MEATER Plus vs ThermoPro: Which Wireless Thermometer Actually Wins

If you want the short answer before you keep reading: the MEATER Plus is the one I actually reach for now, and it's the one I tell my neighbors to buy. I still own a wired ThermoPro probe thermometer, and it's not a bad piece of gear, but it solves a different problem than the one most weekend grillers actually have.

I've been cooking on a Pit Boss pellet grill and a 22-inch Weber kettle for longer than I care to admit, and for years my only thermometer was an old dial probe I'd stab into a brisket and squint at through the smoke. When my grandson Eli got old enough to help me run the grill, I finally upgraded, first to a corded ThermoPro, then a season later to the MEATER Plus. Both work. Only one of them let me walk inside, sit down with Diane for dinner prep, and still keep an eye on a 14-pound turkey without a wire running through the lid gasket.

I put both through the same string of cooks over about four months. Pork butts on the Pit Boss run at 225°F for ten hours or more, a couple of spatchcocked chickens on the Weber kettle, a standing rib roast in Diane's oven at Christmas, and that Thanksgiving turkey I keep bringing up because it's the cook that actually made the difference obvious. Same meat, same backyard, same guy standing there squinting at a screen. The table below is what actually separated them, not marketing copy off the box.

	MEATER Plus	ThermoPro
Type	Fully wireless, Bluetooth + WiFi repeater	Wired probe to a handheld display unit
Usable Range	About 33 ft Bluetooth alone, 165+ ft with the app's WiFi extend	Limited to cable length, roughly 3 to 6 ft from grill to display
Max Ambient Temp	527°F on the probe's ambient sensor	Around 716°F on some ThermoPro models, but the cable itself is the weak point near open flame
Dual Sensors	Yes, internal meat temp plus external ambient temp in one probe	Single temp reading only, no true ambient sensor on most budget models
Charging Case	Yes, doubles as a charger and boosts wireless range	No, runs on a couple of AAA batteries in the display unit
App / Guided Cook	Free app with doneness alerts, estimated time remaining, and recipe guides	No app on most wired models, just a display screen with high/low alarms
Cable Management	None needed, nothing to route through the lid	Cable has to be pinched through the lid or vent, which can fray over time
Price (approx.)	Mid-range, roughly $80 today	Budget-friendly, often under $20
Rating	4.4 stars from over 48,000 reviews	Varies by model, generally 4.3 to 4.6 stars

Where MEATER Plus Wins

The whole reason I switched is the cable. Or rather, the lack of one. My Pit Boss has a good seal on the lid, and every wired probe I've run through it eventually pinches the insulation down to bare copper. I went through two ThermoPro cables in about 18 months before I gave up fighting it. The MEATER Plus has no cable at all, the probe itself has a tiny Bluetooth chip built in, so nothing runs through the lid and the seal stays tight, which matters more than people think when you're trying to hold a steady 225°F for eight hours.

The dual sensor is the other thing that changed how I cook. One end of the probe reads the internal meat temp, the other end reads the ambient temp right where the meat sits on the grate. On a pellet grill that's usually not a big deal since the Pit Boss controller already tells you the chamber temp, but on Diane's oven or when I'm doing something in the Weber kettle with no built-in thermometer, having both numbers on one probe means I'm not running two devices at once. Last Thanksgiving I cooked a 14 lb turkey with it and got a text alert on my phone the second the breast hit 165°F, while I was in the kitchen helping Diane with the sides, not standing outside in the cold checking a dial every ten minutes.

Range is the other clear win. Bluetooth alone gets you about 33 feet, which covers my whole backyard from the Pit Boss to the back porch. If you pair it with the MEATER app's WiFi extend feature using an old phone or tablet left near the grill as a relay, you can get well over 100 feet, meaning I've genuinely checked a brisket from the living room recliner. A wired ThermoPro simply cannot do that. The cable is the range.

There's also the charging case, which I didn't think I'd care about but do. The probe drops into a little block that both charges it and boosts the wireless signal when you're far from the grill. No AAA batteries rolling around in a junk drawer, no dead battery on a Saturday morning when I've already got the coals lit. The app also logs the whole cook, so I can look back and see exactly how long that pork butt sat in the stall, which has made me a better cook over time, not just a guy with a fancier gadget.

The guided cook feature in the app is a small thing that turned out to matter more than I expected. Pick the cut, pick your target doneness, and it walks you through an estimated finish time that gets more accurate as the cook goes along. I used to eyeball how long a rack of ribs needed and pad it with an extra hour just to be safe. Now I can tell Diane a real time to put the sides on, and I'm usually within fifteen minutes of it, which has saved more than one dinner from going cold on the counter while the meat rests.

One thing nobody tells you until you own one: the MEATER Plus probe itself is fine to leave in the meat the entire cook, even resting on the grate over direct heat up to that 527°F ambient limit, but it is not dishwasher safe and you don't want to drop it in a sink of hot soapy water either. I wipe mine down with a damp rag right after each cook and it's held up through two full grilling seasons without a hiccup. Just don't treat it like a regular metal probe you can toss in with the dishes.

Where ThermoPro Wins

I'll give ThermoPro its due, because it's not like the wired option is useless. The biggest thing it has going for it is price. A basic ThermoPro probe thermometer runs well under $20, and for a guy who just wants to know when the chicken hits 165°F without fussing with an app, that's hard to argue with. If you're outfitting a first grill for a kid moving into their first apartment, or you just want a backup thermometer to keep in the truck, the wired option does the basic job and does it cheap.

The other place it wins is simplicity and reliability in bad conditions. No Bluetooth pairing, no app to update, no battery to charge in a probe. You plug the cable into the display, stick the probe in the meat, and read the number. When my phone died on me mid-cook one Fourth of July, I was glad I still had an old ThermoPro sitting in the drawer as backup, because it doesn't care if your phone is at 2% battery or if the WiFi router inside the house rebooted itself, which has happened to me with the app-based unit more than once.

The display screen is also just easier to glance at in bright sun. Some afternoons in July, Kansas City sun is bright enough that a phone screen washes out until I cup my hand over it, and the ThermoPro's dedicated display doesn't have that problem. If you do most of your grilling midday rather than in the evening, that's a real, practical point in its favor, and I wouldn't tell anyone it isn't.

It also holds up fine in weather I wouldn't trust an app-based gadget in. The display unit has a magnetic back that sticks right to the side of the Pit Boss, out of the drizzle, and the cable itself doesn't mind a little rain. I've had it out grilling in a light Kansas drizzle more than once without worrying about it, whereas I keep my phone tucked in a pocket or under the eave whenever there's weather moving through.

The MEATER Plus is the better cook. The ThermoPro is the better backup. I keep both in the drawer, but only one of them comes out first.

Who Should Buy Which

If you're doing long cooks, low and slow on a pellet grill or smoker, want to walk away from the grill without worrying, and don't mind a phone app running in the background, the MEATER Plus is worth the extra money. It paid for itself the first time it saved me from a dried-out turkey breast, and it's earned a permanent spot next to the Pit Boss ever since. Anyone smoking ribs, brisket, or pork shoulder on a regular basis is going to feel the difference within the first cook or two, especially if your grill sits more than a room away from wherever you'd rather be sitting.

If you're grilling burgers and brats on a weeknight, want something dead simple, or you're buying a thermometer as a stocking stuffer and don't want to spend $80, a wired ThermoPro model gets the basic job done and won't hurt your wallet. It's also a smart backup to keep around even if you go wireless, since it doesn't rely on a charged phone or a working Bluetooth connection.

Here's how I'd put it to a neighbor leaning over the fence asking which one to buy. If you cook meat more weekends than not, and you've ever burned a brisket because you got distracted mowing the lawn, spend the extra money on the MEATER Plus and stop losing cooks to guesswork. If you grill three or four times a summer and just want a number to look at, save your cash and grab the ThermoPro. I keep one of each in my kitchen drawer, but if Diane asks me to grab just one thermometer on my way out to the Pit Boss, my hand goes to the MEATER Plus every single time.