Reviews for CHEF iQ

First off, there's nothing in the sales literature that mentions an online account is required to use the app that connects to the cooker. I think this is deceptive. Secondly, you can't pair a phone with the cooker unless you enable location services first. Seriously? This product seems to be more geared to collecting personal data than actually cooking. Sending it back to Amazon.

Won't connect to wifi most of the time Hey Devs, spend less time adding video and bells and whistles to your app, and make it so that we can actually use the basic functionality! Most of this time this device refuses to connect to my very strong Wi-Fi, so I have to sit near the grill within Bluetooth range. If I wanted just a Bluetooth thermometer I would have bought a much cheaper one. Now they keep adding recipes and videos and things that we don't need instead of fixing basic stuff.

Issue 1: This app doesn't let me set a range so I can monitor the temperature in my smoker. For example, I like to set the thermometer to tell me if the smoker temp is below 210°F or above 240°F. Issue 2: The app notification is really short and easy to miss. That makes the unlimited range thermometer useless. Most of the time I'm not near the base, and I rely on the app to tell me when the food is done cooking. Issue 3: Nobody cares about the recipes. The first page of app should show temps

Kind of frustrating. The idea is great, but executed poorly. Setup requires you to connect the app and unit, which seems a little silly, as i feel like it should be an optional featuer not a full requirementfor use. Also connecting them is pretty difficult. I'm relatively savvy in the tech area and device connections are usually a breeze. Not sure if there's a firmware delay in the app or whatever is causing it, but I found myself annoyed.

Good in theory, but in practice too many bugs and poor UI decisions. I always watch the graph of the cook, and the graph constantly resets itself during a cook, erasing all previous data/history and starting the graph at the present point. Incredibly frustrating and by far the worst part of the app. Support didn't help. Also there are 2-3 things I cook most commonly, and after saving those settings to favorites it still takes about 8 different screens to actually start the cook. That's bad UI.

I like the app but have several suggestions. Favorite recipes should be a section within recipes tab not in a section under more. Also it's difficult to use 2 probes at the same time if using guided instructions, because unlike if you set it manually you just see cooking in progress and have to go into it instead of getting a reading at first glance. Also an option to add your own recipes with prompts would be nice.

The whole idea is great, but the app is very buggy. On my first cook, the ambient temperature difference according to the probe was very different than my oven. So I put in the second probe to see if there was a difference. Now that I have two probes in the same piece of meat, I can no longer go into the details of either probe to look at the pretty graph or change any of the settings. Another thing is that when I leave the app and come back, whatever history was in the graph is now gone.

Pixel 7a. App has potential, but one major issue is that it often freezes when in the background and has to be restarted because I'll open it back up and none of the buttons work. Another minor annoyance - when you click on a probe to expand the details, it scrolls you to the top of the screen. Why? Just leave me in the same spot so I can look at the probe details.

I keep getting push notifications at the wrong times. For example, in the middle of a cook with over an hour left, I get a notification saying it may be time to remove the food. Clearly it is not because the meat isn't even at 100 degrees yet. Or the push notification at 3am telling me my food is ready to eat, when I was done cooking at 5pm, and turned the probe off. The other annoyance is this app literally walks you step by step, and doesn't like you doing your own thing.

Hello, When I bought your temperature probe, I did not imagine there is no way to use the probe for its SIMPLE and most common use - to JUST read internal and ambient temperature as a function of time. That is so simple! Why is that option not implemented???? The app is packed with a million options, but not that specific option that 99% of people will use? Look at the Meater app! so simple: PLEASE PLEASE add that simple and crucial feature, I just want to read the temperature!

Every time I check the temperature the app locks up and I have to force stop it and reopen it. This is so disruptive that it makes the app almost impossible to use. Also the notifications for stages of cooking keep repeating if the temperature isn't changing much, no option that I could find to turn it off because it was meaningless to me anyways. Tons of features that I don't need and don't want. Even worse is that the thermometers are useless without this piece of garbage.

Love that it has both the current temp and graph to see the trends. Provides generally accurate predicted time. Has step by step recipes. I wish that there were more extensive recipe options. For example, Prime Rib in the oven. Heat at 425. I wish I could have slow roasting or smoking options at a lower temp. But very easy to use, and great step by step.

Im very disappointed in the probe and the app. Rather than giving the temperature immediately you have to go through a series of menus. They're always promoting other products which is annoying. I expect that the app can do one job provide the temperature. I will never purchase this or any of their other products again.

So far I've been pretty happy with my Chef IQ thermometers. The app overall seems great, but it does bother me that, when I get an alert, the phone vibrates but there is no audible alert. I contacted customer service and was told "At this time we do not have an active feature for verbal notification from the app". I don't need verbal, just some sort of sound to let me know I need to look at my phone. I also run my Traeger app when using this, and I hear the sound for it just fine.

works well. There are a few foods that it's lacking in the cook setup, but the manual mode does compensate for that. but foods like chicken wings and catfish or anything that you are trying to deep fry, it does not even categorize it. Deep frying should be included on the cook setup menu.

great device. future upgrades I'd like to see are: audio guidance playing through my phone rather than the base station. that needs to be nearer to the grill (not near me), and when I am grilling multiple identical steaks, one should be able to configure for the meat type, method of cooking, thickness and then apply all settings to each probe. similarly, cooking starts on the device separate times pressing start cooking for each probe, which isn't as efficient.

Update: It's struggling right now on the Zfold5 when I tried to start a cook with the phone unfolded in the big screen mode. the UI would not allow me to click the start cook button. I had to close the phone, and then it really broke the app. Also allow us to have a smoking option for pork chops. Allow us to use our smart hub as a Bluetooth speaker and allow the voice alerts to lower the music volume so that you'll know when to flip the steaks. Great work on this. I'm thoroughly satisfied

EDIT: The software seems to be getting better. However, why on earth you would stop recording temperatures either after x amout of hours or after the cook set temperature is reached is wrong. It needs to keep recording the temps anytime the thermometer is not docked and a cook has been started. We use the thermometer for sous vide and long cooks. It should never shut off while it's not docked. No wired thermometer shuts off. If something gets over or under cooked, we need to know by how much!

This recipe was very adaptable to make it a bit healthier (e.g., I swapped out the butter and heavy cream with less margarine and half-and-half, and reduced the salt), and I added two eggs to increase the protein. Even with these changes it was a tasty dish! Perfect for meatless Monday (or Wednesday as was the case).

Functionally, the IQ probes work quite well. I have just 2 complaints: 1. the charging unit must be "near" the grill. The problem is that the plastic it is made of warps like crazy - and I'm talking about 18" from my smoker. 2. the probes go into an over heat mode & cease to work at about 210°F. Some cooks require that temp, so the usefulness of th IQ product is limited. otherwise I like the software, and being wireless it makes grilling & smoking much easier... with the aforementioned issues.