Controlling temperature

Here's what I've found with my Endeavor, but your mileage may vary. If I close the bypass damper at 350F stovetop, then start closing down the primary in steps when it hits 400F stovetop, I cruise around 500F or so. If I let the stovetop get around 400F before closing the bypass damper, I'm running around 550-600F at cruise. Also, if I have a load cruising at 500 to 600F and add more splits, I get a spike as high as 800F, which I really don't like. So far, for me, the longer I leave the bypass damper open to char the full load, the hotter I end up cruising at. Finally, throwing in a full load of seasoned oak rounds (4-6" diameter) seems to result in higher cruising temps, but this may be due to the fact that I have to leave the bypass damper open a little longer to get them well charred.

More wood or more air=more heat, assuming you are using good wood and the stove is already going.

Temperature is kind of the product of Amount Of Wood **AND** Amount Of Air.

If the wood that's in there is already burning about as well as it can, then opening the draft further (or setting the door ajar) just lets un-needed air into the firebox, which paradoxically tends to cool things off.

So you can reduce temp by either reducing draft (slowly and in stages, to avoid smoke) or by feeding smaller pieces of wood. To really get 'er ripping, you need both a fair amount of wood in there, AND the draft fairly wide open.

Eddy

The Dali Lima said:

WOW - I don't know how you could possibly stand the stove being at 600 degrees. I'm running mine at 350 - 450 and it is already sweating us out of the room!

Click to expand...

Well, I suppose if I spent the entire day 18 inches from the stove, 600F would be overkill. But when you spread that out over 1,800 square feet in a home not ideally designed for wood heat at the time it was built, 600F does a fair job of keeping most of the rooms comfortable. Also, 600F in milder weather is much warmer than 600F in the teens! I would have figured (based on my readings here) that a stovetop temp of 500-600F is average for a plate steel stove in the midst of a burn cycle when the secondary combustion has really kicked in nicely. Now, if we were talking soapstone, 600F would be pushing it.