Calling all soapstone stove owners,,,, specifically Hearthstone units...

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shawneyboy

Minister of Fire
Oct 5, 2010
1,592
NE PA
Just wondering what your cruising speed stove top temps run at ??? Just as a compare and contrast type thing. I have a Mansfield and have cruising temps in the 400 or so range give or take a bit.
Thanks for the info.
 
I use to burn my Hearthstone in the 400-600 range and my Woodstock's like 500-700.
 
I believe Hearthstone recommends not over 600 degrees. Woodstock recommends not over 700 degrees. We get our stove in the 600-700 range pretty regular in the cold months but not this time of the year. I goofed once already this fall by putting in one too many splits and had it to 650 and it about roasted us out.
 
We let our Homestead run up to 550-600 a few times, but just let it cruise around 400-425. Hearthstone does in fact recommend not exceeding 600.
 
More of the same... our homestead gets to 500-525 when it's really cranking on a full load, post air-turn down. LOTS of heat into the room at that temp, I can't imagine what the steel stoves are like at 800+....

N
 
Haven't burned in serious winter weather yet - only last March + April and now. Last spring, on full load, I'd typically top out and cruise at 500-550. I hadn't got the hang of dialing down the air earlier in the cycle, so the stove got hotter than I'd like, with stack getting upwards of 1000deg. Now, I'm dialing down air earlier and haven't seen stack above 700 and stove has liked cruising at 450-500 with a 2/3 full load. Cheers!
 
Battenkiller said:
wingarcher said:
I can't imagine what the steel stoves are like at 800+....

I know what cast stoves feel like at those temps...


:ahhh:

Steel stoves at that temp mean sleeping in the garage that night. Or in some cases, the Marriott.

If a 600 degree stove won't keep ya warm, move. Or burn in two stoves. No matter what the thing is made of.
 
Stove top around 400 and flue temps about double the stove temp. On occasion, just to clean things out, I'll run the stove to 550. Stoves make way more heat at 550 than they do at 400.
 
Highbeam said:
Stove top around 400 and flue temps about double the stove temp. On occasion, just to clean things out, I'll run the stove to 550. Stoves make way more heat at 550 than they do at 400.
That sounds different then what most people report, after fire settles in the stove top is hotter than the flue or is that just when you reload or start up?
 
450-525 On my Mansfield.
 
Our Homestead usually cruises at 400-450, which provides nice heat througout the house. Occasionally, we'll go up to about 500 but that usually makes the house way too hot.
 
About the same here with our Eq. 400 -450. When it gets really cold...... 500.
 
oldspark said:
Highbeam said:
Stove top around 400 and flue temps about double the stove temp. On occasion, just to clean things out, I'll run the stove to 550. Stoves make way more heat at 550 than they do at 400.
That sounds different then what most people report, after fire settles in the stove top is hotter than the flue or is that just when you reload or start up?

Not many folks have actual flue probe meters. Not many of those folks are using soapstone non-cats. The stove top is pretty much never hotter than the flue. Trying to think, only time would be if you shoved a full load of cold wood into a hot stove and forgot to open the draft. Then you might have a cold flue, still though, doubt it would be colder than the stove top.

The guys with cat stoves can get some pretty cool flue temps when compared to the stove top. Those darn cats suck the heat out of the exhaust.
 
And those darn cats give some wonderful heat.
 
Highbeam said:
oldspark said:
Highbeam said:
Stove top around 400 and flue temps about double the stove temp. On occasion, just to clean things out, I'll run the stove to 550. Stoves make way more heat at 550 than they do at 400.
That sounds different then what most people report, after fire settles in the stove top is hotter than the flue or is that just when you reload or start up?

Not many folks have actual flue probe meters. Not many of those folks are using soapstone non-cats. The stove top is pretty much never hotter than the flue. Trying to think, only time would be if you shoved a full load of cold wood into a hot stove and forgot to open the draft. Then you might have a cold flue, still though, doubt it would be colder than the stove top.

The guys with cat stoves can get some pretty cool flue temps when compared to the stove top. Those darn cats suck the heat out of the exhaust.
My summit runs a stove top hotter than the flue and that sounds like normal from the posts from other people. Is it because of the soap stone?
 
oldspark said:
Highbeam said:
oldspark said:
Highbeam said:
Stove top around 400 and flue temps about double the stove temp. On occasion, just to clean things out, I'll run the stove to 550. Stoves make way more heat at 550 than they do at 400.
That sounds different then what most people report, after fire settles in the stove top is hotter than the flue or is that just when you reload or start up?

Not many folks have actual flue probe meters. Not many of those folks are using soapstone non-cats. The stove top is pretty much never hotter than the flue. Trying to think, only time would be if you shoved a full load of cold wood into a hot stove and forgot to open the draft. Then you might have a cold flue, still though, doubt it would be colder than the stove top.

The guys with cat stoves can get some pretty cool flue temps when compared to the stove top. Those darn cats suck the heat out of the exhaust.
My summit runs a stove top hotter than the flue and that sounds like normal from the posts from other people. Is it because of the soap stone?

Measured with a probe meter? It makes a huge difference.

If my flue temps aren't in the middle (750ish) of the range of "good burning" or whatever condar calls it between under and overfire then it is a smokey mess of a fire. So I am burning in the proper flue temp zone according to condar. The stove top of a stone stove normally runs at 400-450 unless you have a cat hidden under the lid and then that top runs a bit hotter. In theory, if I could maintain the same stove top temp, have a clean exhaust, and have lower flue temps then efficiency would be up. That would be great. As the fire dwindles, the flue gas temp cools down to match the stove top temp.

Yes Dennis, that heat the cats steal from the flue gas is cleverly released into the stove. It's a wonderful idea and I would have one if I could do it over. Next stove...
 
I am adding the 50% to the surface mount temp sensor, so I have had 3 to 4 hundred degree flue with a 5 to 6 hundred stove top and this is consistent with post from other people who I would hope jump in soon.
 
Highbeam said:
Yes Dennis, that heat the cats steal from the flue gas is cleverly released into the stove. It's a wonderful idea and I would have one if I could do it over. Next stove...

You better hurry up and buy that Fireview Highbeam, times running out for the sale and tax credit. How tall is that hearth of yours? Did you know the 8" front clearance can be reduced with the height of the hearth. If you have a 8" high hearth the stove can go right on the edge, 4" height can go 4" to edge.
 
I didn't know that Todd. I used 2x4 steel studs plus an inch of durock so I could go down to 4" to edge I suppose. Not so sure I would be going woodstock anyways. The BKs are a strong stove as well, larger and have that stat.

These days, I am kind of hunkered down and hoping for the best with what I've got.
 
Oldspark: You don't add 50%, you double the surface temp to get flue temp. You halve, 50%, flue temp to get surface temp. Of course you need to be using single wall for any of that. See, this is the reason for an honmest to goodness probe meter. So you know what's going on inside the pipe.

I intentionally run the flue gas temps up to 1000 each day to keep the pipes clean and primed.
 
Thanks for the info highbeam I either misremembered or got some bad info, we are now on the same page.
 
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