WALL TEMP

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
No need to SHOUT, we hear ya.

I saw wall temps up to about 160 with the Castine. The T6 is better shielded and now they are around 130 after a long burning spell. In both cases the stove minimum clearances were exceeded and in both cases they were within a safe operational temperature range. When it gets above 180F I begin to get concerned about longer term issues.
 
The first time my PE Spectrum got away from me, the gyproc wall behind the double wall pipe was at 276 degrees with my IR thermometer. top of the stove (underneath the enamel cover) was red hot. Couldn't touch the wall! Shut the stove damper off, then sat with a fire extinguisher near by until 2:30 am. -when the stove had finally cooled down and the wall was down to around 150 degrees.
BTW, all clearance specs for the stove were exceeded when the pros installed it!

I measure the wall temp often, 135 is as high as I have got with my new Oslo. I would be nervous with temps going higher than that. I would check with your fire dept. or inspector -someone will be able to tell you what the safe zone is.
 
I've pondered this same thing. I have highly varnished white pine walls around the stove.
I've IR'd them at 150F. But I'm thinking they'd have to get much much hotter to actually combust.
 
My protector wall gets pretty hot, it is only about 10" from the stove body. I intend to sometime probe back to the actual combustible wall structure just to see what temps are back there after a long hot burn, but I doubt they will be very high.

Between the combustibles (which are outside the 12" side clearance requirement, just barely) and the stove is a layer of 1/8th steel plate, stucco, 1/2 of wonderboard, 20gauge steel stud face, 1 1/2 of unfaced fiberglass bat inside that steel 2x, 1/2 air gap, another 1/2 of wonderboard.

I think I'm good, but really do want to probe it from the back side to check.
 
I always found reassurance in Craig's pointing out that hydronic loop piping runs unprotected in millions of wood frame houses at ~180°F and the same goes for steam pipes a bit above 212°F, and nobody ever worries about them, or has reported they started a fire that way.

Of course, as already pointed out, you also care about how hot it gets not everyday, but during the (inevitable) unintended overfire. The conservative 90°F over ambient rule (e.g. 160°F max temp under normal conditions) leaves you some margin to keep it under 220°F in case of a real overfire.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.