Stove Temperature Question?

[GAJON]

Does anyone have one of the magnetized thermometers on their stove? It doesn't take much for me to get it in the "over fire" range. It says up to 300 is creosote, 300-600 is good, and above 600 is over fire. With a good bed of coals and new wood loaded, say up to 5 hours after putting them in, it hovers around the 700-750 mark. How hot is to hot? The thermometer is located on the slanted plate between the lower level and upper level of the stove. Thanks

 

[Chris-PA]

What kind of stove? Those thermometers are in general intended to be placed on the stove pipe about 18" above the stove outlet.

 

[GAJON]

Ashley

It's an Ashley stove. Was in my parents house before I got it. So I guess it's around 25-30 years old. Fire box is about 20" deep and 26" across.

 

[Rob1276]

I have one I just bought and to be honest I'm not to sure about it myself. I had a really good and hot fire hickory and oak with about two inches of hot coals not counting about 6 split seasoned pieces as well going yesterday the flu open draft control open and It barely made it to what it said was normal operating temp or no creosote It 18 inches up on the pipe

I deemed it as being useless and will be returning it

 

[GAJON]

I have one I just bought and to be honest I'm not to sure about it myself. I had a really good and hot fire hickory and oak with about two inches of hot coals not counting about 6 split seasoned pieces as well going yesterday the flu open draft control open and It barely made it to what it said was normal operating temp or no creosote It 18 inches up on the pipe

I deemed it as being useless and will be returning it

Mine is cooler with the damper open rather than shut. I will move mine up to the stove pipe tonight and see what it reads there.

 

[Rob1276]

I'm done with it I can tell when I have a good fire without it

 

[4seasons]

It's an Ashley stove. Was in my parents house before I got it. So I guess it's around 25-30 years old. Fire box is about 20" deep and 26" across.

I am not familiar with your stove so this is a guess at best but if your stove is that old and the thermometer is a factory piece especially if it works from spring loaded metal it could be worn out i.e. not as accurate as it once was. The spring metal can fatigue and that will make it read hot. I have that problem with my smoker. The factory thermometer reads 350 when my digital probe will give me 275. Just something to think about. I don't have any thermometer on my stove or flu. I just figure the box isn't warping and the chimney isn't on fire so I must not be too hot and I clean the chimney every month or two so I don't have to worry about creosote.

 

[GAJON]

Its a new thermometer I got at TS the other day cause I was curious as to how hot the stove got. But yeah like you said, it's not warping and the chimney isn't on fire so I guess it's good. We have been burning this for 3 years in the house now and before that I burnt it at mothers house. Hasn't hurt it yet, maybe the people labeling the thermometer haven't been around many wood stoves.

 

[jhoff310]

I am familiar with the thermometer in question. Yes it does suffer from spring fatigue. It also depends on where you place it on your pipe. Is your pipe single or double wall? I personally wouldn't put a whole lot of faith in them, they're ok. I would go with a probe thermometer instead. It will give you flue gas temp more accurately that the spring since it is taking its reading from inside the stove.

I am not familiar with Ashley stoves. I would venture to say the neighborhood of 600-650 would be the optimal operating temp for an extended period of time. I would let 'er rip to the 600 range and start closing it off, the temperature will increase slightly. I personally would NOT let the temp stay above 700 for any real lenght of time.

Just my .02

Jeff

 

[blades]

Get one of the IR units, about 30 bucks. My rutland thermometer is pretty much right on until 700 then it just buries itself. week or so ago stove was hot Rutland was buried got real concerned until th IR said about 750 in the hottest spot I could aim at. I had no glowing anything with the lights off ( got the T shirt on a previous stove)

 

[Sterff]

A year ago I bought 3 of those magnetized thermometers and stuck them within 2 inches of each other on my stove. One read 400, one 450, and one around 375. So Id say at best they are good for giving you a general idea of how hot the stove is. I use one now, and run my stove wide open until it gets to "450", then I close it off a bit.

 

[dhopkins55]

I'm burning in a whole-house furnace (Yukon-Eagle Klondike), and I have both a magnetic and a probe pyrometer on the exhaust flue to measure temps. I routinely run my furnace with probe exhaust temps between 400 and 600degF, depending on how cold the outside temps are. I have a 2500 sqft home to heat. On really bitter nights, especially when I supplement wood with anthracite coal, for which my furnace is designed, running the temp @ 700-750degF is perfectly acceptable. You have to really seriously overfire most units to over 1200deg for a long time before you start doing damage to the unit, assuming it's in good shape to begin with.

 

[IthacaMan]

Does anyone have one of the magnetized thermometers on their stove? It doesn't take much for me to get it in the "over fire" range. It says up to 300 is creosote, 300-600 is good, and above 600 is over fire. With a good bed of coals and new wood loaded, say up to 5 hours after putting them in, it hovers around the 700-750 mark. How hot is to hot? The thermometer is located on the slanted plate between the lower level and upper level of the stove. Thanks

Is your thermometer on the part of the stove where the finger in the pic is pointing?My stove will be as hot there too.It should be where mine are if you want to monitor flu temp.

 

[Ductape]

I have two of them on the center of my stove...... both Rutland brand. The smaller one (about 7 yrs old) is reading just under 600 degrees. The larger one (about 4 years old) is reading just a CH under 800 degrees. The real temp, as checked with my IR thermometer, is 730 degrees. I use them more as a reference. I've never really figured they were very accurate. I do have one on the stove pipe, reading just over 400..... real temp with the IR, about 375.

Take them for what they are worth...... a general guage of what your stove is doing. More of a guide than a gospel.

 

[Misfit138]

Mine is cooler with the damper open rather than shut. I will move mine up to the stove pipe tonight and see what it reads there.

When a stove is good and hot (at least on a secondary burning stove), opening the damper some can actually cool off the combustion chamber and flue, while closing the damper some will induce secondary burn and significantly raise internal temperatures. There is obviously also a threshold in each direction, wherein not enough air smothers the fire, and too much air will overfire.
I personally don't have a thermometer; I actually can tell by the heat the stove is throwing, the presence or absence of the sound of gases rushing up the flue, and by the steel "tick-tack-tick-tack" as to where the put the damper.

Once I get my stove to its sweet spot, I can throw a log on every so often without fiddling with the damper at all.

On the other hand, if I let it burn down to charcoal, I must open the damper wide for 5 minutes, then about 1/2 open for 10 minutes, then to the sweet spot for unattended/long burn.

Get to know your stove, and its sweet spot.
Enjoy.

 

[old cookie]

I have an old earthstove just a small steel flat toped stove. it had a termomenter on it, but it quit several years ago.Found one at wallyworld for 2 dollars ok i will try that.I put it by the old one . I try to keep it about 500. it is on the top right in the rear'I just checked it with infared thermomenter it is really close