Left thermometer inside the stove!

I bougth a $10 rutland thermometer yesterday and realize it's worthless on the front of my insert. I was thinking of leaving it inside the insert on one of my andiron posts to be read through the glass. I know the Rutland packaging says teh magnet will weaken at temperatures over 800 degrees F, but it seems to be useless on the outside.

It seems like a decent way to read the inside air temps.

Bad idea (environmentally thinking) because I might burn the paint?

Thoughts?

karri0n said:

Yeah, temps will be WAY too high for that therm to do anything inside the stove other than stop working. My guess is that 900 is probably the very max you will find on that dial, and temps inside the stove will be 1500+. There's no exposed metal anywhere on your insert to stick it to, or what?

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I put a picture of my stove in my avatar today (shown as open box with screen in place... but of course it's almost always closed). There are little corners where I'm getting the Rutland to read about 300 while the glass is about 600. I put the Rutland in the top right (or left) as close as possible to the door. I rest my oven thermometer up against the glass, and it's almost always over 600 (it's max reading), but it looks pretty easy to extrapolate up to 800 or 900, which I've hit a few times on the glass.

I'm heading to AutoZone in a few minuntes. Seems like IR is the way to go, even though it requires some action to get a reading.

Oh yeah... that picture is the exact same thing as my $10 rutland piece of junk from Home Depot, wire and all. I'm sure it works well in some cases where the surface might be less likely to get cooler air running accross it.

rayza said:

CleanBurnin said:

Got a new thermo for Christmas and am very happy with it. "Porcelain enamel-coated steel housing with an easy-to-read dial that indicates the optimum burn zone". Liked the manufacture of the item - heavy and well painted, with a much better bimetal spring and indicator than any Rutland style I've seen. Cheaper too, 11.50 canadian from here http://www.leevalley.com/garden/page.aspx?c=1&p=61613&cat=2,42194.

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I got the same one from my local hardware store, I've put it in my oven and the thing read 75° low, always. I've thought about taking this piece of junk down to the local rifle range and giving the fellas a target for skeet shooting. I read in the post further up the page that the IR thermometer was $30 from the local auto parts store. I'm going to head down tommorow to pick one up.

Tell me, are ALL Rutland products this junky ??

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I bent the metal on the back of mine to get it closer to the stove, and at least it's now showing I'm almost always in the burn zone. That's a little helpful... but I know I'm running hotter.

I went to my local Auto-zone, and they said they did not carry the part anymore. Since the autozone model only goes to about 700 degrees, I think I'll just invest in an ATD 701 or 702... and pay shipping. There's a used one on ebay, which I assume we will all up-the-bid on when the auction ends in 3-4 days.

Stoph said:

I just picked up a IR thermometer from home depot it was 29.99 made by ryobi seems to work good.

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STOPH
I've got to go to HD today anyway. You know the model#? The max read temperature?

Pagey said:

I'm a little confused. What exactly are you trying to accomplish? An accurate stove top temp?

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stove temp?
firebox temp?
clean burning?
temp rising / temp falling?

all of the above pretty much. IR is what I think I need now.

thanks for the teaching everyone!

I had to pickup some wood stain today. So I was back at the Home Depot, and couldn't help but shop for thermometers.

The Ryobi $30 IR gun is fun, and helps me to understand the wild differences in the temps accross the face of my insert. 300 on the sides, 140 in the ash pan, and the doors range from 400 at the edges up to 550 about 3 inches above the coals in the center. Super happy I bought the IR for 30 even though it maxes out at 608 F.

Just before I left I looked at the stack of Rutland (large) magnetic thermometers (all they had at my HD). To my excitement, there was a single smaller style Rutland... and a price check was only about $7. Sweet!

Comparing my three thermometers: IR and Small Rutland are bascially a match showing 350 in the top left corner of my insert. Actually 360 on the center-side and 340 on the outer-side with the IR, and the small rutland reads 350. I call that an exact match. On the right side I have my large rutland, which reads under 300, and the eveidence shows it should be closer to 350.

The IR shows me that I was not giving the Rutland a fair chance. Just because my glass was reading over 500, doesn't make the (under) 300 reading at the edge incorrect. Now I understand this wide range in temps.

I guess I'll start a thread... "Which temp do you use to know if your burn is clean?"
- intake to afterburner?
- Hottest spot on exposed firebox (like a door, glass, expesed cast)?
- Coolest spot on exposed firebox (like my top corners that are reading as low as 300).


Well, I'm glad I did not leave the large Rutland inside the stove. Now I see it was probably only 50 degress low. Not worthless, just crappy because:
- it's large and doesn't offer many mounting surfaces
- it's fairly inacurate (in my opinion because it sits at least 1/8th of an inche from any surface I mount it on)

I'm very happy with today's purchase of the smaller Rutland and the Ryobi.

I will probably buy another IR later that will give me higher readings so I can get an accutate reading of the exhaust/afterburner temp... mostly because I like tools.


Oh... and one more fun thing about the IR. It was interesting to see that the sun exposed brick on the south/back side of my house was 82 degrees, even on this 29 degree day. Wild. I wonder how hot it gets on a 90 degree day in the summer... or the black slate. IR sure is fun.