# IGrill mini Review...Just burn $40 in the Fireplace don't buy this cheap piece of plastic



## smokenado (Dec 25, 2013)

I'll get to the point as most people don't too often in these reviews. I rate the IGrill mini. 2 out of 5 stars. 

Now let's get into it...












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You can see here you get a little plastic cap which the probe is attached and a magnetic base that is suppose to mount to your grill/smoker.













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The little cap has a battery underneath which is held in with a cap of the same quality as a cheap remote control car/child's toy. Also you only get one probe with the mini !!

The biggest issue is the little cap won't stay in the magnetic mount which is the black thing that is underneath the red plastic cap. I tried to show in the photo that it won't snap together and yes everything is aligned properly.

Now at this point I have to explain I was very excited to use this new product having had the Maverick ET732 and Grill Alert by Brookstone I wanted the iPad tracking and convenience the igrill was suppose to offer. 

So I put the igrill up against my Maverick in an all out test...hope this is helpful.

First test was boil water temperature 

Maverick vs IGrill mini













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You can see the in the picture the Maverick held at 210 given my elevation is the correct temperature for boiling water. Igrill was off but I won't hold it against them as probe length etc could be a factor. The igrill reached the temperature much faster than the Maverick and updates faster than the Maverick so Igrill scores on speed.

Second test was refrigerator temperature, I placed both igrill and Maverick in the same location waited 20 minutes, and this is what I noticed on both screens













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Final test was room temperature. The Maverick was faster coming out of the refrigerator and achieving a level room temperature than the Igrill was.












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Bottom line the Igrill updates temperature much faster that the Maverick often times the Maverick was 3-4 minutes behind. That said the Maverick did beat the Igrill going from cold temperature of 37 to room temperature of 73. 

Why the Brookstone grill alert wasn't use in the final testing...
Due to the limitations of the Brookstone Grill Alert max 199 degrees I didn't post the results as compared to the Igrill, but as a side note the Brookstone grill alert was used as my neutral test probe and closely mimicked the Maverick in temperature and response.

So in terms of what you get for the money is key here. Igrill one probe little plastic cap thing and you need an iPad etc plus the igrill does take a battery not commonly available. 

Maverick ET732 comes with two probes two digital display handsets for close to the same price.
The bottom line is the igrill has tons of potential but is poorly executed. 

Hope this review was helpful.


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## tjohnson (Dec 26, 2013)

Great Review!
I use the Maverick ET-732 "Religiously", but am looking for another toy that will connect with my IPhone

I just may wait for more feedback before I blow $40

THX!

TJ


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## dirtsailor2003 (Dec 26, 2013)

Thanks for the review. I had my doubts about it when they went to the single probe. Needing to buy two or more $40 units was a turn off.

I too use my Maveric 732, however my go to therm now is the original dual probe iGrill. Both the probes on it were spot on out of the box. The Mav's probes are a few degrees off, which in my book is close enough for BBQ. For our x-mass eve dinner I had to use two smokers. One I monitored with the Mav. The other the iGrill and both chugged right along. I do get faster response times from the iGrill. I also like the ease of the adjusting alarms that the app allows. Kind of fun to download the graphs and compare cooks too. At our current house the Mav and the iGrill's range isn't really an issue as my smokers are never more than 20-25 feet away from where I am at.


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## smokenado (Dec 26, 2013)

I agree it's going back to Lowes today I also emailed igrill about the poor construction.


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## garyt (Dec 26, 2013)

Thanks for the review, I thought about getting one. Someone else was not happy about the battery type also


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## smokenado (Dec 26, 2013)

garyt said:


> Thanks for the review, I thought about getting one. Someone else was not happy about the battery type also



This was a gift from my in laws pretty disappointed just glad I saved a few others from the same disappointment.


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## brentranome (Jul 24, 2017)

So this past weekend my probe thermometer decided it was done working for the very last time. The wife and I went to town in the grand quest for a new thermometer for my smoker. I have the masterbuilt pro dual fuel smoker, and besides that chip tray being garbage, really the only thing this little smoker needed was an accurate thermometer for the smoker temp. I went to Home depot and got a generic smoker thermometer, which right out the box was almost 100% accurate. Then I moved on the the real job that needed to be done.... Meat thermometer. I picked up the igrill mini (because it was the only one they had besides a quick reference probe)and brought it home. Happier than a school girl who just got asked to prom, I went home and opened my new toy. The first impressions were good, but I was a little bummed that it only had one probe, because I would love a dual probe wireless so I don't have to keep going outside to check my Temps. For the remainder of my cook time (about 4 hours), my igrill mini seemed to work fine (smoking at 250F),however the thermometer advertised range was up to 150 feet... Yeah, OK. Let try 30 feet MAX before it dropped and then you would get an annoying alarm all the #&*@-+ time while your signal kept dropping on your phone (galaxy s7) . OK, I'll deal with that. Fast forward to my target temp being hit on my pork butt. I put the pork away to rest in my cooler, and put in a skillet with some Mac and cheese (thank you Malcom Reed for the YouTube recipe. It was amazing). I took my probe from my igrill and set it up to read smoker temp, and much to my surprise, my cheapo thermometer was showing 300F and my igrill was showing a blistering 500F! I had to even borrow a thermometer from my parents to make sure I wasnt in dangerous territory, but of course, little cheapo was telling the truth, igrill was lying. I took the grill probe out of the smoker and set it on a table I had on my deck and the probe was still showing 200F, and was cool to the touch. The next morning I packed everything back up in the box to discover that the back of the magnetic base had actually MELTED while it was stuck to the side of the smoker, so back to Home Depot with it for my $50 bucks back. I do not recommend the grill mini to anyone. If anyone has a dual probe wireless thermometer for around the 30-60 dollar mark, please let me know!


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## redoctobyr (Jul 24, 2017)

The ThermoPro TP-08 and TP-20 seem pretty popular, see the other threads here. Both are dual probes, wireless. 

I just got the TP-20, I got to use it over the weekend. I like it so far, both probes read within​ 1F of 212, in boiling water. And they were within 1F of each other at ambient, around 80F. 

With the 20% code listed in the ThermoPro introduction thread, you can get the TP-20 from their website for just under $50, shipped. The TP-08 is a bit cheaper, I think.


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