Just the tip…

[Dieselhead]

While cleaning and inspecting the big king for this upcoming season I noticed the tip of the cat probe looks a little worse for wear. I think it worked ok last season although it never went past probably 230 position but I had some hot fires. It does settle down back to the first tick mark when cold.

 

[RustyShackleford]

Nice "Wedding Crashers" reference.

I dunno about the probe though. I burn my stove too hot on occasion (more than 1800 degrees), but mine has never looked like that.

 

[MRD1985]

Water getting down the flue at any point contributing to rust?

 

[Dieselhead]

Nice "Wedding Crashers" reference.

I dunno about the probe though. I burn my stove too hot on occasion (more than 1800 degrees), but mine has never looked like that.

😎 glad ya got the reference. How old is your probe? Mine is circa 2014

Water getting down the flue at any point contributing to rust?

No, but even if it did it wouldn’t effect the probe at least on a BK.

 

[MRD1985]

Could be just baked from the last 11 years of high heat. I’d just replace it

 

[Dieselhead]

Yea I agree, I’m gonna get one on the way tomorrow.

 

[RustyShackleford]

How old is your probe? Mine is circa 2014

Not sure. I broke a few of 'em. I think they got too hot and the little spot weld that holds the inside of the coil spring broke.

 

[Highbeam]

They do that. Mine looks even worse right now. Seems to be a corrosive metal rod with a protective coating that peels off. The whole purpose of the probe is to conduct heat so it’s just a solid rod with no internal moving parts. I figure as long as it’s still the full length it’s good.

 

[moresnow]

While cleaning and inspecting the big king for this upcoming season I noticed the tip of the cat probe looks a little worse for wear. I think it worked ok last season although it never went past probably 230 position but I had some hot fires. It does settle down back to the first tick

Check out the Condar brand. Have had good luck with them.

 

[Dieselhead]

Check out the Condar brand. Have had good luck with them.

I ordered a condar 3CX-2 this morning. It should match up with what was oem in my stove which is a 1 7/8” probe with a 2 inch dial. I ordered that directly from condar and I also ordered a Cat from Midwest Hearth to have as a backup on the shelf as this is going to be season 4 on the current piece. I burn mid Oct-April so Im about out of hours on this one potentially.

 

[Highbeam]

While cleaning and inspecting the big king for this upcoming season I noticed the tip of the cat probe looks a little worse for wear. I think it worked ok last season although it never went past probably 230 position but I had some hot fires. It does settle down back to the first tick mark when cold.

Plus the condar meter has numbers and a much more obvious active zone. It's a shame that BK cat meters don't have numbers. Like a scene from idiocracy.

 

[Tron]

Plus the condar meter has numbers and a much more obvious active zone. It's a shame that BK cat meters don't have numbers.

I don't think these cat thermometers are very accurate. TBH, their only purpose is to tell you when the cat is active and when not.
And a thermometer that gives wrong measurements is even worse than one without numbers at all.

 

[Highbeam]

I don't think these cat thermometers are very accurate. TBH, their only purpose is to tell you when the cat is active and when not.
And a thermometer that gives wrong measurements is even worse than one without numbers at all.

Could be, I have no way to verify that the instrument is accurate but condar's flue probe meter with basically the same construction has excellent accuracy compared to an auber thermocouple so I have no reason to doubt the cat meter's accuracy. Why do you doubt the accuracy?

I agree that the main purpose is to know when to close the bypass and the better graphics help.