Reviving a dead thermometer probe

This is definitely something that I put under the "why didn't I think of this earlier" category.

I have been using the ET-733 thermometer from maverick since july and the probes are still working fine, but I had a couple of "dead" probes from an older maverick that I just threw into my bbq junk bin and forgot about.

I was visiting my regular bbq shop here in Toronto and for some reason, the conversation of probes came up. He told me about how he is able to get a few of his dead probes working again with a little trick he figured out.

He takes the dead probe and puts it into his oven at the lowest setting for around an hour (he wraps the connector plug in a bunch of foil to protect it from the direct heat, especially if it is plastic). His lowest setting is 150F

Anyways, I decided there is no harm trying this as the worst case is they stay dead. I tested them out again, and turns out one seems to be back and running. I took the other one, and put it in a table-top convection oven I have. It has a dehydrator setting as well, which runs at 150F and also gets the fans working at full speed. An hour later, I pulled it out. Once it cooled down a bit, I plugged it into the thermometer and to my amazement, it works again!

As most people know, the failure usually comes from moisture getting into the connection point of the probe and cable if that seal fails. Most likely, that seal is still probably not tight so to be safe I just wrapped it with a bunch of foil to help keep moisture away. I'm sure, there might be some heat-shrink stuff that is suitable for high temperatures, but I don't know of anything specific for that application.

I'm not sure if this trick is common knowledge, or maybe I just got lucky - but I would say it's definitely worth the try as if it doesn't work, it's still dead and you can probably just chuck it.

Zach

okiej said:

Worth a try. I haven't tried it. I have a dead probe around here somewhere. It's not like there is a computer chip or module in the probe that gets shorted out and ruined. It's just a sensor. Resistance maybe effected and throw the accuracy off so I would check it against another probe.

Click to expand...

I still don't know what actually happens to cause it to fail as I'm really not sure what is packed inside the probe itself to read temps.

One of my worries was that, like you mentioned, the readings would be off. So after I got it working again, I ran it beside my current thermometer and it was within the products stated temperature range, reading around 1 to 3 degrees below for most of the time.

I would definitely say it's worth checking that it is reading properly before relying on it when you throw the next brisket in the smoker.