I got a Condar thermo probe and I took the screw out of the hole in the the front wall to mount the probe. It says the probe should be 1/2" from the combustor. It's a "unievrsal" probe so I would need to cut it down a few inches. Installing it flush with the wall of the stove (pushed all the way in) makes it really difficult to see the dial because there's an overhang on the top of the stove and it's very close to the top of the door. Does it make a difference if I install it a couple inches farther out or does that mess up the reading? If I can have it sticking out can anyone suggest a way to secure it without welding? I would normally just use Devcon Steel 2 part but it will certainly melt in a couple minutes. Even if it was sitting in the hole flush with the wall it would still jiggle around. The only thing I can think of is furnace cement which might work if it was flush mounted, but I imagine it could fail if the probe was sticking out and got bumped around. Also has anyone heated these up and bent the shaft? If it was sticking out about an inch and angled upwards at 45 degrees it would be easy to read at a glance.
Appalachian 32-BW late model combustor thermo probe install
- Thread starter Orerockon
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Holding the probe's bimetallic spring away from the stove would almost certainly make it read low. Taken to the extreme, if this meter's dial was 10 feet away it would barely register anything. I would shove it all the way in and suffer through reading it. Though, there are these cool electric thermocouples now that can be read remotely.
Anytime I see threads like this on Appalachians it reminds me of: Appalachianstan
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Back Puffing
Can you please go though all the thing that can causes back puffing in a wood stove? Trying to find the problem in my stove set up. I find this http://firecatcombustors.blogspot.com/2013/10/what-causes-catalytic-stove-to-back-puff.html when my stove get up to 1000*- 1200* on the cat probe and...
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Good then I will shove it all the way in and pull it back 1/2" from the combustor which is damn near flush with the plate. Is there a standard way to secure it there? Or do people just leave them loose in the hole?
Can’t you cut the probe to get it the right length?
My cat meter sits vertical in the hole so no need to restrain it.
OK SO I read around and found a reference to an "eyelet" that the probe is supposed to go through. So I fished out the box and lo and behold stuck way down in the packaging was a tiny bag with it in there! It looks like I need to drill out the hole in the stove 1/32" or so to get it to go in. Right now it's in there loose very close to 1/2" from the combustor. It sticks less than an inch out from the stove at that position. I followed the procedure on the Fire Cat page, at 800 deg. I closed the damper bypass. It shot up to 1500 deg. (I didn't notice how long but it was in the ballpark of 20 mins.) so I opened the damper all the way. It went down to 1300 and it's a just sitting there. Should I be concerned that it went up to 1500 so fast? Isn't that bad for the combustor?
And just in case I win the lottery is there a digital alarm type readout that I can use? What I found online was something with a long probe that from the description goes on the "combustor outlet side". I assume that my probe is on the inlet side. My stove isn't equipped for that, at least according to the instructions for other stoves that show a port in the back wall that you shove the probe into. I don't see any way to get a probe past the combustors on my stove.
And just in case I win the lottery is there a digital alarm type readout that I can use? What I found online was something with a long probe that from the description goes on the "combustor outlet side". I assume that my probe is on the inlet side. My stove isn't equipped for that, at least according to the instructions for other stoves that show a port in the back wall that you shove the probe into. I don't see any way to get a probe past the combustors on my stove.
Yeah I could but once I got the combustors in and the assembly bolted in the thermo sticks out less than an inch. I was actually hoping for more. Apparently you have to have eagle eyes to read the damn things, I need to figure out a way to mark the operating range without covering up the lines so all I have to do is glance at it and not need my reading glasses on and crouch down to see anything.
Monitoring the cat temps is very fickle, you can check out my adventure with trying to do it on my Appalachian bay 52: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/digital-cat-probe.105221/
Reading that makes my brain hurt. So are you saying that 500 in front is not the light-off temp? And 1500 at the front = arc torch temp at the back?
I found the Condor probe was much better at reading the cat temps than a digital thermocouple, at least on the Appalachian units where the probe hole is on the front.
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