If you don't mind, I'd like to hear a bit about the problems you've had with heater meter. I've been considering one and would love to know the pitfalls
To be honest, it's been pretty good. However, it's a DIY product, so there's some troubleshooting involved. Problems I've had:
If I set temp via the Pitdroid app (made by a user on the TVWBB forums... It's the unofficial heatermeter app because there's not an official one), then manually put the heatermeter into open lid mode, it resets the set temp to the heatermeter's default (255 in my case)... This has caused some significant temperature overshoots when I'm trying to smoke at 200-225. I was informed yesterday that the pitdroid app is kind of outdated, so if you build one, plan to use the webui to control it (which is much, much better, but less convenient on a phone)
I've had issues with my probes occasionally reading crazy values, even though the probes themselves aren't bad. I've never had it interfere with a cook, but for example, yesterday my pit probe was reading 600 degrees when I fired it up, so I had to use a food probe as a pit probe yesterday. Next time, the pit probe will probably work again.
The case for my fan has warped due to heat, so I need to reprint it (note, if you get a heatermeter, make sure all the 3d printed cases are done in PETG, rather than PLA or ABS.
All in all, it's done exactly what I want it to do. But it's a DIY project and requires a little bit of knowledge and tinkering. Any sort of support is done via the TVWBB message boards or by messaging Bryan, the creator directly...
My feedback on buying/building one: If you want to use thermocouple for a pit probe, I think it might be your only option.
If you're using thermister style: If it's a substantial savings compared to a similar product, it's worth it. If it's not, I'd probably buy a commercial product. I think when I got mine, I spent about $250 for pre-soldered boards, raspberry pi zero W, someone to 3d print the case for my fan and heatermeter, 3
thermoworks pro temp probes and a pit probe, and the other odds and ends. If I had a 3d printer and soldering skills, I probably could have done it for $175-200.
That said, you can buy a smartfire board for $228 right now, or I stumbled onto the
Thermoworks Signals/Billows combination yesterday, which was on sale yesterday for $188 (Signals) + 59 (billows). Both come with 3 temp probes and a pit probe, which are worth about $70 themselves (based on the cost of
thermoworks pro series probes, which you should buy if you build a heatermeter)....
Personally, if I were buying today,my feeling would be to go the
thermoworks route.. They're a company that's well established, very well respected in the thermometer industry (I'm sure you've read 50 recommendations to buy a
thermopen), etc. But I'd watch for a sale. Yesterday you could have gotten the thermometer/blower for about $230, today it's $290 ($230 for Signals, $60 for Billows).
