Equinox Stove Top Temps.

[Highbeam]

Wow, well that jives with my normal internal flue temps of 800 so I guess we've both got this figured out. External temps of 650 are really high.

I have a telescoping double wall pipe with the metal on metal that you speak of. I find the outside of the pipe noticeably colder in the overlap area. I can actually feel where the overlap starts and stops. I would want that stick on meter in the single wall section if that's possible.

If I set my air to 1/4 open with a loaded stove and leave it then it will overfire. That's my no f-in around setting.

 

[FireWalker]

Wow, well that jives with my normal internal flue temps of 800 so I guess we've both got this figured out. External temps of 650 are really high.

I have a telescoping double wall pipe with the metal on metal that you speak of. I find the outside of the pipe noticeably colder in the overlap area. I can actually feel where the overlap starts and stops. I would want that stick on meter in the single wall section if that's possible.

If I set my air to 1/4 open with a loaded stove and leave it then it will overfire. That's my no f-in around setting.

I'm on the single wall part. When left on 1/4 open with a full load the wife calls a foul on the play and either cracks a door or sheds a layer, then she shuts the air control to off. Last night was nice for me, she said she was amazed the stove was keeping the whole house warm and the furnace off completely, it's set for 65 in the room farthest from the stove. Our main room rarely goes above 75 although I don't go upstairs....they tell me It gets kinda warm up there.

 

[tlingit]

So, after reading on this thread, my husband put a damper in Stovezilla, the equinox. It's been great. We have more heat coming back into the room, and longer burn times. We have about a 20 foot stack and husband person thinks that the damper really helped control the draft. When it was installed, the dealer said we didn't need a damper, but putting one in has been really good for us. We live in the really frozen north and have long stretches below zero. This stove really does a good job for us. Thanks to all of you for your postings and experience. You really helped us make a good choice about putting in the damper. Before the damper, it was tough getting the stove surface temp over 300, now its cruising at 500.

 

[FireWalker]

Trying to make sense of any of this is impossible! One setup (wellbuilthome) with damper and tall pipe and damper has low stovetop temps, another with medium high pipe and no damper has low surface tamps until they install a damper. They suggest I install one when I have high surface temps......What's a boy to do?

tlingit, I'm happy your stove is sorted out, stay warm.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Trying to make sense of any of this is impossible! One setup (wellbuilthome) with damper and tall pipe and damper has low stovetop temps, another with medium high pipe and no damper has low surface tamps until they install a damper. They suggest I install one when I have high surface temps......What's a boy to do?

tlingit, I'm happy your stove is sorted out, stay warm.

Install the damper. Less heat will leave your stove and you will gain greater control over your stove temps. I have one on the Vigilant and without it my burn times would be much shorter and far harder to control with well seasoned wood. Additionally, my father in-law has one on his Heritage and it really allows him to control the stove.

I am getting a Mansfield based on how I've seen my father in-law's Heritage holds temps. With the damper closed and the air control open slightly he holds a temp of 450 degrees for hours. I liked how little he had to fuss with it. Also, at the end of the year his pipe/liner is remarkable clean.

 

[karri0n]

Install it. More control over your fire and longer burn times. If you notice it starts to burn lazily or you start getting smoke out the chimney, take it out.

 

[tlingit]

So, what does it mean if you get smoke off the chimney?

 

[yanksforever]

I would think if you are getting temps in the 600 -650 range you are on the edge of overfiring. Most soapstone stoves tell you not to bring up over 600.

We are really heating now, not just making the room warm, we are heating the whole house. My wood this year is much better than last years and it shows, better species and better seasoning. I really took the time to do it right....thanks in part to you fine people. Anyway, now that I'm loading the stove to full capacity, after the normal hot burn period (10 minutes) on a fresh load I reduce the air supply in steps until it's shut full off. The fire itself looks normal....dancing blue flames with wisps of yellow feeding the burning cloud around the tubes. The glass is clean and really, everything seems great but even when set to low (full off) at the damper I get up to 600-650 on my rutland thermometer which I believe to give a high reading. This reading will be maintained for a good 3 hours and then will slowly drop, I'm getting 10 hours on a load and at that point the whole bottom of the stove is a coal bed. Again, I'm burning the best oak, maple and birch I've ever had, the burn tubes are active within minutes of reloading, everything seems perfect. What gives, what would happen if I left the damper open just a little, surface temps would go even higher which would be a little scary?

How does this compare with other Equinox and Hearthstone stoves users out there. I'm chalking it up to really good wood and I'm happy and warm. I am on the other hand concerned that if I wasn't paying attention even for just a few minutes things could really get heated up.

 

[Todd]

So, what does it mean if you get smoke off the chimney?

Incomplete combustion. You may see some smoke for a while after reloads, but once the secondaries kick in you should only see heat waves or some white steam.

 

[FireWalker]

Well, that's exactly why I posted this thread. If you were here to see this stove working when I get those temps, I think you would agree looking at the fire, the stove is not overfiring. If the fire behind the glass were raging, filling the box with flames coming off the wood and coming from around the tubes I would be wanting to turn things down and be worried the stove is too hot. I was regularly getting well above 500 with the Rutland on the stones and the fire inside is a slow motion cloud of blue/yellow flame floating above the wood that lasts for hours and my air supply is shut. I assume that the stove is functioning as designed and now feel all is well, and have no worries. As of the last few weeks, I'm even more confident this stove is not overfiring, I read my manual again and there is no mention of maximum stovetop tempratures, the information given instead suggests a 400 degree reading on the single wall connector no more than 12" above the stovetop mean the stove is supplying sufficient heat. This is what I get all the time, I just get things going, initially letting the stack go up to around 500 to 600 then kill the air and the temp on the pipe will settle between 350 and 400. If it's really cold out and I want more, let me tell you, there is a huge difference in what the fire is doing if you let the pipe temp go up to 450.....from lazy to inferno but that extra 50 degrees makes a huge amount of additional heat coming off the stove. I've seen my old stove overfire a few times, after opening the door when it cooled off, you could tell it was magma hot in there everything was really, really clean, no black stuff anywhere. This stove so far looks very normal inside, a little black on the glass corners and some shiny black stuff up in the back corners of the box.

 

[BrowningBAR]

Well, that's exactly why I posted this thread. If you were here to see this stove working when I get those temps, I think you would agree looking at the fire, the stove is not overfiring. If the fire behind the glass were raging, filling the box with flames coming off the wood and coming from around the tubes I would be wanting to turn things down and be worried the stove is too hot. I was regularly getting well above 500 with the Rutland on the stones and the fire inside is a slow motion cloud of blue/yellow flame floating above the wood that lasts for hours and my air supply is shut. I assume that the stove is functioning as designed and now feel all is well, and have no worries. As of the last few weeks, I'm even more confident this stove is not overfiring, I read my manual again and there is no mention of maximum stovetop tempratures, the information given instead suggests a 400 degree reading on the single wall connector no more than 12" above the stovetop mean the stove is supplying sufficient heat. This is what I get all the time, I just get things going, initially letting the stack go up to around 500 to 600 then kill the air and the temp on the pipe will settle between 350 and 400. If it's really cold out and I want more, let me tell you, there is a huge difference in what the fire is doing if you let the pipe temp go up to 450.....from lazy to inferno but that extra 50 degrees makes a huge amount of additional heat coming off the stove. I've seen my old stove overfire a few times, after opening the door when it cooled off, you could tell it was magma hot in there everything was really, really clean, no black stuff anywhere. This stove so far looks very normal inside, a little black on the glass corners and some shiny black stuff up in the back corners of the box.

Both, the Mansfield and Heritage manuals state that anything over 600 degrees on the stove top is over-firing.

Did you install the damper, yet?

 

[FireWalker]

Nope, no damper yet. This time of year I get extremely lazy, it's almost time for my afternoon nap.

I've read both those manuals and I don't get it, why there (mansfield) but not here (Equinox). Maybe just maybe in order to get the advertised btu output form this stove, they had to allow hotter surface temps.

Maybe this weekend I'll get a damper installed.