I purchased this ET-7 several months ago hoping to use it to monitor my grill from inside my house. My grill sits about 20 feet from the back of my house, so I figured the advertised 100 foot range of the ET-7 should be more than sufficient. Unfortunately, the actual range is only about 25 feet with no obstructions (measured by walking away from my house and grill into the back of my yard until the antenna icon on the receiver stops flashing), and the receiver barely works if I am standing just inside my back door with the door open, but loses signal if I walk any further into the house or close the door.Despite being disappointed with the range, I decided to keep it anyway. I like the ability to monitor two things at once without buying two separate thermometers, and I like the fact that it beeps to alert me when the temperature reaches the set point. I am able to use it to remotely monitor food in my oven from my living room (even if I can't use it to remotely monitor my grill), and it is nice to be able to read the temperature of meat on the grill without opening the grill lid (even if I still have to go outside to read it). However, after using it a number of times, I recently had a big flare-up in the grill due to a fatty piece of meat and the flames burned up one of the probes. Rather than buying a replacement probe for the ET-7, I decided to try the ET-733 instead.When I originally bought the ET-7, I had considered buying the ET-733, but the two looked almost equivalent, and at half the cost, the ET-7 looked like the better deal. However, after trying both, the ET-733 works much better for me, and is worth the extra cost.Things I like about the ET-733 over the ET-7:- The ET-733 has much better range. With the transmitter on my grill, the receiver works throughout my house. It seem to have a range of about 100ft with obstructions or 150ft without obstructions.- The ET-733 receiver beeps if it has been out of range of the transmitter for 4 minutes. For grilling, this is actually too long, and I would prefer if it started beeping within about a minute of going out of range. However, the ET-7 doesn't beep at all (the antenna icon simply stops blinking and the temperature display stops changing), and any alarm (even if it takes a little longer than I would like) is better than nothing. Given that I am expecting the receiver to start beeping when I need to pay attention to the food, it is really bad for the ET-7 receiver to remain silent when it is out of range and doesn't know whether the food needs attention.- The backlight on the ET-733 is very helpful when grilling at night. The ET-7 doesn't have a backlight.- I like the option to turn off the temperature alarm on the ET-733. I occasionally want to do a quick check of the temperature of something other than meat, and while I can silence the alarm on the ET-7 by increasing the temperature set point above the measured temperature, it is convenient to be able to hit one button to turn off the alarm.- The ET-733 transmitter seems more sturdy and waterproof than the ET-7, and the ET-733 receiver is more compact and has buttons that are much easier to clean than on the ET-7. Due to the extra waterproofing on the ET-733 transmitter, the battery compartment does require a screwdriver to open, which is an annoyance (the ET-7 transmitter battery compartment simply slides open), however this seems like a reasonable trade-off for the extra waterproofing.Things I like about the ET-7 over the ET-733:- The ET-7 receiver has a clock and timer function, while the ET-733 does not. This occasionally comes in handy, and it would be nice to have on the ET-733. However, the power switch on the back of the ET-7 receiver has three settings: One to turn it on, one to turn it off but leave the clock running and save any memory, and one to shut off the clock and erase the memory to save battery. Unfortunately, I found it hard to turn the ET-7 receiver on and off without accidentally flipping it momentarily to the position that erased the clock and memory, and this made the clock on the ET-7 almost useless (it was not worth the effort to reset the clock every time I accidentally erase it). While this three-position switch is an interesting feature in theory, in practice it was annoying and I would rather simply have a two-position switch and be required to remove the batteries if I want to stop the clock to save battery.- The ET-7 receiver has a plug on the side which allows one probe to be connected directly to it without using the transmitter. This is useful when I don't need to separate the receiver from the food (like when I'm cooking in the oven and am not planning to leave the kitchen), so I don't have to waste the transmitter battery. However, it would be nice if there were two plugs on the ET-7 receiver so I could connect both probes directly to the receiver if necessary. There is no plug on the ET-733 receiver.A comment about the probes:- The L-shaped probes on the ET-7 are slightly easier to insert into and remove from food than the straight probes on the ET-733, because the L shape acts like a handle. On the other hand, the straight probes on the ET-733 are slightly shorter and sometimes work better because they take up less space in the oven or grill. Unfortunately, the ET-7 and ET-733 probes do not seem to be interchangeable (both the ET-7 and ET-733 read very incorrect temperatures when I connect them to the probes for the other model), otherwise I would simply switch between them as needed.I've been learning how to smoke this summer and have tried quite a few different kinds of meat but the first few were not that great. On the early ones it was a guessing game as to how long to cook before checking the meat temp and some of them were over cooked, plus every time you open the smoker to check you loose heat. I tried a Taylor remote thermometer first but it would shut off if the temperature didn't change for 30 minutes and some smokes can stay at the same temp for some time. I called their customer support and they told me the unit wasn't made for smoking and you can't get around the auto shut-off feature.I returned it and after some research I decided on the Maverick ET-7 with the two probes and I will say I'm very pleased at this point. My first smoke with it was a 13lb. turkey which I brined and rubbed. It was nice being able to put one probe in the breast and the other in the thigh since the breast cooks faster. I plan on using the second probe to monitor the smoker temp on subsequent smokes.I found the instructions and controls to be straight forward and it definitely takes the guess work out of the whole process. The range for the remote(which will toggle back and forth between the 2 probes) is adequate for monitoring from my kitchen but I lost the signal a couple of times when I took it into the living room. It might have been because of my wireless laptop, so I decided just to leave it in the kitchen.I would have given it 5 stars except for the distance limitation, not sure how much time I'm going to get out of the probes either.In common with several other folk I initially thought that the wireless operation was, at best, flaky, otherwise no good at all. With a probe attached to the transmitter I switched on the receiver, then the transmitter. The receiver displayed the probe temp just fine. After a short time the little antenna symbol on the receiver screen (which indicates wireless reception) stopped showing, it seemed that the wireless link had stopped working.By a process of trial and error, putting the probe in and out of a saucepan of hot water, I worked this out:1. When the probe temperature has stabilized, the transmitter will only transmit the reading about once per minute. A change of a degree or so does not trigger a transmission, so the transmitter and receiver can show a difference of a few degrees, which is generally insignificant. The receiver only updates when a transmission is received.2. When the temperature changes by more than a few degrees (I haven't found the exact figure but it could be as much as 5 degrees) transmissions are triggered every 2 to 3 seconds until the temperature stabilizes again, then it goes back to once a minute. Every transmission is indicated by an antenna symbol on the transmitter screen, and a red LED on the transmitter flashes.3. In open air I easily got a range of 50 feet in a straight line, but simple obstacles can block reception. I have some wrought-iron railings down some steps from the house to the patio, and arranging the transmitter on one side of the steps and taking the receiver to the other side resulted in no reception, the railings blocked the signal. In spite of the comment in the user instructions about using the probes in a barbecue then taking the receiver indoors, I found that this does not work, the transmission is too weak to penetrate walls (wood frame, plywood/stucco outside, sheetrock inside). With the probe in the water and the receiver outdoors, both units displayed 95 degrees. I tool the receiver indoors then took the probe out of the water. 5 minutes later the receiver still indicated 95 while the transmitter said 71. I took the receiver outside again and waited; nearly a minute later the receiver updated to 71 - I must have just missed a transmission.My conclusion is that this device does work after all, with limitations. The wireless transmission is only reliable in straight unobstructed lines, and will not work through walls (a major drawback). And remember - if the temperature is fairly constant the system only updates about once a minute.Cheap, wish i could give it a 0. Stopped working 3rd cook i used it.Signal dropped continually within a short range. Very frustrating. Returned to Amazon.