How to Upgrade Weber and Kamado Joe Into Smart Grills

Because each part attaches wirelessly, the whole package is pretty flexible. ChefsTemp advertises bundles for Primo grills, every version of Kamado Joe, Big Green Egg, Akorn, Vision, Old Country Smoker, and a Weber Smokey Mountain. If you’re willing to drill a hole or two, you could even install the ProTemp into any classic kettle.

But what I had to play with was the big red egg of a Kamado Joe ceramic grill, known for building heat slowly and holding that heat for a long time. I rarely use ceramics, and so it turned out I was bad at getting the temperature right. I kept underestimating how good the Joe would be at holding heat, and so I let the temp get too high. The ProTemp helped me cook good ribs anyway.

The ProTemp S1 itself basically looks like a thermometer with a digital readout. That’s because this is precisely what it is. Unscrew the original thermometer from the Kamado Joe and screw in the ProTemp. This is the only permanent installation I had to do. Pair this with a ChefsTemp probe ($120) to offer app-supported monitoring of both meat and ambient temperatures. Add ChefsTemp’s Breezo fan ($80), released in 2025, and you can get reasonably accurate temperature control.

Beyond this, the fan is installed in the lower vent with a little metal adapter. Voila, the physical installation is done. But unlike the Venom, ChefsTemp’s devices require at least four devices to all be charged, and all pair up to Wi-Fi or Bluetooth and operate in concert: a digital controller, a fan, a phone, and at least one meat probe.

This can be a tall order if your signal is as weak as mine: You’ll potentially lose one component or another. And unfortunately, it isn’t very easy to switch back and forth between Bluetooth and Wi-Fi operation. To switch to Bluetooth, I needed to fully unpair the entire setup, then start over. So make sure you have a strong 2.4 GHz signal where you plan to use the grill. To test this, you may need to separate the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands on your router and test the range using your phone.

Once you have an adequate signal, the Breezo and the ProTemp sync automatically and reliably. The probes can be more persnickety, and you’ll have to mark them yourself with a pen to tell them apart. (Color coding would have been nice!)

The ChefsTemp app is fairly sophisticated if you want it to be: Choose your cut of meat and its thickness or weight, and the app will monitor the device and offer guidance on flip times—and the expected time until the meat reaches the desired doneness. I tested this on a low-cooked inch-thick ribeye and got surprisingly excellent results at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. For ribs, this worked even when I screwed up the temp and got rolling too high.

That was the big benefit of using the system, especially on a new grill I wasn’t used to yet. Even when I bunged up the cooking temp, I was able to react because I saw the temperature going off target—I could still judge whether the meat was done by monitoring the probes. I never had to sacrifice a half rack of ribs that had turned to jerky.