Melted temperature probe

I had exactly this problem with the probe on my Amerique, a couple of years ago. As best I can tell, the sheath melted where it was touching the side of the vent hole on top of the smoker, where the probe wire has to come out. Maybe because of the venting this edge of metal gets quite hot, I don't know. I have continued to use my probe, being careful not to have the sheath kinked or bent in that area so if it does touch, it is very lightly. I did think of maybe using shrink tubing, and I might try it if the wire inside the melted plastic sheath looked exposed. On mine it doesn't, and I think it is possible, although I haven't checked with CS, that the actual probe signal wires are inside a braided sheath, which is then inside the plastic sheath. That's what is done with most of the thermal probes I have seen, mainly for electrical shielding and grounding purposes. Yeah, the price of a replacement made me choke a little too. Hope this helps.

Thanks, Jay. I didn't find the flaw until after I removed the probe, but I suspected the vent hole was where the wire touched. Unlike your probe, I have exposed wires. This seems to be a design problem--the cord is bound to touch the vent hole--and I may eventually forward this thread to CS.

Michael, I agree with you that it is obviously a design flaw. Nothing that is designed to go through the vent hole of the smoker should be damaged simply by being in contact with the vent hole itself. I suspect the sheathing material was not properly specified by CS to whoever their vendor is. I never brought the issue to them because there wasn't much response when I posted here: http://forum.cookshack.com/eve...Type=1&search=Search

Sorry if that link doesn't work, I'm not very good at this forum. I'd be glad to support any inquiry you make to CS.

May want to contact Cookshack about this. Maybe they can re-design the probe with a woven steel sheathing or suggest a high temperature sealant that can be applied to the vent hole to help prevent friction and melting.

Jay, The link you provided seems to go back to a long list of your posts. Here is a more direct link to you earlier post: http://forum.cookshack.com/eve...232933837#3232933837

Thanks - I told you I wasn't very good at this. I wanted to take the link from the first post of that list, but I stopped one link short of the correct one. As an old colleague used to say,"It's a good thing computers aren't here to stay."