Bulk probe buy 7mm/Artemis Snowpeak/GK1

[WobblyHand]

I hope this is the correct place to post. I was looking on AliExpress hoping to find a place that would sell me a bunch of probes for my GK1. It seems that my probes like to take hikes... Buying them at $18 a whack is not attractive to me. (BTDT)

All I could find were places that would only sell one, at an introductory price of $0.99. That's nice, but I want to buy 6 or 10 of them! If you found a place that sells more than one at a reasonable price, I'd appreciate a link or two. Yeah, I was down a day looking for my last one. Finally found it, but might be better to stash a few around the homestead. Nothing sadder than an empty GK1.

 

[WobblyHand]

FYI, I did buy one at $0.99. But they wouldn't let me buy more of them? I can understand only 1 at that price, buy I was astounded that there were no listings that allowed you to buy more of them (at a different price). I'll find out if it is any good in a couple of weeks. Yes, that was 99 cents, including shipping, from China to the US. What the heck.

 

[JimD]

I have purchased 4 or 5 now from Alliexpress for my P35s. The fill probe that came with the guns tend to leak a little as I fill. I tried modifying them several ways which sometimes worked for a little while. Then I bought one from Alliexpress and it worked great. It is still working great. No leaking at all. So I bought 3 or 4 more. If they have one the right size for your gun I highly recommend you give them a try. Shipping may take a couple weeks but the probes were about $3 each.

 

[WobblyHand]

So the probe arrived today. Only 8 days from ordering to receipt, which is very good. It's as described, and it probably is fine, but it's different enough that I did a few calculations on it to see if I'm substantially increasing my risk by using it. The one I received had a 3.54mm air hole in it. The OEM probe has a 2.5mm hole. The OD of the narrowest section of the QD is 6.18mm, vs the OEM dimension of 6.47mm. The safety margin of the OEM is 46% greater than the AliExpress version, assuming they are made of the same material, which appears to be stainless steel. It's not magnetic, and is likely to be 304. Stainless has a relatively low yield strength, it's comparable to A36 hot rolled steel. I calculate a yield to stress ratio of about 3.7:1 which should be ok, if it's 304 and I did the numbers right. So that's slightly greater than the 3.5:1 recommended.

I'll keep it in reserve, but I can't whole heartedly recommend the probe just because the design is closer to the edge than I feel comfortable with. Think I will machine some out of 1144 steel, mimicking the OEM probes, as the safety margin is nearly 4x greater. (about 14:1 yield to stress ratio). It will keep me off the streets this freezing week.