Soraken Wireless Meat Thermometer Review

We purchased the Soraken Wireless Meat Thermometer so our reviewer could put it to the test. Keep reading for our full product review.

We’re constantly using meat thermometers, so we were more than ready to test the Soraken Wireless Meat Thermometer when it arrived. We had a variety of meats at the ready, and even found some potatoes that wanted to volunteer. Wireless meat thermometers are perfect for grilling, but you can also take them inside to be helpful in the oven. After much cooking, we’ve made a decision.

Design: Unadorned

Basically a square with rounded corners, the Soraken thermometer is rather unobtrusive, so it would look acceptable in just about any kitchen or backyard. Aside from the center display, the base is a creamy beige/white with a textured surface that’s comfortable enough to hold, but it’s likely to spend much more time attached to a metal surface thanks to its magnet. A button at the top turns the base on and off, and also lights up the backlight momentarily.

While this thermometer bills itself as wireless, that’s only partially true. From the probe to the base, there are wires. Then the base wirelessly sends information to the companion app on a phone or tablet.

This came with four probes, but the base and app can handle up to six probes. When we cooked a half chicken, we used one probe in the breast and another in the thigh, to make sure both cooked to the proper temperature.

The probes came with their wires wrapped around a spool, and the probes were also attached to the spool to keep everything neatly contained. Each probe has a silicone handle that stays fairly cool during cooking. Still, we used a mitt or tongs to handle them right after cooking, just to be safe.

While the silicone handles were each a different color, there was no color-coding on the opposite end, which wasn’t very useful. Speaking of wires, when we were using all four probes while we tested our baked potatoes, we had a lot of wires curling and tangling, despite our attempts to keep them organized.

A small clip is included to attach a probe to the grill or oven grate. We found it useful to keep track of the internal temperature of our grill when we were smoking a meatloaf since we wanted it to cook at a moderate temperature.

We had no issues with the silicone handles on the probes we used aside from a small burn mark on one after using it to monitor a pork chop on the grill where it likely made contact with some flame. However, there are a number of online reviews that say the silicone melted or even caught fire during grilling. We’d suggest watching them carefully at higher heats and keeping them far from direct flame.

The base unit shows the temperatures and the presets. A dot at the top of the display, with a tiny number in the center, moves to show which probe temperature is being displayed. We would have preferred if the dot appeared next to the probe sockets because the temperatures cycle pretty fast. It was hard to read the temperature and try to figure out which dot belonged to which probe in the short time it was on the screen, particularly when we had three or more probes in use.

A battery symbol and a wireless symbol complete the information on the display.

App: Lots of good info

The information about installing the app was confusing. When we searched for the name given in the instructions, it wasn’t available. When we used the QR code from the manual, it went nowhere.

We tried the EasyBBQ app that was the top choice when we searched for the nonexistent name, and fortunately, it worked with this thermometer. It seems that EasyBBQ works with several brands of thermometers, but we’re not sure if it was the one the manufacturer intended us to use.

The app includes a list of foods with suggested temperatures as well as the ability to edit all of them. For some foods, we could choose from rare all the way to well-done in the app. For others, there was a single temperature that could be adjusted up or down. For smoking, there was a range of temperatures, so it would alert at both the high and low settings. New presets can also be created, named, and saved.

We decided to create our own settings to bake four different types of potatoes, monitoring the temperature to make sure they were all fully cooked. The app did its job but we lost track of which probe was plugged into which socket, so we had to trace the wires from base to probe to remove them as they finished.

A temperature graph is available that shows how the temperature changes over time. While we didn’t need that for any of our cooks, it could be interesting information for some. A list of alerts is also available, which is handy for making sure all of them were attended to. Besides setting the temperature, we could also set a timer for each probe, along with a note, so we could remind ourselves to flip the meat over when we were cooking a steak.

The app can be customized for Fahrenheit or Celsius, language, alarm sounds, and more. Oddly, we couldn’t customize the volume on the base. We found that it was a little quieter than we would have preferred, but of course, we were also getting alerts from our remote device. Still, a louder alarm would be nice for outdoor use.

Support: Slow

As we did this review, we looked for information on the warranty and couldn’t find it anywhere. Unlike more well-known companies that have a large online presence, it was hard to find Soraken, but we succeeded and sent several queries. We finally got one answer, but if we had an actual problem with the thermometer, we likely would have purchased a new one before the answer came.

Price: Reasonable

This is a reasonable price for a four-probe thermometer, with the understanding that if the probe wires fail when this is out of warranty, it may be less expensive, and less troublesome, to buy a whole new unit than to replace all four probes.

Soraken Wireless Meat Thermometer vs. Inkbird WiFi Grill Thermometer IBBQ-4T

Right off the bat, the Inkbird WiFi Grill Thermometer IBBQ-4T (view at Amazon) is more expensive than the Soraken we tested. The upside of the Soraken is that it can handle a maximum of six probes while the Inkbird can only use four. However each comes with four probes, so they’re identical out of the box.

The upsides of the Inkbird are that it’s rainproof so it can be left outside without worrying about sudden rainstorms, the probes are color-coded on both ends, the battery is rechargeable even during use, the base displays all four temperatures at once, and it can be calibrated so it’s always precise. Also, the Inkbird app uses WiFi so it can be monitored at any distance. Despite the higher price, we prefer the Inkbird for its extra, very useful features.