ThermoWorks, maker of our readers’ favorite meat thermometer, finally married smart functionality with their best-in-class temperature monitoring tech.
The $69 ThermoWorks BlueDOT is a leave-in thermometer ideal for use in the oven, barbecue (at lower temperatures), smoker, or anywhere you’d want to monitor your meal’s temperature over a long period of time. The unit lets you set your desired temperature with a simple up/down button-based interface, and an alarm will sound when the included leave-in probe hits the target.
If you’d like, you can also pair the BlueDOT to your phone and the free ThermoWorks BBQ app on iOS or Android, which allows you to monitor your food from afar, change your temperature target, and get a push notification when dinner’s ready. This doesn’t do much to change the way you use the BlueDOT, but it’ll probably prove useful enough over time to justify the $30 price premium over the otherwise-identical DOT.
Oh yeah, the BlueDOT is also magnetic, so it’ll stick to your grill or oven, which is worth more than a few bonus points.
The biggest shortcoming here is the fact that the BlueDOT only supports one probe. Some competitors (as well as some more expensive ThermoWorks products) let you monitor multiple temperature points at the same time, but the BlueDot is clearly designed to be as un-fussy as possible. You get one probe, one temperature target, and two ways to monitor your progress. Sometimes, that’s a benefit, but it also means it won’t be ideal for more complicated cookouts.