MEATER Plus vs ThermoWorks Smoke: Which Thermometer Wins?

Here's the short answer: after a year and a half of cooking with the MEATER Plus on my Weber kettle, my Z Grills pellet smoker, and the Blackstone griddle, it's the thermometer I reach for first on every cook. The ThermoWorks Smoke is a genuinely good tool, and for a certain kind of cook it's the smarter buy. But for the way most of us actually grill on a weekend, with a phone in our pocket and a brisket on the smoker, the MEATER Plus is the one I'd buy again tomorrow.

I'm not the kind of cook who needs a thermometer to feel like a pitmaster. I'm a retired HVAC technician, and I look at temperature the way I looked at ductwork for thirty years: you don't argue with it, you read it and you adjust. I've owned a Weber kettle most of my adult life, I've been running a Z Grills pellet smoker for a couple of years, and I've ruined exactly one brisket by trusting my hand instead of a probe. That cook is what sent me looking for a thermometer that would tell me what was happening inside the meat without hovering over the smoker.

	MEATER Plus	ThermoWorks Smoke
How you read it	Phone app with a live graph; the probe has no screen of its own	Dedicated receiver with a backlit display you can clip to your apron
Wireless range	165 feet, with the charger acting as a Bluetooth repeater	Up to 300 feet line of sight
Works without a phone	No. The app is the whole experience	Yes. The receiver is the display
Battery and charging	One AAA battery plus a bamboo charger; about 2 hours of cook time on a 5-minute charge	Runs on AAA batteries; no mid-cook charging
Sensors	One probe with dual sensors: internal meat temp up to 212°F plus ambient	One meat probe plus a built-in ambient sensor in the transmitter
Cleanup	Waterproof stainless probe wipes clean	Waterproof probe, same easy wipe-down
Price	The budget-friendly way into a wireless thermometer	A bigger investment for a dedicated receiver
Best for	Backyard cooks who like watching temps on their phone from the couch	Grillers who want a simple dedicated display and the longest range

How I Compared Them

I've used the MEATER Plus on every grill I own for about a year and a half. That means dozens of cooks: pork butts that ran 12 hours, spatchcocked chickens, a brisket or two, and more racks of ribs than I can count. It has sat through a Kansas City summer on the patio and it has been dropped on the concrete more than once. The ThermoWorks Smoke I didn't own, so I borrowed one from a neighbor for two weekends and cooked the same kinds of food back to back: ribs one Saturday, a pork shoulder the next. I cooked the ribs on my kettle and the shoulder on the pellet grill, so both thermometers got a fair shake on the two cookers I actually live with.

I compared the things that matter when you're standing at the grill at 6 in the morning or pulling a brisket off at midnight: how easy the setup is, whether the temperature reading is steady or jumpy, how far I could walk from the smoker and still know what was happening, how long the batteries lasted, and what cleanup looked like when the cook was over. I also paid attention to the part most reviews skip, which is whether the thing is pleasant to live with or just impressive on paper.

On the first Saturday, I ran three racks of baby backs on the kettle with both probes in the meat, and I let them run without touching a thing. The MEATER Plus graph climbed smooth and steady. The Smoke's receiver sat on the prep table and never blinked. Both got me to the same place: tender ribs, pulled at 6:15 sharp.

I'll also say this about how I judge a thermometer: it has to earn its place on the counter. I don't want gear that needs a manual, a charging ritual, and a prayer before every cook. I want to put a probe in the meat, set a target, and go about my day. That bias is in everything I write here, so you know where I'm coming from.

Where MEATER Plus Wins

The app is the big one. With the MEATER Plus, the whole experience lives on your phone. You open the app, it walks you through pairing the probe, you set a target temperature, and then you can walk inside, sit on the couch, and watch the graph climb. When the meat hits your number, the app tells you. I've checked a pork butt from the recliner more times than I can count, and I've never once had to stand at the smoker to see what the probe said. For a cook who likes being inside with the grandkids while the smoker does the work, that's not a small thing.

The MEATER Plus is also the easier buy for most people. It costs less than the Smoke, it comes with everything you need in the box, and the probe itself is a single stainless piece with dual sensors, so you get both the meat temperature and the pit temperature from one probe instead of managing two pieces. Cleanup is a wipe with a damp cloth because the probe is waterproof. And the bamboo charger is a nice touch: drop the probe in for five minutes and you get about two hours of cook time, which covers the vast majority of cooks most of us ever do.

One more thing I didn't expect: the MEATER Plus has made me a better cook. Because the app shows a graph, I can see when the temperature stalls and when it climbs, and I've learned to leave the smoker alone instead of opening the lid every hour. The probe's 3-second response time means the reading on the phone is the reading in the meat, not a lagging guess. That alone has saved me more than one pork shoulder.

Last July I ran a nine-pound pork shoulder on the pellet grill for a Sunday cookout. The graph showed the stall at 156 degrees, flat for almost two hours. Ten years ago I would have wrapped it in a panic. Instead I watched the line, went inside to help Carol, and let it push through. It hit 204 and rested in a cooler until dinner.

Where ThermoWorks Smoke Wins

The Smoke beats the MEATER Plus on range, and it isn't close. ThermoWorks rates it at up to 300 feet line of sight, and the receiver is a dedicated unit with its own display, so you don't need your phone at all. If your smoker sits a long way from the house, or you simply don't want to depend on a phone app to tell you dinner is done, the Smoke is the better tool. The receiver clips to your apron or sits on the prep table, and it shows both the meat temperature and the pit temperature at a glance. No unlocking a phone, no app update in the middle of a cook. The receiver is the kind of thing you can read from across the yard, which I could not always say about a phone screen in bright sun.

The weekend I ran ribs on the kettle, I clipped the receiver to the prep table and read it from inside the house through the patio door, a good forty feet away, without my reading glasses. On the same cook, the MEATER Plus app stayed connected, but I had to step toward the door to read my phone through the glass. That difference made me pause before writing this.

The Smoke also wins on battery stamina. It runs on AAA batteries and sips them; I cooked two full weekends on the neighbor's unit and never once thought about charging anything. The MEATER Plus needs that five-minute charge in the bamboo charger for about two hours of cook time, which is fine for ribs and chickens, but for a 14-hour brisket you'll be charging it a few times. And there's a reason ThermoWorks has the reputation it does: the Smoke is built like a tool, not a gadget. It feels like something that will still be working in ten years.

The Smoke is also the easier tool to hand to somebody who doesn't want to learn an app. My neighbor set it up in about two minutes. No app, no account, no firmware update, no phone involved. He clips the receiver to his grill shelf and reads it like a clock. There's real value in that for a certain kind of cook, and I wouldn't argue with anyone who buys it for that reason alone.

What the Specs Don't Tell You

The spec sheet for the MEATER Plus says the probe is waterproof, and that matters more than you might think. Sauces, drips, a rinse under the faucet, a drop on the concrete: the probe has taken all of it and still reads true. The specs also list an upper temperature range of 527 degrees, which is why I don't worry about leaving it in the kettle when the coals are going. It's rated for the grill and the oven both, and it has behaved in both.

The other thing the spec sheet won't tell you is what the app feels like at 11 p.m. when you're tired and the brisket is fighting you. The MEATER app isn't fancy, but it's steady. It keeps the graph running, it picks up where it left off when I walk back into range, and it doesn't nag you with notifications every time the temperature blips. That kind of quiet reliability is the whole job, as far as I'm concerned.

One night last fall I ran a brisket for 13 hours, the app open on my phone the whole time. I walked out to the front porch to grab the mail, far enough that the app dropped the connection. When I came back, the graph caught up in a few seconds and showed the temperature had kept climbing the whole time. No reconnect dance, no lost history.

One more spec worth knowing: the probe's immersion depth is 6.18 inches, which is deep enough for a thick brisket flat. And the 3-second response time means you're not standing there waiting for the number to settle. Those are the details that separate a thermometer you trust from one you second-guess.

Who Should Buy Which

Buy the MEATER Plus if you cook on a patio or a deck, you always have your phone within reach, and you like the idea of watching a graph from the couch while a pork shoulder does its thing. Buy it if you want one clean probe with dual sensors, easy cleanup, and a price that doesn't make you wince. That covers most backyard cooks, and it covers me.

Buy the ThermoWorks Smoke if your smoker sits a long way from your phone, if you refuse to depend on an app, or if you want a dedicated receiver you can clip to your apron and read without touching anything. Buy it if you regularly run 12-hour cooks and don't want to think about charging a probe. It costs more and it doesn't have the app, but for that kind of cook it earns its keep.

One honest note: I haven't bought a Smoke, and I wouldn't pretend this is a lab test. It's one retired HVAC guy comparing the thermometer he's lived with for a year and a half against a neighbor's unit over two weekends. That's exactly the kind of comparison most of us can actually use, so I'll stand by it. If you want the longest range and the simplest possible display, go look hard at the Smoke. If you want the app, the single probe, and the easier price, the MEATER Plus is your answer.

Bottom line: the ThermoWorks Smoke is the better tool for long-range cooks who want a dedicated receiver and no phone involved. The MEATER Plus is the better tool for the rest of us, which is most of us. It costs less, it reads meat and pit from one probe, the app makes overnight cooks easier, and cleanup is a wipe. That's why it's the one on my counter.