I'm building a reflow oven and been doing some searching (and researching) for a few K-type thermocouples. I found a few probe type ones which are cheaper and have a larger temperature range while the tip ones are more expensive. I know the tip ones are preferred because they seem to react to temperature changes faster than the probe ones (thats all I could gather from my research) but what other factors should lead me to get one type or the other? More importantly, would the probe ones work for my reflow project? The oven is small 1200W one with four quartz element heaters.

 

I looked up a reflow oven that says it gets up to temperature in 30 seconds. My stainless steel probes take about 3 minutes to get settled on a temperature. I would choose the tip type.
http://www.compuphase.com/electronics/reflowsolderprofiles.htm

but what other factors should lead me to get one type or the other?

What other factors are of any importance if you can't measure the temperature properly until 2 minutes after the soldering process has finished?

would the probe ones work for my reflow project?

Check the time constant of the probes and check to see if they will survive the temperature.

 

Thanks #12! That helps.