If grilling is your thing but you're stumped by when the food is finished, two grills claim to take out the guesswork.
Weber's iGrill 3 is a $100 add-on feature that works with any Weber Genesis II grill.
It uses Bluetooth technology to send alerts and updates to your smartphone or tablet.
"Our testers said that the iGrill 3 installed in about ten to fifteen minutes and that it was very straightforward," said Consumer Reports home editor Paul Hope.
If installation isn't your thing, the $800 Char-Broil SmartChef comes ready to go and uses a Wi-Fi signal to send alerts to your device. However, our testers found the signal needs to be strong and to use the main grill at all it needs to be plugged in.
Both grills use apps that ask similar questions like, "What are you cooking? How do you like it cooked?"
For this test it was steak, medium rare. Both grills use preset temperatures to determine when the food is finished.
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Testers used temperature probes to check how accurate the grills were at alerting when the food was ready.
"In the end both grills did really well in our tests and we found their temperature probes were accurate" said Hope.
But consumer reports says you can create your own "smart grill" with a good wireless meat thermometer.
Consumer Reports recommends this $40 Oregon scientific meat thermometer. It's easy to read, has a timer and also comes with preset meat temperatures.
Need more help with smart grills? Here are some of Samantha Chatman’s solutions:
• Make sure the devices are properly charged.
• But if you want to skip all the bells and whistles, just buy a regular meat thermometer.
• Thermoworks has one for $20 and we're told it's very accurate.
• You should also put the thermometer in the center of the meat, not in the edges.
• If you're still in doubt, call a friend or family member over to the grill and ask for help.
