Customer Reviews

Maverick Industries ET-73 Maverick RediChek Remote Wireless Smoker Thermometer

5 star:		(78)
4 star:		(74)
3 star:		(34)
2 star:		(25)
1 star:		(38)

 

 

I am an avid griller, BBQ'er and Smoker (year rounder, competitions, 15 pound meats etc...). I purchased this product after enjoying using the Williams/Sonoma remote probe temperature gage for quite some time. I now believe that a remote temperature gage is a must.

This particular product works as advertised and I am happy with it. I would describe it as average, nothing special. It seems to work well, has a decent transmitting distance (although I hear there was a bad batch out there that were very weak). The digits are large and easily readable in a glance. The alarm couldn't be louder. The back light is bright. And the probes seem high quality that will last a while.

However, it has a few annoying traits: 1) The on/off switch on the Transmitter is located behind the battery door which means you have to take off the battery door to access it, not a huge problem as the door access screw only takes a quick half turn with a penny or fingernail. 2) Setting the Food and Smoker alert levels is also an annoying as the device only has one "adjust" button that scrolls up one degree at a time. This means that if you currently have a 180 degree setting (beef well done) and wish to change it to 140 degrees (beef rare) you must scroll the digits past the max setting 370 degrees (who cooks anything to this temperature?) around to the minimum setting, and if you miss it or forget to push enter you have to go all the way around again. It reminds me of the early digital alarm clock radios where if you passed 7 AM wake up time you had to go all the way past 7 PM to get back to 7 AM. The feature can be VERY annoying, especially since most other remote probes have both and UP and DOWN buttons, but they don't have the smoker temperature probe that this one does.

Overall I'd buy another one but I wouldn't pay too much for it.

This is a must for serious and amatuer BBQers and cooks. This device not only measures the meat temperature, but most importantly the cooking temperature; it also has a timer. I've been using this with my Bradley Smoker for two months now, and have been receiving excellent results. I am satified with the transmission distance. Like with most radio devices, reception depend on what the signal has to travel through to get to the receiver. Also, as for myself, if I place the receiver too near my computer, it will not receive a signal.

Comments: As mentions in another post, setting the meat, and smoker maximum and minimum temperatures can get annoying, but you don't have to select one diget at a time. Holding the button down, you quickly scroll to the temperature you want. The alarm needs to be louder; but it is adequate if you are near the receiver. For smokers, whose cooking time may take twelve hours or more, battery life may be a problem. If there is a battery failure you need to reset the system, after installing fresh ones. Maverick customer support is excellent. My meat probe failed and they sent me one out immediately.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars, because I feel the documentation that accompany the ET-73 could better, there should be up down buttons to adjust temperature settings, and a belt clip should be included.

Although it is still quite new (I've used it on four 15-hour smokes) it works great for smoking.

I'd have to say that it looks/feels more like a gadget than a robust measuring instrument but so far it has worked fine.

Its design can be improved though. The transmitter on/off switch is ver difficult to reach; every time you want to turn the thing on or off you have to remove the stand and then open the battery compartment to access the switch, whereas in the receiver, the on/off switch is easily accessible on the back of the unit.

You cannot easily change the alarms to a lower temperature; you can only increase the setting, so to change to a lower temperature you have to cicle past the topmost temp and start from the bottom.

As far as reception range goes it does not go too far if walls are in the way.

You have to handle with care the probes' braided wires, specially were they exit the smoker.

Tip: I place a baby monitor transmiter right next to the thermometer receiver and the baby monitor receiver close to where I am; that way I can always hear the Hi/low temp alarms thru the monitor. Warning: you should never leave a fired-up grill unatended and be very carefull when leaving a smoker unaunattended.

The competing thermometer (from Poulder) has received very bad reviews here in Amazon. Let's see how this one turns out as time goes by. If you do not hear from me on a follow-up review, it means the gizmo is still working fine.

I cannot comment yet on the probe issue as the other reviewer wrote. I have done 4 smokes with it over the past 2 weeks, and it works fine so far. I use the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, a.k.a. the Weber "Bullet".

I really like not having to keep going out and checking the temps on the cooker. I can be elsewhere (like inside watching the game), watch the monitor and relax.

The temperature seems to correlate well with other thermometers I have. I stopped using my instant read thermometer.

The alarm function works well. You can set temp alarms for the cooker and the meat, both minimums and maximums. If the temp goes outside of the range, then it will ping you. Since my cooker runs cooler, I set my lower alarm temp just a bit lower than my desired cook temperature. So if it really does lose temperature, then the thing pings me. This avoids getting intermittent pings when the temp hovers right at the lower end. It also has a timer, which is helpful.

Four things I would change if I could:

1. The cable lengths are OK, but they could be longer. For my cooker, I usually have a little side table beside it. But some people might find the cables just a bit too short.

2. The so-called "belt clip" on the receiver is weak. It fell off my belt 2-3 times, so now I don't clip it on.

3. The box in which the thermometer comes isn't so great for repackaging. If you don't use the box again, this isn't a worry. If I was designing it, I would not make everything so compact. Maybe that's why the first reviewer's probe went bad, trying to cram everything back in the box.

4. The manual is only OK. I am pretty tech savvy, so it wasn't too much of a problem to figure out what it was trying to explain. But some might find it lacking.

But I'd recommend purchasing it, especially if you are more than just a novice smoker.

The wireless remote double sensor works great

For a 12-14 hour barbecue the RediChek is just the tool for the job. Four alarms are set, Smoking chamber too high, too low, food has reached temperature and time has elapsed.

It has made a big difference in the quality of my BBQ and it's saved me countless trips outside to check on temperature and progress.

I bought this unit to use in my smoker. I figured the dual smoker and Meat temperature would be great (no more having to open the door to check the temp of my meats!) Let me preface this by saying that I live in a small house (900 Sq Ft).

So I set up my smoker on the back deck by the door and get everything working. I set the temp and carry the remote sensor into the kitchen (one room away from the deck) and the temp displays right where I had it. Well I didn't know it had lost signal and wasn't updating. In the meantime my smoker rose in heat, to 350* when it should have been 220*. Well a few hours later I had leather. I could have made a shoe out of the brisket.

After I figured that the remote sensor has to be in the sight line with the unit, I used it a couple more times. Then all of the sudden the meat temperature gauge was 100* off! I contacted Maverick with no reply. Finally, I used the shotgun approach and sent every email with their company I could find an email with my problem. I got two people responded and said they would send me a new probe because they go bad.

Well, I waited and waited. When I re-asked they said they were out of stock and would get with me when they were back in. I have waited a few months since then and sent them a few more unanswered emails in the meantime.

If this product worked as they stated it would be a great thing. Unfortunately, it doesn't.

There are other things I could mention here regarding the design of the product that I wasn't happy with, but they were easy to overlook when the product was working. Unfortunately, I wasted $50 on this product. I read other reviews people complaining about the probe too, but I figured they were just unlucky, but I've looked more and found this to be a pretty wide spread problem with Maverick and the remote thermometer smoker.

I hope that they will be able to make some design changes and improve the quality of this product becuase it would be an excellent help to doing big briskets and many other smoked meats.

I commonly cook overnight for long smokes. This thermometer is great. I second the opinions of the other reviewers.

There are only 2 reasons I don't give this 5 stars:
1) The receiver must be turned on first, then the transmitter. So, if you do lose signal, you can't just power cycle the receiver, you have to go out and power cycle the transmitter too.

2) When the unit loses signal (it happens..it's a radio), you cannot set it it alarm!! So, if I'm cooking overnight, and the unit loses signal, I sleep all night without knowing that the pit temperature is still in the right range. I really wish it would alarm when it loses signal.

However, those 2 things aside (these are minor), I still give it 4 stars and would not want to live without it.

I bought two ET-73's when they first came out about a year ago. I have had excellent luck with mine. I use them almost every weekend as I do a lot of overnight cooking sessions in my smokers. I dangle the smoker probe down a lid vent in my Weber Smoky Mountain smoker, insert the meat probe in the meat de jour, let the temp get settled in, and go to bed. I put the receiver in the bedroom window about 80 feet from the patio, and very easily check meat and smoker temps throughout the night.

There was recently a bad batch of ET-73's made their way out of the factory. Maverick is supplying outstanding customer support in replacing these units that are proving to be faulty in reception.

If you are serious about your smoking, this is a must have device. It will simultaneously give you the temp in your smoker and the temp of the meat you are smoking as well as remind you to refill your wood box, etc. I found that the built in thermometer on my smoker was off by almost 50 DEGREES! Simply using this device has improved the quality of my food dramatically. Correct temps are King.

Many people have commented on the fact that the transmitter on/off switch is under the battery door. There is a simple reason for this. The transmitter is waterproof! This is very handy for smoking in wet weather. That's why there are rubber o-rings inside the battery door and on the probe sockets. It's a sealed unit! If the switch was exposed, rain could get inside and fry the electronics. And really, how much trouble is it to open the door? You don't need tools, in fact I just opened mine in under 5 seconds. I would rather have the waterproof-ness, thank you!

The probes have worked very well for me with no reliability issues, then again I am very careful with my electronics. I drilled a small hole in my smoker for each probe and carefully inserted them from the back. I wouldn't just crush them in the door. Also note that these probes are for SMOKERS, not for BBQ grills. If you put one in a 500+ degree BBQ, I would expect it to stop working. I have a one or two smoking friends who have had probe issues and were sent FREE replacements in the mail by Maverick, just for calling. One snapped off his belt clip...totally his fault. Yet he called and was sent a free replacement. Who does that these days? I have heard nothing but rave reviews from my fellow smokers about Maverick Customer Service.

True, the range is limited...do not expect it to work from your backyard to the opposite end of your home. There are instructions available on the internet however that will show you how to mod your transmitter with an external antenna which doubles or even triples the range. This isn't much of an issue for me as I like to stay near my smoker anyway.

It is accurate. I have tested both probes using the ice water / boiling water test and they are dead on.

All in all, I won't smoke without it and give it 5-Stars. It has already become the "must have" toy on all the meat smoking forums!

I purchased this unit because I wanted to be able to sleep soundly without worrying about my smoker running too hot or cold during overnight smoking sessions. Unfortunately, the unit has several design problems that make it unsuitable for this purpose. Be advised if you are tempted to buy this product:

1. The range is much less than advertised at only 20 feet instead of 100. Unless you place your smoker directly outside of your bedroom window, forget about it.

2. There is no indication when you have left the range of the transmitter. It wouldn't be that bad if the receiver displayed a blank reading when out of range, however the unit will continue to display the last transmitted temperature INDEFINALTELY therefore you really have NO WAY of knowing that you are no longer receiving updates (unless you go outside and check the transmitter display on your smoker which totally defeats the purpose of a remote thermometer).

3. My absolute favorite- The unit will not alarm if the probe fails. So, if the probe comes loose or is damaged during a session, the receiver will display a "--" reading, but the high/low alarm will not go off!

I hope the folks at Maverick can correct these issues. The concept of the product is excellent but with the mentioned problems, it really isn't worth the money or headache it can cause.