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I have smoked many, many times, and almost always use a temperature probe. Never have I had this problem: After my last smoke (only about an hour long), I discovered the plastic coating on the probe for my SM025 was burned off about 1 ft. from the point. I am always careful to pull out excess wire from the box, and I try to assure the wire isn't touching the sides or other racks. Obviously, the wire touched something this time. (I may not have had this problem with my 009 because my earlier probes were not coated the way the CS probe is.) Have others had this issue (I can't find a similar question on the forum)? Is the probe trash? Would it hurt to use it with the wire exposed? Would heat-shrink tubing hold up? Should I bite the bullet and spend over $85 (ouch!) on a new probe, or just go back to using my non-CS probes? TIA for any guidance / suggestions.

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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.
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.

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