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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Traeger Grills

Traeger Grills Acquires Connected Thermometer Company MEATER

Traeger Grills, best known for its wood-pellet grills, announced today that it has acquired wireless meat thermometer company MEATER. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, and according to the press announcement, MEATER will continue to operate as a standalone company within Traeger Grills and Joseph Cruz will continue as MEATER’s Chief Executive Officer.

MEATER, which came out of Apption Labs, makes wireless Bluetooth and WiFi connected thermometers ($69 – $269, depending on the model) and an accompanying mobile app to give users continuous monitoring and guided cooking instructions. Stick the MEATER into your protein, select the type of protein that you’re cooking and the thermometer gives you real-time tracking of internal and ambient temperatures. Once the food hits the target internal temperature, the MEATER app sends you an alert to pull your protein out of the heat and tells you how long to let it rest.

Traeger has its WiFIRE connected wood pellet grills also provides users with similar monitoring and target temperature functionality through a mobile app (and Apple Watch!). But unlike with MEATER, you can control the heat of the grill remotely to make adjustments to your cooking wherever you are in your home.

Despite similar features, it’s easy to see why the MEATER acquisition makes sense for Traeger. The MEATER software and user experience is more robust and visually appealing than Traeger’s homegrown app. And with MEATER, Traeger will now be able to expand its market beyond just those who own Traeger grills and beyond grilling season. Traeger can integrate its brand into the MEATER software and play a part in people cooking proteins on any type of grill, as well as their stoves and ovens when the weather turns cold.

Traeger acquiring MEATER can also been seen as a response to Weber buying smart oven maker June at the beginning of this year, as the two companies look to modernize in this connected era. The first line of June-integrated Weber grills announced in February of this year featured real-time temperature monitoring and guidance both on a grill display and on a mobile app. It’s not hard to imagine that future versions of Weber/June grills will feature the ability to automatically or remotely control cooking temperatures as well.

In other words, with both of these acquisitions, next summer will be definitely be hot for new, smart grills.

Traeger Launches Apple Watch App to Monitor and Control Your Grilling

Traeger Grills announced this week the launch of its first Apple Watch app, which allows users to both monitor and control the cooking on its WiFire compatible connected grills.

In the press announcement, Traeger said its Apple Watch app is the first of its kind in the industry. That may or may not be true, but regardless of its place in history, it’s easy to see the utility this type of app could bring to the grilling experience. Smoking a brisket or ribs takes long hours, and the freedom of controlling the grill from your wrist anywhere you are (even when you’re out, away from your home) would definitely come in handy.

Features of the new Traeger Apple Watch app include:

  • Real-time grill temperature monitoring and control even if you’re away from your house
  • Probe temperature setting and monitoring
  • A timer to notify cooks when to sauce, check or pull the food
  • Pellet-level monitoring, to know when to re-load the hopper
  • “Super Smoke Mode,” which lets users blast their food with 100 percent hardwood smoke between 165 and 225 degrees

The WiFire grills were already pretty convenient for rookie grillers like myself. With the connected phone app, I was able to make pretty great ribs and briskets without ever having done so before. This is totally a first-world problem, but moving that monitoring from the iPhone to the Apple Watch means that I don’t need to carry my phone around to check on my grilling.

Even though it may not feel like it for most of the country, spring is around the corner, which means that grilling season is not that far off. And backyard barbecues are definitely getting high-tech upgrades. Smart oven maker, June was recently acquired by Weber and its connected cooking OS has been integrated into a new line of Weber gas grills.

Even though our BBQ parties will probably still need to be socially distant this summer, with connected tech, being away from your grill won’t be a problem.