A Comparison Between
MEATER and The MeatStick

Comparing The Apps

	MEATER	MeatStick
Main Screen	Shows list of devices/probes that you have added. Probes are dimmed if off, bright if on.	Shows only a list of probes that are on and connected. .
Info Shown on Probe List	Cook name, food, food target and ambient temperatures, connection mode, progress dial with time remaining, Bluetooth signal strength (MEATER+), WiFi signal strength (MEATER Block) and charging block battery status (MEATER+ and MEATER Block).	Cook name, food, food target and ambient temperatures, time remaining, total cook time, probe battery status.
Cook Screen Info Shown	Cook name, food, food target and ambient temperatures, progress dial, time remaining, link to graph, link to share cook, link to settings, link to adjust cook parameters.	Cook name, food, food target, ambient and ambient target temperatures, elapsed time, time remaining, graph of temperatures, probe battery status, connection type, link to share cook.
Cook Modes	Guided cook, Custom Cook	Grill, Oven, Smoke and Quick Start
Types of Meat	Beef, Pork, Fish, Poultry, Lamb	Beef, Pork, Fish, Poultry, Lamb
Cuts of Meat	32 total cuts	38 total cuts
Modify Cook In Progress?	Yes	Yes
Alarms	Meat done early warning, time to rest meat, meat done, ambient high alarm.	Meat done early warning, meat done, ambient low and high alarms
Temperature Graph	Yes	Yes
Cook History	Yes	Yes
Share Cooks	Yes, via all methods offered by iPhone	No
In-App Help	Yes, also links to YouTube videos	Yes. First time use gives you quick tour of many features.

The Cooking Process
The cooking process is slightly different between the two probes, most notably in the later stages of the cook. While they both predict for you the finish time of your cook, they each handle it in a different way. To demonstrate the cooking process, we cooked an eye of round roast, specifying the target temperature recommended by both Apps of 145°F, or Medium. We controlled the pit temperature with a temperature controller, and we inserted into the roast a MEATER probe, a MeatStick probe, as well as the meat probe for the temperature controller. The eye of round took an hour and 25 minutes to cook.

MEATER: The MEATER App first predicts the time that it will instruct you to remove the meat from the cooker for resting. Once it starts the resting period, it tells you the remaining resting time. Once it gets to the end of the resting period, there is this rather mysterious time period where the App starts to tell you that it's "Almost There" but with no time prediction. Finally, it informs you that the meat is ready. Here's how the overall cook went.

• It took 25 minutes for the App to come up with it's first prediction of the finish time, and then it constantly recalculated the finish time as the cook proceeded.

• The first prediction was 11 minutes long. As time passed, the prediction fell to 6 minutes early (around the middle of the cook). As the cook proceeded, the prediction shifted towards the actual finish time with 15 minutes left to go.
• The App then told us it was time to remove the meat from the cooker and allow it to rest, giving us an estimate of 17 minutes resting time. The finish time for resting remained constant until there was 1 minute left. At that point, the App told us "Almost There" for 7 more minutes. Once this "Almost There" time was finished, the meat was rested and at its target internal temperature of 145°F

So, all in all, if you followed the App directions, you still had a bit of guesswork as to when the meat would finally be done, but at the end the meat was at its target temperature ready for slicing.

The MeatStick: The MeatStick process is simpler but perhaps less precise than the MEATER process since there is no provision for resting time. It gives you a prediction of when the meat will hit your target temperature and that's all. If you follow the MeatStick's guidance to the letter, you will end up overshooting your target by 10° or more since the meat will be at its target temperature when you remove if from the cooker. Here's how the MeatStick App handled the cook:

• The App immediately told us that the time remaining was 11 minutes after the actual finish time. This appears to be a guess that isn't based on the actual current temperatures of the meat and pit.
• The App maintained this same predicted finish time for 35 minutes with no variation. However, then the App predicted a finish time of 20 minutes BEFORE the meat actually reached its target temperature.
• For the next 35 minutes, the App pushed the finish time out little by little, until it was showing a time of 10 minutes before the meat was done.
• Then all of a sudden it reported a finish time of 11 minutes AFTER it was actually done. This was followed by a prediction of 4 minutes BEFORE it was actually done.

So, the MeatStick ended up zeroing in on the final finish time, but only in the last five minutes. Before that time, the predictions were erratic and off by quite a bit.

Price
As we have shown, both the MEATER and The MeatStick come in three forms, probe plus charger, probe plus charger/repeater, and probes plus charger/WiFi bridge.

Probe Plus Charger:
The MEATER consists of a single probe and a bamboo charging block. The price is $69.00.

The MeatStick Set consists of a single probe and a plastic charger with micro-USB cable. The price for this combination is currently $64.99.

Probe Plus Charger/Repeater:
The MEATER+ consists of a single probe and a bamboo charging block that also contains a Bluetooth repeater. The price is $99.00.

The MeatStick Xtender Set consists of single probe, a plastic charger with micro-USB cable, and a separate battery powered Bluetooth repeater. The price of this combination is $84.99.

Probe Plus Charger/WiFi Bridge: Here things get a little tricky to compare since the two companies offer significantly different configurations.

The MEATER Block comes with 4 probes and a bamboo charging block that contains four built-in chargers, a built-in WiFi bridge, and a touch panel display and keypad. The MEATER Block currently sells for $229.00.

The MeatStick WiFi Bridge Set comes with only two probes, a single charger, a separate WiFi bridge unit with LCD display and antenna, and two micro-USB cables. This configuration costs $179.99. However, to get a configuration equivalent to the MEATER Block, you would need to purchase an additional 2 probes ($100.00) and 3 charging blocks ($60.00) which would bring your total up to a staggering $339.00. Even if you are willing to make do with a single charger, you are still paying $279.99 for less function than the MEATER Block.

Recommendations
If you dig through all the details of the two products, you will find that MEATER and The MeatStick have a pretty close match on most of the basic functions. If we had to decide, we think we'd base our decision on the following factors:

MEATER Probe vs. MeatStick Probe
When looking at just the probes, we prefer the MEATER probe over the MeatStick probe. The MEATER probe has a smaller diameter and doesn't need to be stuck into the meat nearly as far as the MeatStick probe. In addition, the MEATER probe's battery will last longer than the MeatStick probe's battery.

MEATER Probe/Charger vs. MeatStick Probe/Charger
If you just want a single probe, we prefer the MEATER probe over the MeatStick probe. Although $5.00 more, with the MEATER probe you get a nice solid bamboo charging block instead of a plastic charger. The MEATER charging block uses a single AAA battery, so you don't need a micro-USB cable and USB battery supply. The MEATER probe turns on when you remove it from the charging block, so there is no need to grab your micro-USB cable and USB battery supply just to turn on a probe. And as we saw, the MEATER probe has slightly better range than the MeatStick probe.

MEATER+ Probe vs. MeatStick Xtender Set
If you want better range than is provided by the probes alone, and if you don't need WiFi, the choice is pretty clear. The MeatStick Xtender set blows away the MEATER+ probe when it comes to Bluetooth range. It's also $15.00 cheaper than the MEATER+ probe. Yes, you lose the nice bamboo construction and the convenience of having the battery in the charging block, but if you are buying the option that gives you more range, it makes more sense to go with the less expensive MeatStick Xtender.

MEATER Block vs. MeatStick WiFi Bridge Set
If you want a WiFi bridge so that you can monitor your temperature probes from anywhere, the choice is not so clear cut. The MEATER Block is indeed $50.00 more, but look what that $50.00 gets you. Bamboo construction versus orange plastic. Four probes instead of two. Four charging ports instead of one. The convenience of batteries in the Block and no need for micro-USB cables or battery packs unless you really want to. Probes that turn on when you pluck them from the Block versus having to get a second micro-USB cable and battery pack to turn probes on. On the other hand, the MeatStick has the rather useful built-in Xtender so that if WiFi isn't available, you can still monitor your probes from your smart device at considerable distance from your cooker. With the MEATER Block, you can monitor your probes with the built-in OLED display and keypad, but only from normal Bluetooth range.

Availability
All the MEATER and MeatStick products are available on Amazon or from the manufacturers' web sites. If you use the following Amazon links, we get a small percentage of the sale price which is used to help support this web site:

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