Question on the stove top reading, are you getting the reading directly on top of the stove or on the flue right where the pipe exits the stove? Also on the flue how high up are you checking the temps?
Thanks
Ok thanks, last year was my first year burning and I didn't run a thermo. I bought one this year and want to make sure I'm doing it right.Morning Swagler,
I normally leave the thermo on the pipe about a foot above the stove, generally reads between 300f-500f, down to 200f when coals an then I reaload.
Was just curious as to differences between stovetop temps and pipe temps.
regards
Billy.
Question on the stove top reading, are you getting the reading directly on top of the stove or on the flue right where the pipe exits the stove? Also on the flue how high up are you checking the temps?
Thanks
As a general rule I like to let the stove top cruise between 400-600 degrees. I'm sure others will chime in.
Why is it that the secondaries took off when the stove top was 400 and then the air shut down?Had to light up tonight, my son was excited (he'll fit in here!). Had a great top down start up. Tried air control off the stove top temp. Had much better results. Almost a 150° difference. Waited till stove was at 400, shut air down a third, and the secondaries took off. Got almost another hour and change off a medium load! Thanks for all the info guys!
So the burn is clean and more efficient in putting heat in the room than when the primary air is open more because it is naturally sending more heat up the chimney? Are you actually getting more heat from the secondaries alone with less air rather than - more air, more flame on the wood, and secondaries burning? I will try this with my Quad, thanks RyanI took bits of info from the good folks on here and tried to find what worked better than what i was already doing. 400 is a good hot point where moisture has been cooked off and char is forming. Air goes down slowly and the gases build up from less flame. The secondary burn takes care of the gases and puts more heat in the box and less up the flue. Huntingdog and Backwoods Savage gave me lots of advice on this. Correct me if I'm wrong guys, but thanks!
So the burn is clean and more efficient in putting heat in the room than when the primary air is open more because it is naturally sending more heat up the chimney? Are you actually getting more heat from the secondaries alone with less air rather than - more air, more flame on the wood, and secondaries burning? I will try this with my Quad, thanks Ryan
I could not add anything to Huntingdog's excellent post, but perhaps to simplify what he's saying... given a fixed set of draft conditions and how you stack it in the stove, the wood is going to burn at a certain rate, with your only control over that being your primary air control [1]. When you have the primary air control open wide, most of the gasses generated by burning the wood are being consumed/burned directly in the firebox, and although you're sending a lot of air volume through the secondary system, there's not much flammable material left in the exhaust for it to re-burn. More heat goes up the chimney in this state, simply because of the velocity at which you're moving air thru the system.
When you close down on the primary air control, two things happen: (1) system velocity decreases, and so less heat goes in the chimney, and (2) firebox temperature drops, and so less of the exhaust gasses are burned directly in the firebox. This is where the secondary system will "take off", so to speak, now burning the exhaust gasses generated (but not burned) in the firebox. In this mode, you are still producing some heat from the firebox, but perhaps more from the secondary system doing its re-burn.
As to which mode produces more heat, there's probably a happy medium where both are working in unison -- which varies from installation to installation, and depending on weather and draft conditions. You are correct that it is more efficient to burn slower, in that you're throwing less heat up the chimney, but running WOT [2] may actually be the mode in which you are "getting more heat" out of the stove. In other words, your stove has two potential heat sources, the firebox and the secondary system, and your primary air control is your mixing valve, controlling how much work each of those two systems is doing.
[1] - in the absence of a flue damper or manually blocking off your secondary air inlets.
[2] - WOT = Wide Open Throttle
I've got a thermo lying on the horizontal (stainless) tee snout, maybe 6" behind the flue collar. I saw the pipe start to glow faintly once when that thermo was approaching 800 surface which from what I understand would be over 1000 internal. I don't want to see anything glowing in my setup so if I start with the air full open, I am cutting back the air fairly soon, maybe within a few minutes. I'm not in that big a hurry to get the stove up to temp so I ramp up the temp moderately, never with full air except at the very beginning. My goal is to avoid unnecessary stress on the stove or the flue pipe. Since my stove top lags so far behind flue temp, I like to use thermos on both.I have never had a clue what the flue temp is. The stove top is what I am interested in. If the wood is dry and the flames are at work the pipe is gonna be fine. The pipe was tested at 1,000 degrees continuous. The stove wasn't.
Thanks for the explination JofulI could not add anything to Huntingdog's excellent post, but perhaps to simplify what he's saying... given a fixed set of draft conditions and how you stack it in the stove, the wood is going to burn at a certain rate, with your only control over that being your primary air control [1]. When you have the primary air control open wide, most of the gasses generated by burning the wood are being consumed/burned directly in the firebox, and although you're sending a lot of air volume through the secondary system, there's not much flammable material left in the exhaust for it to re-burn. More heat goes up the chimney in this state, simply because of the velocity at which you're moving air thru the system.
When you close down on the primary air control, two things happen: (1) system velocity decreases, and so less heat goes in the chimney, and (2) firebox temperature drops, and so less of the exhaust gasses are burned directly in the firebox. This is where the secondary system will "take off", so to speak, now burning the exhaust gasses generated (but not burned) in the firebox. In this mode, you are still producing some heat from the firebox, but perhaps more from the secondary system doing its re-burn.
As to which mode produces more heat, there's probably a happy medium where both are working in unison -- which varies from installation to installation, and depending on weather and draft conditions. You are correct that it is more efficient to burn slower, in that you're throwing less heat up the chimney, but running WOT [2] may actually be the mode in which you are "getting more heat" out of the stove. In other words, your stove has two potential heat sources, the firebox and the secondary system, and your primary air control is your mixing valve, controlling how much work each of those two systems is doing.
[1] - in the absence of a flue damper or manually blocking off your secondary air inlets.
[2] - WOT = Wide Open Throttle
The experiences in this thread are a great help - overall in general I'm kinda leaning towards "arbitrary" myself, the more I read, and the more I burn. My Osburn flue probe shows from 400 to 950 as a 'safe' range. Isn't this kind of misleading especially for a newbie (I mean, an extended burn @ 900 deg in the chimney can't be a good thing, based on my own experience letting a start up fire get away on me once). The gauge is great, but I'm always developing a kind of a "feel" for when the stove is cruising nicely (and it's nowhere near 900 deg - usually much more towards 400 - 500 ). Seems I'm learning to not pay too much attention to the "ranges" on the dial, and just focus on the actual temp.The zones are somewhat arbitrary because it varies with the thermometer type, its location and stove. A flue thermometer may say overheat at 475 and a stove top thermometer at 700F. That's why I like one that just gives me temperature and is accurate.
So the burn is clean and more efficient in putting heat in the room than when the primary air is open more because it is naturally sending more heat up the chimney? Are you actually getting more heat from the secondaries alone with less air rather than - more air, more flame on the wood, and secondaries burning? I will try this with my Quad, thanks Ryan
The experiences in this thread are a great help - overall in general I'm kinda leaning towards "arbitrary" myself, the more I read, and the more I burn. My Osburn flue probe shows from 400 to 950 as a 'safe' range. Isn't this kind of misleading especially for a newbie (I mean, an extended burn @ 900 deg in the chimney can't be a good thing, based on my own experience letting a start up fire get away on me once). The gauge is great, but I'm always developing a kind of a "feel" for when the stove is cruising nicely (and it's nowhere near 900 deg - usually much more towards 400 - 500 ). Seems I'm learning to not pay too much attention to the "ranges" on the dial, and just focus on the actual temp.
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