Best Source For Cheap, Long RTD Probes for Auber PIDs?

Anyone have any good sources for a long (minimum 8 ft; 12 ft is better), durable RTD probe with panel mount hardware for a reasonable price?

The 1/4" "deluxe" RTDs from auber are only 8 ft and are $43 dollars?!?! They must thing I'm already drunk.

A temp probe that costs as much as the controller itself? -No thanks!



Adam

Search pt100 on ebay

OMJ said:

Search pt100 on ebay

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So if it's called "pt100" it's guaranteed to work with an Auber pid?


Adam

I see what you mean... It's pretty ridiculious that for 2 from Auber it's $86 plus shipping or from Amazon $20.42 including shipping for essentially the same thing...


The markup is insane.


Adam

biertourist said:

I see what you mean... It's pretty ridiculious that for 2 from Auber it's $86 plus shipping or from Amazon $20.42 including shipping for essentially the same thing...


The markup is insane.


Adam

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The ones that auber have are nice. They have a disconnect at the probe and are easy to setup a disconnect at your panel or if you get the deluxe cable they have a panel disconnect. You also know they will work as advertised and if not you will get proper support from Auber. I bought Auber probes for my setup because of these things but if I was trying to save money I would have gone to ebay. There are a lot there that are much more reasonably priced.

Do not be bashing Auber Instruments. That is totally not fair for an outstanding business vendor in our corner. They have developed devices specifically for our needs.

Call them with your needs and I'm very sure that they will custom make the specific set up that you want.

Hmmm. Nevermind. Order something from somewhere else and take your chances. keep in mind that you will not get a deluxe cable setup from anywhere else.

Nuf said and good luck.

Oh... Oh... BTW, it's not about the money. It is all about the function, support & reliability.

Done...

A cheap probe can be an expensive mistake.

P-J said:

Do not be bashing Auber Instruments. That is totally not fair for an outstanding business vendor in our corner. They have developed devices specifically for our needs.

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There's a very significant difference between bashing a company and questioning the pricing of ONE of their products.

What's the difference between say THIS 2 meter RTD PT100 1/4" NPT probe for $8.50 http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-Meter-Cab...861?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c2c4c0535 plus the $3.50 panel mount connector and THIS 2 meter RTD PT100 1/4" NPT probe with the $3.50 panel mount connector already attached for $42.55 http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=20_15&products_id=189 ??

Bashing a company is subjective and focused on the company; comparing options and making a judgement based upon value which is based upon objective pricing information and stats is definitely not bashing. Having a discussion about the value is also definitely not bashing EVEN IF said discussion and assessment's outcome is that a financial sponsor of this forum has priced one of their products inappropriately.

Comparing the price of two similar items is ALWAYS fair; nothing remotely unfair about it.

I agree there's other intangibles that need to go into the total assessment of value, including support. There are already posts on this forum where users have indicated that Chinese-made PT100 devices have randomly failed and because of a lack of warranty replacing the probe out-of-pocket was the only alternative.

Let's not stifle or censor an objective discussion just because it concerns a site sponsor, though.


Adam

double post for some reason...

Biertourist, are you sure about the 1/4" NPT part? I may be missing the obvious, but I can't find the spot that says that on the ad you linked. It says M12. Those look to me like machine threads and a lock nut, and look like zinc plating, not stainless. The Auber one clearly says stainless and liquid tight. My experience leads me to trust them. I've had my share of wrong stuff arrive from China, and ended up eating the losses.

biertourist said:

Let's not stifle or censor an objective discussion just because it concerns a site sponsor, though.

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Are they a sponsor? I don't see them in the vendor list anyway.

The reason so many here support them is because they have excellent products, listen to what their customer's want, back everything they sell, and provide excellent support and documentation.

jsguitar said:

Are they a sponsor? I don't see them in the vendor list anyway.

The reason so many here support them is because they have excellent products, listen to what their customer's want, back everything they sell, and provide excellent support and documentation.

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Well said and correct. They are not a sponsor here and never have been.

All of your other comments are spot on as well.

P-J

ThreeDogsNE said:

Biertourist, are you sure about the 1/4" NPT part? I may be missing the obvious, but I can't find the spot that says that on the ad you linked. It says M12. Those look to me like machine threads and a lock nut, and look like zinc plating, not stainless. The Auber one clearly says stainless and liquid tight. My experience leads me to trust them. I've had my share of wrong stuff arrive from China, and ended up eating the losses.

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This (and the support issue) is what you are paying the extra $30 for. Don't get me wrong, I have gone the "cheap" route and sourced from ebay but this is my comparisons to what I could have done:
Ebay) looked and looked and looked over so many listings to find the one that I was most sure was what I wanted (a 1/2" NPT/BSP TC short probe = kind of rare on ebay). It took me a hour or two for a couple of nights to find the one I was most comforatble with buying... and then I wasn't 100% it was exactly what I wanted but know I could make it work.
Auber) could have bought it in less than 5 minutes

The savings was worth my time as I have little disposable income and any money I have to spend of brewing equipment needs to be stretch as far as possible. I am pretty mech/elec minded so I can be reasonably sure what I am getting is what I want (most ebay adds don't outright lie but many obmitted important info)
YMMV

ThreeDogsNE said:

Biertourist, are you sure about the 1/4" NPT part? I may be missing the obvious, but I can't find the spot that says that on the ad you linked. It says M12. Those look to me like machine threads and a lock nut, and look like zinc plating, not stainless. The Auber one clearly says stainless and liquid tight. My experience leads me to trust them. I've had my share of wrong stuff arrive from China, and ended up eating the losses.

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Fantastic points! -I've also bought Chinese "stainless' that rusts and zinc plated or nickel plated items that claimed to be stainless, too. -I've also had items from China get stuck in customs and then I had to pay extra import duty because the Chinese vendor didn't...

Crap!
I really didn't want to spend the money but I think you all slowly convinced me... (It's SOO frustrating to buy something, wait 2 1/2 weeks to get it from China and then find out its the wrong thing. -I'm pretty sick of that happening, for sure.)

Seriously appreciate everyone chiming in on the pros and cons; it's an effort I need to go through to make a decision. (Now I'll just hope my wife doesn't check the bank statement that closely...)


Adam

On my budget build I got one of the waterproof PT100 probes and stick it right in the middle of the kettle during the mash. In theory this should be more accurate than a probe on the side of the kettle and it wont damage my grain bag. Amazon, Ebay, and Auberins sell these for $10-15. Another nice feature of the RTD probes as you can use any type of bulkhead connector, unlike a K type thermocouple.

Some people are spending $400 each on a bilchmann kettles and designing a $2k control panel so they probably aren't worried about the cost of the cost of the RTD probes. The Auberins deluxe probes are a nice solution and you get what you pay for.

As others have stated, just be weary of what is really listed on EBay. I myself got high quality RTDs for a great price on EBay, but it took a lot of patience and research. Tons of listings are for "thermocouple rtd". What is that, is it a thermocouple, or an rtd? Does the lister have any idea what they have? - pass.

The Auber ones are a pretty good value all things considered. The next step up in quality leads you into the land of ~100$ probes with no durable sheath or preinstalled panel mount (and more quality than is even compatible with most economy priced PIDs). But if you're on a budget and have some time to wait, you can get those 100$ models for a fraction of the price; just know what you're getting.

I've also read that all PT100 RTDs are not created equal and there are A, B, & C specifications; Auber clearly spells out that you're getting the high accuracy "A" grade PT100; the Ebay and Amazon ones I've seen don't even mention it. (And I looked at a LOT of them....)


I hate it when I'm wrong, but I'm happy when I figure it out before I waste my money.


Adam

Well, I had my girlfriends sister draw my name for Christmas this year and she asked what I wanted so I sent her a link to the 4" Liquid Tight Deluxe Cord RTD Sensor from Auberins so I don't have to worry about the cost factor on this one! More seriously though, I've heard nothing but good things about this website so I can't stand not to go there.