Curious what kind of luck you guys have had with life span of your flue probes. Mine just bit the biscuit randomly here and I don't know if that's normal after a few years or if it's a garbage brand. I'll have to look back on my posts, but I'm guessing 3 years? SBI branded probe in double wall pipe.
no idea but i know mine (SBI too) is showing +100-125f vs my newer probe (auber instrument) last year i only had sbi one and I was happy(or not worried) when I had 450-500f flue temps, guess what? it was too low and I got way too much creosote one way that I heard to test it is in boiling water, i never tested mine like that yet
I probably got my moneys worth in wood savings from monitoring the flue temp but thought it strange to drop dead and read way low out of the blue. I teased a flame over the probe with my propane torch to see if I could spike the gauge, and couldn't get it past 400 F. And it was seriously hot.
My condar probe meter has been a great buy. I’m over 10 years on it and it has performed perfectly. Held the same zero too. I’ve even accidentally brushed the chimney with it installed! The copper probe has certainly eroded some but the enamel face paint is perfect. Now I did have to replace the stove top cat probe meter with another condar brand meter after about 5 years but it is in a harsher environment. It had a wandering zero.
Pretty hard to test a flue probe meter. They are designed with the actual spring at a distance from the heat source and with the heat shield from the second layer of pipe. You can’t just dunk it in hot water, you can’t shoot it with an ir gun. Best way I can think of is to use a second measuring device like a thermocouple to measure egt and compare.
Just a funny update on the "broken" flue probe. Apparently at the start of November, my probe seemingly up and died, reading wayyyyy low. The wife grabbed me another one, same brand. I thought I'd put the old one back in to try and make sense of how such a thing could go bad. Well, pulling out the replacement probe with a twist, I saw the dial change from 600 to less than 400...apparently the little nut on there isn't exactly tight. Morale of the story, sometimes things aren't broken, and you are just stupid. No clue why the torch test didn't work, but the old probe is in reading about 50 f low compared to the other one after a little twist. Probably close enough, and I can redneck calibrate it with really cold weather or very mild weather. Always good to have a spare I guess.
You calibrate them by setting the zero. Leave it out of the flue overnight and set it to room temperature. Tighten the nut. Done. Or, the new one can be your reference if you want to leave them both on the kitchen counter overnight and then set the old one to match the new one.
