Measuring air temp of Castile freestanding?

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cocey2002

Member
Dec 28, 2007
179
Central PA
Hello guys, been measuring the air coming out of the tubes with my wife's meat gauge trying to determine the best pellets. Lowes American something cheep measured at about 180 degrees. Tonight I fired up the stove and loaded some of TS the good kind and came back an hour later to a smell in the house. Very hot at around 240 degrees. It smells like initial burn off. You guys that have done this before on high what kind of temps are you getting.
 
It smelled like the oils and chemicals that burn off initially. I don't think my stove has been this hot before. I tend to burn what lowes has in stock which are not the greatest pellets. It could be my feed gate needs adjusted as the flame was bigger but not huge. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't over firing my stove.
 
It smelled like the oils and chemicals that burn off initially. I don't think my stove has been this hot before. I tend to burn what lowes has in stock which are not the greatest pellets. It could be my feed gate needs adjusted as the flame was bigger but not huge. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't over firing my stove.

What kind of stove do you have?
 
Hey, and happy new year. Your flame height should be about 4 - 6" above the fire pot on the high setting. Typically whenever I swap pellet brands, ie from shoulder season pellets, I need to adjust the feed rate. If the pellets are shorter length there will be more of them dropped with each cycle of the auger, so that will give a hotter burn also. Your #2 high limit snap disc should trip and shut down the stove if it over - fires.

Besides any residual stove paint 'burn off', if you have silicone sealed inside venting that can give off a chemical smell too, as the exhaust flue temps go up when your stove is burning hotter. It should go away as any residual chemicals burn off. Working smoke and CO detectors in your stove room should always be standard safety back ups. Cheers, DK
 
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  • Thanks for the replys. Yeah I'd say my flame on high is 4 to 6 above fire pot. My stove heats a four seasons room so I turn it on - on high until the room warms and then will turn it back on medium to low. The room was 39 this morning. The stove does a great job of heating the space but the room gets closed off at night and most work days. Quad Castile.
 
Your temp might be higher than 240, especially if you can smell the chemicals burning off. With a good pellet my convection temps are usually in the 225 to 270 range. I never smell the stove but when I was testing my favorite pellets the temp climbed to almost 330 and it smelled like the first burn when it was new.
 
I hold a meat probe which is very accurate - tested measuring both meat and air temps about a inch away from the hottest exchange tube. This gives me a good idea of what pellets are of better or less quality.,I found that with most lowes bought pellets I see a range of 180-195. With better quality I see around 210. Last night was around 240 and that was by far the hottest my stove has got. Could be that I need to adjust the feed though as I have never done that.
 
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