This Smart Thermometer Is So Good I Drove It Cross Country, and It’s on Sale for Prime Day Now

Deal alert: The Chef iQ Sense smart thermometer bundled with two probes is available for $120 at Amazon right now — a 6% discount off the usual price. You can also find the triple-probe set for $150 — a discount of 32%.

The Chef iQ Sense smart thermometer is one of my new kitchen essentials. Last November, I celebrated Thanksgiving 1,100 miles away from home at my sister and brother-in-law’s place in Oklahoma. It was quite the drive — four days there and back — so I had to be diligent about my packing list. Clothes, snacks and my 10-year-old Labrador were obvious must-brings. But there was another essential on my packing list: the iQ Sense smart thermometer from Chef iQ.

I love hosting dinner parties, but I used to be scared to death to cook anything with meat. I would catastrophize that I would end up poisoning and hospitalizing all my friends with undercooked meat. Now I feel differently. With the iQ Sense, my brother-in-law and I confidently cooked the Thanksgiving turkey perfectly. In fact, my brother-in-law and dad were fascinated by how well the iQ Sense works, and swore up and down that they need their own.

In short, this smart thermometer works so well that it’s become a kitchen essential. And it’s on sale now at one of the lowest prices I’ve seen. The iQ Sense doesn’t come cheap, but I argue that it’s worth the price, especially if you’re trying to elevate your cooking skills and impress your in-laws with first-rate kitchen equipment.

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I love the ease of use for the iQ Sense

The iQ Sense is an unlimited-range wireless cooking thermometer that connects with your phone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth to alert you when your dish is ready to be removed from heat: No more dry turkey or overcooked steak.

You can get one, two or three-probe sets to satisfy any of your cooking needs. If you mostly cook for yourself, you can probably get away with just one probe, but if you’re like me and you enjoy hosting dinner parties or cooking multiple steaks at once, then the three-probe set may be your best bet. But the best deal at the moment by far is on the single-probe set. Here’s a breakdown of the prices listed right now:

• One probe: $80 (not on sale)
• Two probe: $120 (usually $128) — a 6% discount
• Three probe: $150 (usually $220) — an 32% discount

No matter which set you choose, you can feel confident that you won’t be serving up undercooked or overcooked meat. Each probe has four internal temperature sensors to monitor the ambient temperature, within 1 degree Fahrenheit of accuracy. As much as I love the accuracy of the iQ Sense, I love its ease and convenience even more.

I also love that I don’t have to constantly open the oven door and stick a probe into the meat to check the temperature every few minutes. I can simply pop it in once and leave it to work on other dishes until I’m notified that it’s ready to go. When I say “notify,” I truly mean it, considering it comes with a built-in speaker for audible alerts. It’s like having a sous chef that perfectly cooks meat in your kitchen at all times.

The iQ Sense also makes a thoughtful gift

When you think of great kitchen gifts, you may automatically think about a coffee maker or a quality set of pans. I’d argue that you’d get more use out of a smart thermometer. Every time you cook meat, either for yourself or others, you’ll use the iQ Sense. For me, this breaks down to daily use, making it well worth the higher price compared to analog meat thermometers.

With the iQ App, you can also browse over 700 guided cooking recipes from Chef iQ’s in-house culinary experts and follow along to hundreds of videos that break down recipes in simple instructions. If you have a home chef in your life looking to expand their skills without spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on cooking classes, then the iQ Sense is an ideal gift.

Will there be more deals on Chef iQ?

Chef iQ’s line of intelligent kitchen gadgets is not the cheapest, so it’s good to keep an eye out for discounts on its website. Big shopping events like Amazon Prime Day are a good time to score Chef iQ products at a discount. The iQ Sense is also available at Costco.

For more smart kitchen tech, check out the iQ Cooker, a smart multicooker that also offers the same ease and intelligence to users. If you’re looking for other useful fun gifts for your favorite hostess or the chef in your life, here are our favorite kitchen gifts under $50.