temperature control with more excellent compatibility, more features, and higher quality materials.
- If $329.00 is still out of your price range, BBQ Guru also sells the DynaQ and DigiQ DX3 automatic temperature controls. Both devices provide precise temperature control but at a lower cost.
Automatic temperature control is one of the best BBQ accessories we’ve ever seen (and use at every BBQ competition). These high-tech devices, similar to ovens, monitor and control the temperature of your smoker. They not only make barbecuing more accessible than ever before, but they also produce fantastic results.
Fan setting
Typically, the most common way to control the temperature of a BBQ smoker is by using a fan placed on one of the vent ducts. This appliance will tell the fan to blow more or less air over the charcoal, creating and maintaining the ideal cooking temperature.
Some customers of Flame Boss have claimed that their variable-speed fans provide an additional level of precision because the fans run at different speeds. While actual temperature control is based on the amount of oxygen entering the smoker, not the overall volume, it is vital to ensure adequate oxygen flow into the smoker before attempting to control temperature.
The slides of BBQ Guru’s fans are far more robust than their competitors, but their fans also come with built-in slide dampers that can be adjusted. Using multiple fans can also control larger cookers.
Adaptors
We are very excited about the variety of smoker adaptors available at BBQ Guru because they cover virtually every smoker on the market. In addition, they make finding an appropriate adaptor for your smoker as simple as possible. Precise sealing is a hallmark of their custom-built adaptors.
Additionally, the Flame Boss offering is somewhat limited, offering adaptors for ceramic cookers and Weber Smokey Mountains grills. Also, Flame Boss has been noted to apply “one-size-fits-all” engineering. This has led to an absence of precision. There are draft-free and inaccurate areas due to their adaptors.
Additional features
- They both have WiFi capabilities, allowing users to access their cookers and monitor temperatures remotely using websites compatible with those devices.
- Users of UltraQ’s ShareMyCook.com website can add notes to temperature graphs at times. Unfortunately, while Flame Boss 500 users can enter letters into the graph and make notes as needed, they cannot enter the chart at precise intervals.
- ShareMyCook.com has differentiated itself by integrating social networks and user communities. Every UltraQ user can learn new skills while watching and commenting on other chefs. Recipes can also be rated, photos uploaded, and cooks shared on social media like Facebook and Twitter.
- The Flame Boss 500 allows you to share on social media but lacks the interactive features found at ShareMyCook.com.
- UltraQ has ShareMyCook.com and a Status Light Ring. The control’s outer ring will light up in four different ways to show the pit’s temperature. It is solid blue when it is below the ideal temperature. It will be solid red when within the desired temperature range. If the temperature rises too much, the ring will turn red.
- When display scanning is enabled, the UltraQ’s Q-Tail will flash one of four colors (orange, yellow, green, or blue) to show the probes’ temperatures. The LED display and probe color will show you how your dish is doing at any given time.
Final verdict
While both the Flame Boss 500 and UltraQ feature multiple probes, WiFi, and stable temperatures, they are different enough to help ensure each device works for other applications. However, when deciding which device to use, the UltraQ emerges as the clear choice.
Since it was the first to introduce state-of-the-art and cutting-edge cooking accessories, BBQ Guru is the industry leader. We understand why BBQ Guru is the most widely respected brand in the industry.
Even though the business does well in various arenas, it is impressive that it produces high-quality products, collaborates well with other devices, and offers a wide range of features. While Flame Boss may have assumed the mantle of the legacy established by Barbeque Guru, it’s evident that BBQ Guru still rules the roost when it comes to automatic temperature controls for charcoal cookers.
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