VC Encore Refractory assembly and second burn probe.

[Jimmy C]

Anyone with a probe thermometer in their refractory assembly on a Vermont castings or similar stove... do you use any refractory cement around where the thermometer meets the back of the stove? After moving my thermometer around a bit I noticed it has some wiggle room where it enters the refractory. I used a drill bit by hand when installing it but I think it got jostled a bit which caused it to ream out the hole in the refractory a little. Also when backing the stove back into place after installing the thermometer, it punctured the other side of the refractory hitting the back of the firewall. Not sure if I am going to need to fix this. Taking off the fire wall this weekend and will post pics. I’m not getting the secondary burn temps I should be. Sometimes things seem to be running well and others the cat just doesn’t seem to want to stay ignited no matter what. Thinking of replacing cat already and it’s not even 3 years old.

So I guess the question is how does everyone keep their probe in place. Also is everyone using a 6” probe? Everywhere I looked said to get a 6” probe for the encore 2550 but it seems like a 3” probe would suffice.

 

[Diabel]

I could not find a 3” probe. If you do find one let us know. I don’t bother sealing the probe hole

 

[Jimmy C]

I could not find a 3” probe. If you do find one let us know. I don’t bother sealing the probe hole

Thanks @Diabel, you should change your username to reliabel.... (crickets)
Amazon has a K that is 3” but only goes up to 1472 F. Still on the hunt.

See pics below. Im thinking of putting a little refractory cement inside the assembly where the probe enters. May be pointless but it makes me feel better. My real issue is the probe is so long that it is pretty much pressed up against the refractory (see second pic). I’m going to try pulling the stove out a little more so I can back the probe off the refractory a little. I’ve noticed while the stove is running if I manually pull back the probe the temp will shoot up so it’s not reading well pushed up against refractory. Once I let go, my fireplace cover will push it back in.

All of this has been in an effort to figure out if my cat is shot. Some hairline cracks, (see pics) and it’s wedged itself out of this casing but should still work compared to ones that are literally falling apart to the touch. Since I’ve managed to once again steal your time and attention (much appreciated) what do you think of the cat? Sometimes temps are running the way they should be and others it doesn’t seem to stay engaged. It will hit like 1200 and slowly start dropping. Even if I open the air it will come up a little, but without opening the bypass it will continue to drop. Like I said, not all the time but it’s super frustrating when it happens. Also threw in a pic of where probe is hitting cover to explain what I mean.

 

[Diabel]

I would not bother with the cement. Maybe a bit to plug that hole (it will likely fall out anyways).

you need a probe that will survive at least 1800 and I did not find any 3” ones that can do that hence 6”.

I don’t like that red color on the side of the cat, looks like over fire at one point.

interesting, your cat seems to have some sort of insulation underneath the stainless steel cage.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

My actual probe is a condar and it’s 4”. Like diabel said it needs to be 1800-2000 k type. Your cat looks fine to me. I tried the refractory cement around the probe to hold it in place but it didn’t work. Did not stick to the stove. I left the cover off of the secondary components because I was always messing with the timing of the shutter so I ended ended up using a clip to attach the cable to the stove. Works good enough.

 

[RandyBoBandy]

Found a pic