Page 21 - OCT 2020 Barbecue News Magazine

bbq gadgets
Tappecue Air
Probe & Touch
Review
Raymond Cato catoraymond40@ gmail.com
Way too often I find myself in
the middle of a cook and real-
ize that I have forgotten some-
thing, or I will postpone a long
cook because I have another
obligation and can't be around
to monitor my smoker temps.
The bright minds at Tappecue
have remedied that issue with their Tappecue Touch Mobile Tem- perature Monitoring. I went into this review a bit skeptical after previous issues with wireless temperature monitoring devices, but I am always looking for a useful BBQ tool, so I set forth with the testing.
Upon initial setup, I was concerned that the touchscreen was somewhat clumsy. Even when using the supplied stylus it seemed to be more aggravating than necessary, however a more tech- savvy user may not find it to be a problem at all. After the original setup I discovered the connection of the unit and probes rather simple. The app is fairly easy to navigate and loads of support can be found on the homepage of the app.
I wanted to give it a real test, so I set up the unit, lit the smoker, put a brisket on and drove to Valdosta Ga. which is ~45 miles away from my home. The Touch did exactly as it
said. The option to monitor temperatures
away from the house delivers a peace of
mind 2nd to none. My smoker held temps,
and I monitored the brisket while I was out
doing some shopping with the wife, and I
was able to look at my phone and confirm
without worrying about if my cooking tem-
peratures were spiking or dropping.
I was more than pleased with the other fea- tures of Touch, such as the ability to graph a cook and save it to the cloud. The unit, while not waterproof, is water resistant, so if you happen to leave it out in a light rain you should be okay. The color coding of the screen and probes makes it easy to differen- tiate which probe is which. There is an op- tion to buy multiple splitters for the unit, making it possible to monitor up to 8 temps at once,if you get the extra probes as well.
There is also an op- tion to go offline for a limited distance if you may be at a com- petition or some- where without Wi-Fi. The wireless probes also proved to be a pleasant surprise after other blue tooth probes have shown limited range, thus
proving (in my opinion) Wi-Fi is a much better option. The Touch offers many other features such as a very audible alarm on the base and a phone alert that is sure to get your attention, the abil- ity to name your cooks and Touch unit and more that can be eas- ily accessed once you start looking deeper into the app.
Other than all of the functional extras, another positive note for the Tappecue Touch is that it is made in the U.S.A., right in Kansas City, where arguably some of the best BBQ in the country is cooked. Customer support is also available online at Tappecue.com or by email at support@innovating-solutions.com. You can also call and reach them by phone at
1-417-213-5870.
The only drawback that I can find with the Tappecue Touch other than a bit of aggravation at setup was that the air probe (wireless probes) battery didn't last through the entirety of the cook and I
had to swap them out. Having said that, the primary unit when fully charged boasts a 20-hour battery life.
While the price tag may seem high at ~$200.00 just remember what Raymond Hull said, "Peace of mind is attained not by ig- noring problems, but by solving them." Tappecue did just that, solved a problem and gave us a little peace of mind.
Additional features also include:
1. Airprobe has the ability to monitor both internal meat temperature as well as ambi- ent temperature of the area around.
2. Connectivity to a home network such as Alexa,Siri, etc...
3. Availability to purchase extra probes/splitter.
4. Fast Charging of the Airprobes
OCTOBER 2020
BarbecueNews.com - 21