Bulbs & Fittings Ideas

I happened upon the “Talking Wirless Grill Thermometor (“TWGT”)in Lowes ). Being a gadget guy I could not pass it up. Got it home, put in the batteries and it worked perfectly. It immediately measured room temp within 1 degree of my digital room thermometer. I Cooked “Beercan Chicken” on the patio grill that weekend. Put the probe into the thigh as directed and placed the base unit on my kitchen counter about 40 feet away. Opened a cold beer and watched the info on the base unit as I prepared other food in the kitchen. No need to periodically go out to the grill and check the chicken. Instead I watched football and the unit as it measured temp up and up. When it was time, it told me “It’s almost done.” Headed to the patio when the unit told me “It’s done”. The TWGT worked great. I was so impressed I went and bought a second one to give as a gift.

Then I tried to use it a second time. I had steak marinated and ready for the grill. Football on TV. Turned the TWGT on but the base was not getting a signal from the probe. I changed batteries, hit the reset button on the probe, shook it, cursed it, prayed. Nothing made it work. I even opened the one I had bought to give as a gift – it did not work either. Both units and probes were on but not communicating with each other. I gave up and cooked the steak the old way by trying to time it, lifting the grill and testing it. Very dissappointing.

Fortunately for me, I love gadgets and did not give up. Later, I kept experimenting, trying to figure out what was wrong. I went to Amazon.com and read a review saying you have to hit the reset button, but I had already tried that too many times without success. Then I figured it out. When you turn on the units, if they do not talk to each other, you have to press the reset buttons on BOTH THE PROBE AND THE MAIN UNIT. I’d never noticed the main unit also has a reset button. I turned on both units, pressed both reset buttons one after the other and –SUCCESS! Both units and their probes started talking. Again they were within 1 degree of room temp. I cannot wait to grill out this weekend! Maybe on Sat. for the Gators and on Sun. for the Bucs.

Summing it up? Yea. It would be a good idea for OS to put a troubleshooting section in the manual to cover this problem. As it is you need to either figure it out or call OS. I suspect many of these amazingly fun grill gadgets are lying unused in some dissappointed owner’s junk drawer. But, if you know the secret (you can probably get the secret if you call OS customer service)this thermometer is fun, and convenient. I won’t grill without it. In fact, I will now use both units at the same time for different foods cooked simultaniously (so much for the gift idea). BTW. The unit’s voice is female and she speaks multiple languages. My advice – set her for French. I don’t speak the language but she sure sounds good. 🙂

I’ve used this product for almost two years now and really enjoy it. However, I’ve had problems getting the two parts to sync up, especially after I hadn’t used it in a while. There’s a really good review in here that walks you through the process of hitting the reset buttons (under the batter cover) on BOTH units, but even this didn’t always work. I was ready to go back to a hardwired unit when I found a solution — remove the batteries in both units, wait a few minutes and reinstall. This has worked for me every time. I now store the units with the batteries removed (good idea anyway) and it has worked with no trouble when I reinstall the batteries. Give this a try before you give up. This issue is why I didn’t give it 5 stars.

One other thing to be careful about. Keep water away from where the cable enters the probe. Incorrect temp readings can come from water contamination. From other sites, this seems to be a common problem with these wireless thermometers. I clean the probe with a cloth and rinse under the sink, never letting water touch anything but the part of the probe below the loop that enters the meat.

Hope this helps.

We bought this from a local hardware store. Our previous thermometers were the analog instant read types and they’ve died. We use this 3 to 4 times a week for cooking fish, hamburgers, steaks, poultry and have been extroardinarily pleased with the results each and every time. Now, if I don’t use it, I can tell the difference. The fish flakes apart perfectly, the poultry is absolutely not bloody, and the hamburgers and steaks are cooked to temperature. There is a setting to set your own temperature if you don’t like the presets.

Make sure to put the probe into the meatiest part of the meat and not touching any bones. Also, don’t put the probe directly over the flame (the manual says these things). I angle it towards the front of the grill so that it is almost under the cover. That way I can close the grill but it is not over direct flame. I’ve cooked from low BBQ temps to High grill and had no trouble with it. It’s made making dinner much less of a hassle.

We’ve not used it in the oven, though it says you can. We had one issue where the base unit lost track of the remote unit. The temperature reading started flashing and it couldn’t reconnect. I turned off the base unit and turned it back on and it reconnected with no further problems.

We like ours so much that we bought another one as a gift.