Century Heating FW2470

I'm new to the forums and happy to finally find a board for wood burners!

I had a new 6" prefab chimney installed last summer and put in an FW2470 stove made by Century Heating (owned by SBI, same co. as Drolet). The stove has been used daily since November and I make sure that I run it hot and not allow smouldering fires. Cord wood has ranged from dry to somewhat dry (usually mixed together) but never green or waterlogged. I've also used BioBricks made by a hardwood processing plant in Woodstock, NB. The probe temps range from 400 - 600 degrees when burning.

A few concerns have come up in the past week and I hope someone can offer some advice:

1). I noticed my doublewall stove pipe seemed hotter to the touch than usual even when the probe thermometer read 400 degrees. So I pulled down the pipe and saw a lot of soot buildup for the 4 months it was in use. Can this layer of soot soak up the heat and cause the doublewall to feel hotter than clean pipe? The soot was light and fluffy from the stove connector to the first 45 elbow, and turns into a harder substance in the 2nd elbow and is a mix beyond that. I bought a brush and rods this weekend so I'll sweep it.

2). Are SBI stoves known for soot buildup? I try to burn only short, hot fires and this stove's air cannot be cut back enough for an overnight burn so its not a slow smokey burn contributing to the soot problem.

I've attached a few pics of my setup. Thanks for any info you can pass along.

Thanks for the reply pen. I'll be sweeping the pipes on the weekend and see if it makes a difference in the heat issue. Will let you know.

I'll try to burn hotter fires once I put it back together, and will be picking up a stove top thermometer tomorrow.

The cap looks clear from outside but I'll know better when I look up during the sweep.

JC

I'm borrowing a meter from a friend this coming week. I'm curious as to the levels. Thanks for the suggestion!

Does anyone have experience regarding soot buildup from the BioBrick products. Mine are made at a nearby hardwood processing facility, they make flooring, moldings and some high-end wood products. Mostly kiln dried maple is used but they also run cherry and walnut at times. I can get them to burn at high temps with a lot of flame but they eventually burn like charcoal - flameless, but keep over the 400F stack temp until the last 90 mins or so. Can the burning pattern of the bricks create to the soot problem more than cordwood? I always add the bricks to an already vivid fire, usually started with kiln dried maple (end cuts/rejects) kindling from the same facility. I've attached a pic showing the soot collected, less than a coffee cup of soot came out of the prefab chimney, the rest is from the doublewall pipe.

pen - I picked up a magnetic thermometer today and ran a short, brisk fire using kindling only. It wasn't cold enough for a full on fire. The probe read 400F while the magnetic one picked up the outter wall of the pipe as 100F. My camera batteries were almost dead so I snapped another pic of the stove top temp 350F with a 400F flue temp. The outter pipe still seemed hotter than when first installed but maybe I'm getting sensitive nerves in my hands after the cold winter months! 400 - 900F is marked as the safe area on the probe therm, while 300 - 550F is the magnetic safe zone. I'll be using it to monitor my stove top temps from now on.

Hi cj-8_jim Thanks for the suggestion. I followed the air channels in my stove and the low surface temps were along the front portion of the top and to the sides of the door, where the air comes in to 'wash' the glass. Higher temps were found on the raised top near the stovepipe connection. The magnetic reading was usually 75 to 100 degrees lower than the probe readings.