smokeyBandit wrote:Hey I had a look using the search function but couldn't seem to find any recent posts on these,
I am really intrigued by the iGrill, I saw a post where the old version was reviewed unfavourably, but from what I have read the points looked to be addressed. Seems you can set a min/max temp and be alarmed as well as record a graph / csv of historic temps.
Seems pretty pricey, but the functionality looks cool.
Am an iOS dev also so wonder if could hack together myown software for it
Anyone had any experience with them?
Yep the Evil Dr. has had one for little while now but never got round to posting a review
My initial experience was mixed but very satisfied now, the most important point from my trials and tribulations is to go direct to the manufacturer... Yes it's pricey to important but you get the benefit of interstellar customer support.
I bought one from an Amazon retailer, well three actually and not one of them worked! These were all sold as new boxed as per manufacturer description but all turned out to be 2nds or faulty returns. Not knowing any better I sent a swagging mass of expletives to igrill, who to be fair had no idea what was going on but were still very helpful
In the end the penny dropped and we realised this was a rouge seller and got my money back to then go direct. I made my purchase and the unit arrived within days was unpacked and linked to my iPhone within seconds grovelling letter of Apology duly sent and away we went.
1st thing I noticed has been mentioned by Ed in a previous post about probe placement with other kit. I couldn't get a stable pit temp, just kept climbing & climbing which as Ed suggested is linked to the use of forced draft and to my mind top vent setting. This was ultimately cured with the use of a probe tree & trials with vent settings.
My next observation was the meat probe would happily sit doing its thing for hours on end then for no apparent reason give wild and totally unreliable swings, cut out altogether and never recover.... Very puzzling, disconnect reconnect and it would come back..
I experimented more & began to realise this was happening only when I spritzed, I got on to igrill tech for clarification but no real suggestion this was the problem but what they did say was the probes are not water proof, oops! I pressed for answers on how they cope with spritzing but got no definitive answer other than the probes are not water tight & must never be immersed in water.
Long story shorter after much head scratching here and at igrill we figured that as the ambient probe was in the same atmosphere and suffering the spritz with no ill effects the problem lay with the meat probe itself going open circuit, did I have a spare probe to try?
I didn't but igrill came up trumps sending me 2 replacement probes FOC which I have yet to try but am confident will resolve the issue.
Overall the signal is strong and stable, the software easy to understand and tailor to your requirements. It must be paired with your phone on 1st use but after that is a breeze to use connecting quickly and has a very useable range, I can pick up from the btm of garden thru walls no probs aprox 80ft.
The user interface is simple to understand & the export via CSV or PDF very handy for recording cooks. The only downside being that the file must be sent with the unit live it does not store to memory.
Would I recommend them, hell yes!
Posted: 30 Sep 2013, 20:45