Make your oven, stove, and grill smarter (SONOFF BMT01 Meat Thermometer Review)

Introduction

This is the SONOFF BMT01 BBQ Meat Thermometer. But I’m not using it like you might think. This Bluetooth temperature sensor was designed to track the ambient temperature of a grill, or the meat that you are cooking.

But I’m a vegetarian, so what am I doing with this meat thermometer? Well, stick around, and you’ll find out — and chances are it’ll be just as relevant to you as it is to me.

Main Points

Features

The BMT01 is an all-new, compact Bluetooth temperature sensor with a display. It came with two high-temperature metal probes, and was designed to monitor the temperature of grilled meats or BBQ grills. The display runs on replaceable batteries.

While the metal probes can withstand the high temperatures of a grill, the display cannot. Thankfully, the temperature probes have long cables, and the display has a loop at the top and comes with a magnetic hook that easily attaches to a grill to support the display away from high heat. It also came with a little travel bag so you can easily store all the components and carry it with you.

The heat resistant metal probes deliver real-time temperature readings every 2 seconds, which is meant to provide precise cooking control, but more on that later. Before using, you’ll need to remove the black tip at the end of each probe. The probe ends are sharp and these tips provide protection, but the tips are not heat-resistant and will melt at high temperatures. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything…

Temperature Monitoring

You can track the real-time temperature from the device’s built-in display, or from the eWeLink app. Additionally, you can enable alerts to send you notifications when the meat or grill reaches your desired temperature. This helps you avoid overcooking, and to cook or serve your food at the appropriate time.

With alerts enabled, the temperature sensor itself emits a loud beeping sound, and you’ll receive a push notification on your phone. From the eWeLink app, you can monitor temperature changes over time on a graph, and observe any fluctuations. This can be helpful for fine-tuning how to cook different foods, or to observe the impact of opening and closing the grill.

How I’m Using This

But as mentioned, I’m not using this to monitor the temperature of grilled meats or BBQ grills. We do all of our cooking indoors in the oven or stovetop. And since we’re vegetarians, Ashley and I are not cooking any meat. Rather, I was interested to see if this device could solve two needs for my family:

1. Alerting us when the oven reached its target temperature
2. Alerting us when a pot of water began to boil

Before testing out these use cases, I asked the brand if it was safe to use it in this manner, and they said yes.

To test, I hung the temperature sensor from the included hook, which attached magnetically to the hood above our stovetop. I then observed the ambient temperature on the BMT01 compared with our home’s thermostat, located about 10 feet away. Both units were within one degree Fahrenheit of each other, so it seemed like a good start.

Oven Baking Test

First up was the oven test. I wanted to see if this sensor could alert me when the pre-set temperature was reached inside the oven. This would let me know the exact moment to put food in the oven for baking, without me needing to be in the kitchen the whole time. I got other stuff to do.

To get started, I created an alert in the eWeLink app to notify me when the temperature reached 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Next, I placed one of the metal probes directly in the center of the oven, with the tip suspended in air. The, I pre-set the oven to bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit, and monitored the real-time temperature on the oven compared with the display readings on the BMT01.

It was quickly apparent that the BMT01 was heating up much faster than the temperature displayed on my oven. In fact, this temperature sensor displayed the target temperature of 350 degrees when the oven showed only 250 — a whopping 100-degree difference!

Within the eWeLink app, you can calibrate the temperature by adding an offset…but adding a 100-degree offset seemed crazy. My next test also showed why I may not want to do this.

Water Boiling Test

For the second test, I wanted to see if this sensor could alert me when water began to boil in a cooking pot on the stovetop. This could be helpful when preparing to cook pasta, and you need to step away from the kitchen.

For this, I created an alert in the eWeLink app to notify me when the temperature reached 212 degrees Fahrenheit. (You know, the easy-to-remember boiling point of water.) Next, I placed one of the metal probes into a saucepan filled with water on the stovetop. Then, I turned on the burner, and monitored the temperature on the BMT01 while listening for the sound of boiling water.

In contrast to the oven test, this time it was spot-on. The BMT01 displayed 212 degrees and alerted me at the exact moment that the water began to boil. If I had added a 100-degree offset based on the results of the oven test, it would have been way off when boiling water!

Smart Home Integration

If you’ve been following the channel, you know that Home Assistant is my preferred smart home platform. It’s what powers all of our home automations.

Unfortunately, as of this recording I have been unable to add the BMT01 to Home Assistant. While there is a Home Assistant add-on for the eWeLink app, the BMT01 is not yet a supported device. This means that I must use the eWeLink app for creating alerts and monitoring temperature history, something that I was hoping to do in Home Assistant.

Of course, you can just use the physical device which shows you the real-time temperature and sends an audible alert.

Final Thoughts

I wasn’t thrilled about needing to download another app. I already have too many smart home apps, and prefer to have everything in Home Assistant. This simplifies management of my smart home, and unlocks more home automation possibilities by using different devices and sensors in combination.

More concerning for me though was the oven temperature tracking. I realize the primary use case is to monitor the temperature of BBQ grills and meats, but I would have expected oven tracking to operate similarly to the ambient temperature of a grill.

Boiling water was surprisingly accurate, and I’m unsure how to reconcile the results of this test with the oven. My initial though was the metal probe’s cable was resting against the oven rack, and perhaps this caused it to heat up faster. But in the boiling water test, the entire probe was laying on the bottom of the saucepan, so I I’m not sure.

I will say that if you are interested in smart alerts for boiling water, this device could be just what you’re looking for. And it may work equally well for tracking the temperature of grilled meats, but I cannot comment on that.

Watch on YouTube

Featured Tech

SONOFF BMT01 BBQ Meat Thermometer
https://go.michaelsleen.com/sonoff-bmt01