AT WHAT TEMP DO YOU ALL RELOAD

Well you guys made me second guess myself so I took a look and yup . . while I usually let the flue temp on my probe thermometer run up to 450 or 500 before I start closing it, I have and my wife have started closing things down at the 400 degree mark . . . and things are good . . . sustained secondaries, long burns, plenty of heat and most important of all -- a clean chimney.

Probe thermometers are very useful in my opinion . . . but like most other inexpensive stove thermometers I take what they say with a grain of salt and realize the temps can be off a bit . . . one of the reasons I tend to run the probe temp up to 450 or 500 before I start to close things down. They are also very simple to install . . . pretty much you drill a hole and stick the probe in . . . so easy even a caveman . . . I mean a firefighter could do it.

Thanks for clarifying Jake. I'll order my probe Monday.

That does not sound right to me, I let my surface mount temp sensor get up to 500 or so before I start to throttle it back.

With my Englander NC 13, I am struggling to get the flue temps up, or perhaps they are hot enough. Right now I have a two split fire with seasoned oak, secondaries going like made and the stove top temp is 650 and flue is just barely 250, those temps are with cheap magnetic thermometers from Tractor Supply. The stack thermometer is about a foot up on a single wall black stove pipe. To get the flue temp up that high, I end up with WAY too much heat for my house. It is 30 degrees out and 75 inside. I have been reloading only when I need a boost of heat. After getting my initial bed of coals for the day I just burn a split at a time, anything more is too much heat. My concern with this is possibly not hot enough flue temp to prevent creosote even though I am burning with no smoke. Three medium splits at night with the air down and I wake up to a 70 degree house, I guess the spray foam insulation is going to pay off.

I reload during our normal frigid weather at 300 degrees F stovetop. Sometimes higher. On rare sunny noondays and afternoons, I will reload at 200 - 250 F.

After my stovetop temp. peaks on a cycle, I watch for it to start to fall for a few mins. then reload. Of course after an overnight burn, the temp is way down in the morn. so I clean ashes out, (every couple days) and go again. This is a good time to send plenty of heat up the flue for 30 mins. or so while i'm getting up to operating temps again and burn whatever creosote i've accumulated in the overnight burn, (if any) out.