If you fall on the charcoal-is-better-than-propane side of the grilling fence, you won’t care much about Quirky’s Refuel App-Enabled Propane Tank. But if you like to cook with gas, it'll seem like a godsend.
Instead of gas, most propane tanks might as well be filled with question marks. If the tank doesn’t have a gauge, there are ways to approximate how much propane is left in it. You can pour glasses of water over your tank and do precautionary full and empty weighings on a scale. Neither of those methods guarantee that you won’t have to abandon half-cooked steaks to run out and get more gas though. And they both require effort that would be better spent grilling.
The elegant Refuel system is built around a waterproof ring-shaped scale that sits under a propane tank and sends tank-related data to Quirky’s Wink mobile app. You can see a running meter of how full the tank is, how many grilling sessions you’ve got left before it’s empty, and how long you usually take to cook those steaks.
In addition to the ring scale, there’s also a little hockey puck of a wired indicator that attaches to a grill magnetically. It acts as a phone-free way to see how much gas is left in the tank, and it doubles as the system’s Wi-Fi receiver and AA battery compartment.
Awesomer still, it only costs $30. It was invented by Boston’s Anthony Reddington, but like all Quirky projects, the idea was honed and perfected by a community of contributors who offered input on the product name, design elements, features, and price.
It’s in production right now, so you may have to wait a few more months to get your hands on it. But that’s OK, because grilling season is still a little ways away -- for those of us still battling snow, at least.
