I purchased the ET-732 to use on my Big Green Egg. Of course, Amazon shipped quickly and I was excited to receive the package, only to discover when I opened the product, the face plate on the transmitter was not attached, but was kinda stuck to a random spot on the front of the unit, as if it had come loose in shipping and found a resting place. The piece i am referring to is the black piece surrounding the LCD on the unit. As far as I can tell, it's cosmetic only, but it is supposed to
sit flush in a recessed area on the front of the unit, and is apparently just held on (or not) with a very thin layer of adhesive. I stuck it back on and burnished it with a lint-free cloth, hoping the pressure and friction would stick it permanently. It looked good as new, so I was off and cooking as soon as the weekend rolled around.
The product performed great, and was fairly intuitive to set up. I think the instructions could be a little more helpful about probe placement and such, but I knew what I was doing. A friend of mine just purchased one and I found out he has been using the grill probe incorrectly, so that's a bad sign. There really isn't much in the way of details on how to use the grill probe clip, where to put the probe, etc. I found the clips and stands on the units to be wonderful, with the clip for the transmitter working perfectly to hang the unit on the hinge of the BGE. This puts the unit and all the probe wires completely out of sight and out of
Its not some made up event by conspiracy theorist. And its certainly
not something dreamt up for a Hollywood movie…
the way, with plenty of reach (and not too much slack) to get into the grill and the meat. I had no issues with range at all (though admittedly I didn't try to push it), and always had a signal inside my block home. The stand and backlight on the receiver are nice touches, perfect for the overnight smoke. The alarms are also quite loud.
Truly, I can't imagine owning a Big Green Egg without one of these. Actually, I sort of can, because I cooked a few things in the 4-5 hour range before I got this, and babysitting a grill in the Summer heat is for the birds. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I felt like I had to get up every hour or two to check on things. With this, as long as you set the alarms, you know that if it's not beeping at you, you're good to go.
I am glad that the transmitter unit is waterproof/resistant, so no worries about a little rain. In fact, the only issue I have with the product AT ALL is that, when I woke up from my first long overnight
cook, I went outside to check on things, and everything was FANTASTIC…except the face plate from the transmitter was lying on the deck.
I had been hoping that between my burnishing the plate down and a little heat from the sun and the grill (not excessive heat at all, mind you), the adhesive would get a little stickier and it would permanently stick it down. No such luck. It falls off pretty much every time I use it. The adhesive still seems tacky, and attracts a little lint. I have rinsed it lightly before to get it back nice and tacky and remove any lint, but it's just not going to happen. The plate is not meant to stay put. This cosmetic/build quality/QC issue is the one reason I had to ding the 732 a star and only rate it a 4. I have a feeling this is a design/manufacturing defect, and I would be surprised if I'm the only one with the problem. It would NOT, however, deter me from buying again or recommending to others (as I have many times).
