Stove Thermometer Placement

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Jay106n

Minister of Fire
Apr 1, 2015
806
Litchfield County, CT
I use an All Nighter Mid Moe wood stove. I recently bought a thermometer for the stove. Where is the proper placement to put a thermometer?
 
My stove is a similar shape and size. I put mine on the angled step on the top (I think someone recommended that location). It seems to work well there. After a while it will just be there for piece of mind, I barely use mine anymore.
 
Ok. Thanks. I was putting it on the stove pipe. It was struggling to keep above 300 degrees at that spot. Should I put it on the stove directly?
 
I moved your thread to the classics room, since that's what your stove is and you have the best chance at getting an operator of the same/similar devices seeing your post.

In all, you can place a thermometer on the stove pipe and/or the stove top. Depending on the thermometer you are using, the recommended temps may not match the scale if the thermometer is location dependent. Also, if you have double wall pipe, a magnetic thermometer won't work on it.

Here are a few pics of condar thermometers that have a good scale on them.

Here's the scale for single wall stove pipe as shown on one of their thermometers,,,,, 18 inches up I believe (from memory)

300 on the stove pipe is fine.

chimgard2.jpg

Here's a shot of their stove top unit

INFERNO2.jpg

I'm not associated with Condar and not pushing their product, but got screwed by a number of rutlands over the years that turned out to be worthless, and have found these to be reliable. The scale on rutland thermometers is a "blend" of the recommendations for the pipe and the stove top, making the scale and the poorly made thermometer worthless. I like condar's approach to making seperate devices with respective scales much better.

pen
 
I just found a new product from condar when looking up the pics in the last post.

upload_2015-10-19_22-6-40.jpeg

I think too many people get hung up on the numbers and just need to focus on keeping things in the safe area while burning cleanly. As such, I like this thermometer and wish rutland would do something like this rather than run their ridiculous blended scale.
 
Thank you for moving the thread. I suppose I should include some photos so here goes. All three were taken at the same time. I have lots of hot coals and a good burn going, yet the thermometer located on the pipe is registering just above 200. I had a lot of creosote build up from last winter doing improper burns with bad wood so I want to do better this year, which is why I picked up the thermometer. Now I just need to know where to put it. Thanks!
IMG_5276.jpg


IMG_5277.jpg


IMG_5278.jpg
 
And yes, I have a Rutland.... :(
 
For the stovepipe, that looks like a good location. During the cruise in the burn, you'd want the temp on the stove pipe in that spot to be in the zone I showed you on the condar stove pipe thermometer.

If you want to move the thermometer to the stove top, usually you'd want it in the hottest spot. Since you have a pot on the stove, experiment with it on the flat top above where the pot is, and keep things in the zone that's mentioned in Condar's stove top thermometer, when you are cruising along with a load at it's peak.

pen
 
Thank you Pen.
 
Thank you Pen.

Good luck! Play around with the thermometer and keep the place posted as to what you are finding. You found a problem last year, and it sounds like you are on the right track for making things better this year. Well done.
 
So Rutlands are bad? Thats what we have,I have mine on the top of the stove and not sure where it really goes. Tried the pipe but it doesn't get hotter than 250 there.
 
I would recommend either an electric or mechanical probe thermometer. Get the proper temp from inside the stove pipe.
Temp gauge 1.jpg
 
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Looks like single-wall pipe. Most stove pipe probe thermometers are designed for double-wall.
 
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