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[Bar-B-Lew]

They made the announcement and have cut the price until they sell out of their M4 probes they currently have in stock.  After that, you will need to quit using the probe on controller or buy a new controller that uses the K-Style probes.

Thermoworks uses the K probes for their higher end thermometer equipment.  I don't know if there probes will work on the MAK or not.  Nor do I know the pricing of the MAK K-style probes.  I do know that the Thermoworks K-style are usually about 5x the cost of the M4 type connector.

At one point, I thought there would be little that would change in the technology of a pellet grill that could make it obsolete over time.  My thoughts are starting to change.  It think it is going to become more and more expensive to maintain a pellet grill going forward as the controllers are changing every few years and especially if replacement parts will not be kept available.

Now, I'm not saying don't buy a pellet grill, but I do think it is something that you may need to pay more attention to then you may have in the past.

[Bentley]

Things like this might drive a man to charcoal, or dare I say it...gas!

[02ebz06]

I think I only used the Memphis built in probe once.
Meat was getting close to being done and I needed to run to the store.
That is the nice feature of it in that it will shut temp down to minimum once the RTD temp reaches the set temp.
Otherwise, I have always used the Maverick and now Smoke thermometers and see no need for it.
The Elite has 3 probes now, but still don't use them.  Not a fan of the app.

EDIT: Has 3 probe Jacks, but only one probe. Cheapskates...

[Bar-B-Lew]

I don't use mine on the Elite or the MAK.  Probably a small market to sell them to someone at a cheap price.

[Canadian John]

 The technological evolution of pellet pits has been exponential, almost to the point of discouragement for a person such as myself.. "BACK to BASIC FIRE".

[glitchy]

Won't other probes work on the older MAK controllers? I took their e-mail as they are having a hard time finding a US Manufacturer of the barrel plug probes, but if you knew the specs, I'd guess someone else's probes would work just fine from Thermoworks, Fireboard, or generics from Amazon. I don't have experience with the old controller, but my understanding is that there's a lot to gain from upgrading to the new. I thought I heard that the older controllers will not run the latest firmware. The new controller and firmware have a lot of claimed improvements over the old. I only say claimed because I don't have any experience with the old to compare to. Type-K probes are universal. MAK's new probes appear to be great quality, but you should be able to use any type k probe with the new controller.

To the point of maintenance, that's always a risk with tech. Pellet grills move more and more tech all the time with WiFi, apps, probes, etc. The tech around them will become obsolete with time. New WiFi 6 standards and routers are coming out that use a new 6GHz band. I haven't studied it much yet, but I wonder if it's penetration will be better than 5GHz? If it is, 2.4GHz could start disappearing over the next few years. 2.4GHz is the only thing all the pellet grills I've seen support. When will support for old standards quit getting added to all routers (802.11 a/b/g/n)? As well, how long will companies support old grills in app updates? They have to update their apps frequently for OS updates, if they change things in the data formats over time (likely to improve things with newer models like more information or better tracking), they could have to maintain differences between several different grill models and grow tired of it over time and just start dropping app support for older grills.

As far as going to gas, Weber has new models out this year with an integrated Smart Connect hub and probes. So, they're likely on their way to become standard on most of their gassers over time. Moving to gas might not save you any headache. With the Masterbuilt and CharGriller Gravity Feeds drawing tons of attention, it sure looks like charcoal is heading to full on tech as well.

You old xxxxxx better run out and get your offsets, kettles, and WSM's now before they start moving them into the current times It will be scary and funny when an old Traeger with the classic Smoke, Lo, High only settings are the most sought after pellet grills and start fetching tens of thousands on eBay.

[Bar-B-Lew]

The old MAK barrel style probes are the only thing that works on that controller to my knowledge.  I know I have tried Thermoworks barrel style probes and they didn't work.  I am pretty sure I read somewhere there is something in the electronics of the MAK probe that makes theirs the only one that works with their controller.  I think Memphis was the same too.  They all wanted a piece of the replacement parts revenue and profits rather than giving it to someone else.  It may also save them a headache of telling people its their probes fault and not the MAK/Memphis/ETC controller issue.

[glitchy]

I would find it hard to believe they put something in them to make them only work with a MAK since they use a standard connector and wouldn't have anything to read a signal from a chip or something unless it was RF, but then they'd need to deliver power to a RF chip somehow and not interfere with the probe readings. However, they could be using a strange resistance, which might be why they're getting harder to source too. If you lived closer, I'd bring my drawer full of probes over and we could test them all out to see if any happen to work. Then we could try to figure out where the probe was from  I built a HeaterMeter years ago so bought a few different probes playing with that, I wasn't smart enough to label each one though.

I know Fireboard has two different resistances available on their regular style probes and one of them will work with Thermoworks devices and the other won't.

[02ebz06]

Correct about the resistance (impedance).
Different manufactures use different impedance in the probes.
If you could find ones with same impedance you "should" be OK.

[elenis]

The old MAK barrel style probes are the only thing that works on that controller to my knowledge.  I know I have tried Thermoworks barrel style probes and they didn't work.  I am pretty sure I read somewhere there is something in the electronics of the MAK probe that makes theirs the only one that works with their controller.  I think Memphis was the same too.  They all wanted a piece of the replacement parts revenue and profits rather than giving it to someone else.  It may also save them a headache of telling people its their probes fault and not the MAK/Memphis/ETC controller issue.

So the probe that came with my Mak died a long time ago. I had a Maverick branded Redi-chek ET-7 that came with two probes and thought it couldn't hurt to try those on the Mak and they work fine. The replacement probes from Maverick are like $17 for 1 or $27.75 for a two pack direct from Maverick. The model is PR-005 – 6-FOOT HIGH-HEAT PROBE. Maybe it isn't supposed to work, but I have been using them on my controller on my 2 Star for 5 or 6 years now after my first Mak probe died.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Will the controller still work with programs and those Maverick probes?

[elenis]

Will the controller still work with programs and those Maverick probes?

I have never used any of the programs built into the controller so I can't speak to that, all I have done testing wise is use the probe and confirmed it showed the same temperature on the Mak as it does on the Maverick unit. I'll have to use one of the programs and see if that works. I don't have the wireless stuff on my unit.

[Bar-B-Lew]

Will the controller still work with programs and those Maverick probes?

I have never used any of the programs built into the controller so I can't speak to that, all I have done testing wise is use the probe and confirmed it showed the same temperature on the Mak as it does on the Maverick unit. I'll have to use one of the programs and see if that works. I don't have the wireless stuff on my unit.

I have not used them either, but I think it would be good information to share with someone who may use the programs.  This could be a much less expensive option for someone in need of a replacement prove for the M4.