Accurate, relatively fast and excellent customer service
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2020 | Rating: 5/5 | Best Sellers in Patio, Lawn & Garden
this review covers the original alpha grillers instant read meat thermometer i purchased in february of 2017and the new upgraded model you see here june 2020 anyway the original thermometer was purchased for 15 based on users reviews on amazon you cant find images of it here anymore although you can see it in my picture comparing the 2017 model to the 2020 model but it worked well enough and ive been mostly happy with it for the last three years recently it went from unreliably turning on to not turning without removing the aaa battery and futzing with it no corrosion for 10 minutes  i was disappointed but 15 for three years of service and left out in the elements i cant complain too much i started to browse for a replacement and see that alpha grillers has a lifetime warranty so i email them pictures of the unit invoice info etc i kid you not two days later a replacement arrives from amazon and its the latest version so none of that pay for shipping the dead unit back to them and well see what we can do run around this alone should convince you that its worth buying this thermometer since we all know most of the hardware on amazon is sourced from a giant factory making and selling units to other resellers its probably not a question of the difference in the labelits a difference in the customer support and there alpha grillers gets 5starsaccuracy and responsesince i have the new unit i wanted to see how accurate it was so i compared it to my fluke 52 thermocouple thermometer with a fluke 80pk2a immersion probe that i had calibrated with a ge druck dpi822 i then filled a narrow mouth pyrex 1000ml flask with water from our hot water pot that had been set to 208 f and tried to hold both probe tips near each other in the hot water while trying to take a picture with the hand on a phone the fluke 52 and 80pk2a read out at 1844 while the alpha grillers displayed 1841  as you know water cools off fast and its you dont uniform temperature in the container so the 03 degree difference could be the actual temperature difference from the probe positions in the hot water or even the probe shaft differences basically the accuracy is excellent for a 20 meat thermometeri also wanted to see how fast the alpha grillers unit responds so i filled a second small glass container with ice and water and recorded the display as it was dunked from the ice water back into the hot water which had now cooled off further you can watch the video above it goes from removal from ice bath to hot water and then back to ice bath and again back to the hot water but it does respond extremely fast but not necessarily instant to be fair instant is more of a marketing term and open to interpretation anyway instant coffee still takes time to add to water and stir for exampleid say it takes about 35 seconds to respond to the ice bath to hot waterwhich is instant for most of us for example the fluke 80pk2a is far slower by design because its a nontapered thicker stainless immersion probe that absorbs a lot of the heat and can take a lot more abuse the more slender tapered alpha grillers tapered tip is designed to pierce meat and also responds far quicker since you dont have to heat up a lot of metalas far as the design of the unit like the previous model it features a hidden magnet to let you stick it to side of your grill which is a great feature and the hole lets you hang it from a hook as well if your grills hooks are large enough the package also comes with four small hook and loop velcro with adhesive on the back if you want to velcro it to somethingthe new models rubber buttons are also far easier to press than the previous designs plastic bubbletype new to this model is very even white led backlighting yes it looks blue in the official marketing pictures but thats the digital camera color temperature at workits actually whitehold functionalso new is a hold and min max function the function is unlike most typical thermometers which typically cycle from room temperature to max temp and min temp its pretty thought out here for a meat thermometer on the older model which doesnt have the old function i would stick the thermometer in to the meat on the grill and twist my head over to see the current temp on meat on the rear of the grill this means getting your head into odd angles and also pretty close to the grillwith the new model you insert the probe press the hold button to activate the hold it will display hold and read the temp without all the head craning and heat on your face press hold to release the hold functionone thing i want to point out the ui for the hold function might be a little confusing because the hold function first requires that you turn on the hold function before you can use it this occurs from off state to on so like most if you have it folded shut and open to use you will have to press the hold button to turn on the mode that means the first time you want to use it youll have to press it twice once to activate the hold mode and once again to do the first hold after its in its hold mode it operates the way you expect it to into meat hold button to read and hold button to release it doesnt turn off until the thermometer is switched offmax min functionthe same hold button also activates a max and min temp this again is unlike the typical user interface of a temperature gauge with room temp  max  min cycle with a single click to read the maximum temperature you press and hold the hold button for 3 seconds and it will display the maximum temperature with max in the display press again and will see the minimum recorded temperature since the unit was on and min in the display one more press and you exit back into the standard mode note you cannot the maxmin function if it is currently in hold you have to do this from the normal operations undocumented feature alpha grillers documentation say to clear the recorded maxmin by turning the unit off folding the thermometer shut but if you are in the max or min mode you can simply press and hold the hold button for three seconds and it will reset both recorded max and min memoriescalibration modeunlike the 2017 mode the 2020 version features a calibrate feature on the button that lets you switch from fahrenheit to celsius pressing the button for 5 seconds will let you calibrate the unit the instructions say to put the probe into a container of ice and water by using the cal fc button or the hold button to set the calibration point to 32 degrees f or 0 degrees c obviously out of the box accuracy is excellent and for meat grilling do you really need this kind of accuracy or to even calibrate i dunno i was more afraid of accidentally pressing the calibrate button and throwing it out of whack so i went ahead and pressed the cal button for 5 seconds which causes the display to show call yes theres only one l in calibrate but rather then letting me accidentally mess up the calibration the thermometer displayed err and then went back into normal operation my guess is the unit wont even let you calibrate it unless its in an ice bath first so my worries about screwing up the calibration are pretty unlikely since youd have to accidentally dunk it into an ice bath firstbuild quality and batteryunlike the original alpha grillers i had which runs off of aaa the new unit uses which comes preinstalled  a cr2032 coin cell i think this is an improvement as aaa kinda stink they seem to be the most prone to leaking of all the cylinder cells i use looking at you kirkland lithium coincells though more expsnsive are more reliable far less likely to leak and ruin your unit and operate at lower temperatures the higher voltage also means more power for the the advanced functions in the unit too i cant say anything about battery life as i havent had the unit long enough but im sure the led backlight is the largest consumer of power so if you use it sparingly itll probably last quite a whilewater resistancealpha grillers calls it water proof and in the documentation its stated that you can fully submerge it in water for a shorttime so long as the battery compartment is screwed on tightly i didnt dunk my unit but i have no reason to doubt the water resistance of it there are no visible screws anywhere on the unit and there is a gasket in the battery compartment the gasket could be a little larger though to increase the seal as there are no ridges to mate with the gasket on the actual battery cover just a flat surface the only ingress of water would likely come through the gasket flattening over time or through the pivot point of the probethe previous 2017 model used a small nub switch that the temperature probe boom depresses to switch off or on this switch has moved to the inside of the unit which also adds to its water resistance the probe boom itself is very stiff to open and close which also adds to water resistance i have no idea how the probe is connected to actual controller board inside or how water resistant that is the 2020 unit actually switches off at about a 45 degrees angle too which is an improvement over the 2017 model which required closing it firmly to switch off i would often not switch off if you didnt close it correctlyi think this is plenty of water and dirt resistance for a meat thermometer unless youre a navy seal griller who needs to scuba up from a sub before grilling on the beach the main take away is you can probably leave this on your grill during inclement weather without worrying about it being killed the previous model i had did not have any weather resistance claims and also no gasket in the battery compartment which might be how i killed itimprovementscoming from the previous model its a big improvement but its not without complaints i think the hold feature is great but the button is too close to the temperature scale and backlight button this means you have to angle your thumb to hit it straight on youre also going to almost always hit that button from an angle which will put more stress on it over time the other complaint is the hold button should be activated from power on without having to press it once i suppose this is done to prevent someone from reading the wrong temperature but id rather have it onoverall the 2020 model is a big improvement over the 2017 model currently its quite a bit more expensive 15 for 2017 model vs 20 for 2020 model but i think the improvements are worth it and let me again point out the customer service alpha grillers provides my old one let go three and half years later and they stood behind it for a 15 thermometer even if they didnt and they said its been three years bud id buy another one with the improvements accuracy and speed the new model has over the old oneand yes i received this unit free because my old unit died alpha grillers sent it to me as a warranty replacement not to have it reviewed it did not ask me to write my review i did it because a company that stands behind its products deserves recognition and is worthy of my time spent