Hello BMC!
We want to show you the pros and cons of featured products as part of the BMC benefits!
We will be posting reviews of BMC members using BMC-related products!
Club member Dan Wright bought the Tappecue Airprobe3 and wrote a great review and shared his thoughts with us!
I am giving a review of the new Tappecue Airprobe 3. I paid for my Probes, and these are my opinions. I am also not an English major, so I am sure there are some grammar and spelling errors
Tappecue isn’t new to the wireless probe market, but they are innovative when it comes to that market.
The Tappecue Airprobe 3 is the 3rd generation Airprobe, and it finally fixes the biggest issue I had with wireless thermometers….charge time.
The new Airprobe 3 is slimmer than its predecessors with a 5mm thickness and boasts a 48-hour charge time. This finally allows you to do long smokes with no worries about if the thermometer is going to crap out mid smoke.
Tappecue manages to do this by not using an internal battery. The competition uses batteries, which are not only dangerous if they explode in your smoker but they also have less charge cycles they can go through before finally not charging.
The Airprobe 3 can potentially charge for 100,000 charge cycles which give you years before ever thinking of replacing the unit.
Since they do not us an internal batteries to hold the charge the Airprobe 3 can be used in pressure cookers, air fryers, ovens, smokers and grills (under 575 degrees an no direct flame) You can also throw them in the dishwasher to clean off and makes it submersible for up to 30 minutes.
You have a few options for connectivity with the Airprobe 3.
You can connect 4 units with the Tappecue Touch and monitor via Wi-Fi from everywhere. You can connect via Bluetooth to the probe itself but this will limit your range, especially in thick smokers or Kamados.
Or you can connect via Bluetooth to a wifi enabled phone or tablet close to your smoker and connect it to your Tappecue account via the cloud and then monitor on your phone from anywhere.
This gives you a lot of choices to use whatever works best for you.
Enough with specs, this is what Ive done and my thoughts.
I have cooked a brisket and some summer sausage with my Airprobes 3.
I currently use the Tappecue touch with my Probes for monitoring.
There are 2 other options that I have not tried yet but for me using the Tappecue touch is the way to go.
It allows you to use wired and/or wireless probes with one unit.
First cook was a Brisket that was done on a stick/pellet combo.
This cook took around 13 hours overall and I had no issues with charge life. The only thing I noticed was in the beginning of the cook my ambient temps were a bit lower than the actual ambient, but this can be explained by the close proximity of the meat to the sensor and its measuring that exact spot. After a short time they eventually lined out and were within 1 degree of the actual set temperature.
Personally, I never use any 3rd party ambient as my true temp, I use them as a baseline to determine a flameout or fire.
The real benefit of being wireless came after the roast was done.
I was able to just pull the Brisket off the smoker and transfer directly to the cooler without messing with any wires.
I then put the Tappecue touch on the top of the cooler and was able to monitor the Brisket while it was still in the cooler.
The second cook is where I really fell in love with the Airprobe 3.
On this cook was doing 100 lbs of summer sausage in 3 different smokers. The main one had about 60 lbs in it and I used 4 Airprobe 3s throughout the smoker. Where the real benefit came into play was when it came time to rotate things around I didn’t have to fiddle with any wires.
I just grabbed the sticks and moved them around to where I needed and the probes just move with whatever stick it was in. Then when that stick was done I would pull it out, take the Airprobe 3 out and put it into another stick and shut the door. Throughout the cook I just kept up this method then I wiped the probes clean and set them aside, making sure not to stick them back on the charging decks.
After I completed the cook I took the 4 probes and put them in the dishwasher for a good cleaning and left them in for the night, while the chargers were left in my shop.
The next morning after about 36 hours off the chargers I took the probes outside and set them next to the touch and turned it on. They all came online with no issues!!
Overall I am extremely satisfied with the new Airprobes. I have used the 1 and 2 generations and the battery life was my biggest issue with them both.
Now this is fixed and IMO this is the best option out there in the wireless market for a few reasons.
One is battery life, and 2 is the ability to go wired or wireless with the Tappecue Touch. The only thing I would like to fix is the way to color code them. The little rubber rings work great but when wiping them down they can easily slip off without you noticing and you lose the ring. I will just put a small dot of paint or something on mine to keep them easy to separate.
Pros
*Charge time
*Size
*Ease of use and methods of connectivity
*Long time company that has been a pioneer in the wifi thermometer industry
*Quick recharge time but youll never really need it on the fly because they last forever
*Recharges by battery, or usb-c
*The ability to move probes from one smoker to the next with ease since you don’t have wires.
Cons
*Price, but none of the various wireless probes are cheap
*The color coded rings can be lost easily if not paying attention while wiping off probe.
*the app is a little tricky to understand compared to other brands but once you get it figured out you will appreciate it
Thank you Dan for the review!