Why Bluetooth? How’s that work?Updated 8 months ago

Bluetooth (aka BLE) is a low-power radio signal around the 2.45GHz band. It’s a very power-efficient way to transmit small data packets over a short distance.

This bandwidth is the area legally allowed for consumer products, so there’s a lot of competition for radio waves. It overlaps with what most WiFi uses. 

Curiously, it also overlaps with the radio frequency of microwave ovens (at a much lower power; a 700-watt oven is 35,000 times more powerful than Bluetooth 5).

The main advantage of using Bluetooth is that it requires so little power. Perfect for us because the battery inside the thermometer is necessarily tiny. If we put a WiFi transmitter inside a thermometer, our battery would only last minutes instead of hours.

Because it’s a tiny radio transmitter, it’s going to have some of the same issues that other transmitters and receivers have (physics!). Certain types of material are not radio-friendly (see below). 

Unless you live in a straw hut on a tropical island, there will probably be places in your home that have bad reception. Just like you get “dead spots” on your mobile phone, or places in your house where WiFi struggles.

Using the Combustion Display and App together significantly boosts the functional range/signal strength. See the spec chart (above) for exact details.