Who to believe

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.

reaperman1

Burning Hunk
Aug 7, 2022
178
Minnesota
I have an extra 4” Auber probe thermometer so I thought I’d see how well it would work for a cat thermometer in my Blaze king. Initially I was surprised to see the difference when I popped out the Condar and put the Auber in its place. So I then grabbed the oem, BK, which was similar to the Condar. So this morning before I loaded the stove again, which was basically a medium pile of coals. I pulled the Condar, gave the BK, its turn, then the Auber. All units had at least 5 minutes inside the hole. Both tests showed similar results with the Auber between 3-400 degrees below the coil gauges. I realize the BK doesn’t display temps however it looks similar to the Condar.
 

Attachments

  • [Hearth.com] Who to believe
    IMG_3225.webp
    146.5 KB · Views: 12
  • [Hearth.com] Who to believe
    IMG_3232.webp
    40.1 KB · Views: 13
  • [Hearth.com] Who to believe
    IMG_3237.webp
    98.5 KB · Views: 15
  • [Hearth.com] Who to believe
    IMG_3235.webp
    147.1 KB · Views: 13
My guess would be the Auber being the most accurate.
The Condor is most likely reading far to high for the available heat making fuel in the firebox. This leads me to trusting the digital temp more,

@begreen and others are more versed in these.
 
  • Like
Reactions: stoveliker
It’s my belief after being through 2 condar and 1 new OEM gauge in the last couple months the coil gauges are wildly inaccurate as far as temperature goes anything past the inactive/active zone. I’ve had them wrap past 360 degrees rotation which would put cat temps around 3000 degrees plus. I don’t know what is going on with the gauges made recently but my original that came with my stove back in 2014 seemed much more accurate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: all night moe
The 3000 degree statement assumes the coil is always linear (a 45 deg increase near the inactive/active zone is the same increase in F as a 45 deg near the end of the active zone).
I'm not sure that is an accurate assumption.

But I would tend to believe the Auber here.
 
  • Like
Reactions: all night moe
Try them on a control. Boiling water in an open pot has a specific temperature for your altitude.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Turbo89
Is the probe depth identical between the analog and digital probes?
 
  • Like
Reactions: stoveliker