Good people. I continue to learn a lot from you as I surf the forums here. I hope to learn a little more from this post.
After reading so many discussions about using thermometers and stove/flue temperatures, I decided that I would like to know a little more about my combustion than just meets the eye. I strolled into our local hardware store and bought a couple of the cheapie magnetic thermometers, a Drolet and a Volzang, since that is what they had. They are pretty similar and show an ideal temperature range of 300°F to 500°F, with too cold below and too hot above. Both go up to 800°F. I installed one with a screw to my flue pipe, 18" up from the stove. The other one is currently sitting happily on the top of the stove, about dead center.
Stove/Installation details: 1987 Quadra Fire 3000; was installed before we bought the place as the primary heat source with a crummy electric panel heater as the back up. House is about 1,500 sf. ft, flue is 6" black stove pipe to the isolation box that passes straight through the ceiling, goes into an attic, then out the roof. I would say the inside is a straight pipe about 6" in diameter and 18' total length from stove to cap Draws like a banshee!
Installation was done by a local stove shop that is now no longer a QF dealer; seems like quality work, with the stove in a corner of the living room, sitting on a stone hearth with stone walls (wainscoating?) up about four feet to reflect the heat out of the corner. Have been burning it as the primary heater for about 7 years with very little creosote buildup between rather infrequent cleanings (ok, I will do them a little more often.) No chimney fires, at least.
Now that I have thermometers, I get a reading of about 600°F on the flue during the initial burn (full stove, wide open for 15-20 minutes.) Most of what I burn is the dreaded pine that the borers gift to me on a regular basis in the southern sierra mountains of CA. Sometimes I get some oak and cedar, as well. The wood is usually seasoned for a year or two after being harvested from standing dead trees. The thermometer on the stove top moves up to about 500°F a little more slowly than the flue thermometer does.
After the initial burn and I close the primary air and cut the secondary back to about half or a third open depending on what the fire looks like, the flue temp thermometer reading drops to about 250°F and stays there. The stove top reading stays at 500°F for many hours (at risk of violating a commandment, about 8 hours.)
The Volzang thermometer is the one on the flue. The card that came with it says that the internal gas temp is probably 40-50% higher than the reading on the pipe, so this would mean gas temps are 1,000F+ during the initial burning stage and cruise at 500°F+ during the remaining burn cycle.
I get very little smoke after the first few minutes and the glass stays pretty clean. I might remove a light haze every couple of weeks.
So here are the questions buried in this mass of text:
1. Is there anything in the above that sounds like a red flag and I should pay attention to or change?
2. Is the information on the stove top temperature of any use, or should I stick the thermometer on the front above the door?
Overall, I am now pretty happy with my process, since I learned here a little more about how to start and maintain a burn cycle, instead of just tossing a piece of wood in every couple of hours and creating mini-burn cycles. I think I am using about 1/3 less wood than I did before adopting the full burn-cycle regime. Any further refinement suggestions would be most appreciated, though.
Thanks for wading through this!
;-)
After reading so many discussions about using thermometers and stove/flue temperatures, I decided that I would like to know a little more about my combustion than just meets the eye. I strolled into our local hardware store and bought a couple of the cheapie magnetic thermometers, a Drolet and a Volzang, since that is what they had. They are pretty similar and show an ideal temperature range of 300°F to 500°F, with too cold below and too hot above. Both go up to 800°F. I installed one with a screw to my flue pipe, 18" up from the stove. The other one is currently sitting happily on the top of the stove, about dead center.
Stove/Installation details: 1987 Quadra Fire 3000; was installed before we bought the place as the primary heat source with a crummy electric panel heater as the back up. House is about 1,500 sf. ft, flue is 6" black stove pipe to the isolation box that passes straight through the ceiling, goes into an attic, then out the roof. I would say the inside is a straight pipe about 6" in diameter and 18' total length from stove to cap Draws like a banshee!
Installation was done by a local stove shop that is now no longer a QF dealer; seems like quality work, with the stove in a corner of the living room, sitting on a stone hearth with stone walls (wainscoating?) up about four feet to reflect the heat out of the corner. Have been burning it as the primary heater for about 7 years with very little creosote buildup between rather infrequent cleanings (ok, I will do them a little more often.) No chimney fires, at least.
Now that I have thermometers, I get a reading of about 600°F on the flue during the initial burn (full stove, wide open for 15-20 minutes.) Most of what I burn is the dreaded pine that the borers gift to me on a regular basis in the southern sierra mountains of CA. Sometimes I get some oak and cedar, as well. The wood is usually seasoned for a year or two after being harvested from standing dead trees. The thermometer on the stove top moves up to about 500°F a little more slowly than the flue thermometer does.
After the initial burn and I close the primary air and cut the secondary back to about half or a third open depending on what the fire looks like, the flue temp thermometer reading drops to about 250°F and stays there. The stove top reading stays at 500°F for many hours (at risk of violating a commandment, about 8 hours.)
The Volzang thermometer is the one on the flue. The card that came with it says that the internal gas temp is probably 40-50% higher than the reading on the pipe, so this would mean gas temps are 1,000F+ during the initial burning stage and cruise at 500°F+ during the remaining burn cycle.
I get very little smoke after the first few minutes and the glass stays pretty clean. I might remove a light haze every couple of weeks.
So here are the questions buried in this mass of text:
1. Is there anything in the above that sounds like a red flag and I should pay attention to or change?
2. Is the information on the stove top temperature of any use, or should I stick the thermometer on the front above the door?
Overall, I am now pretty happy with my process, since I learned here a little more about how to start and maintain a burn cycle, instead of just tossing a piece of wood in every couple of hours and creating mini-burn cycles. I think I am using about 1/3 less wood than I did before adopting the full burn-cycle regime. Any further refinement suggestions would be most appreciated, though.
Thanks for wading through this!
;-)
hh: on the Jotul 602's flue pipe if you weren't watching it closely. That little rascal liked to take right off and roar. 
