I've read about 15 posts so far on the topic of "glowing secondaries," but just needed a bit more reassurance that, as a new stove owner, I'm not over-reacting.
We had our first few nights this week where the temps dropped below 20...
So the other night I had a nice-sized bed of coals going, with one decent-sized split that had burned down to roughly half its original size. About 30 minutes before going to bed, I put in a pair of Envi-Blocks, made sure that they started to burn, then turned my air intake down to about 15% or so.
A little later - maybe an hour or so, I went downstairs and the Morgan was churning out heat like there's no tomorrow. Secondaries were going pretty much full-tilt; the one furthest to the back was a dull brick-red glow. The one closest to the front wasn't glowing on the outside, but I could see through the perforations that it was glowing on the inside.
Without getting into a long story, the cast-iron decorative surround isn't currently in place, and neither yet is the top surface heat shield that redirects the blower's air flow from the back of the stove to the front of the stove. Consequently, I can use my IR thermometer to get a reading directly off the top surface of the stove. There is a oval-shaped area on the stove top (It's labelled "This End Up," and I am pretty certain that the official name for this is the flue collar) where it connects to the lowest portion of the stovepipe; this area of the top surface read in the low 700's. When I measured the top surface that was a bit more out towards the sides of the insert, they registered around 450-460.
At that point, I completely closed off primary air, and used a box fan that we keep nearby to blow heat across the stove face and draw off some of the heat, until that oval-shaped area on the stovetop got down into the mid-500's; the top surface out towards the sides were at around 375 at that point. Then I opened up primary air a tiny amount; temperatures seemed to stabilize there.
Anyone see anything here that raises their antennae? Or does this sound pretty normal?
Thanks for the advice.
We had our first few nights this week where the temps dropped below 20...
So the other night I had a nice-sized bed of coals going, with one decent-sized split that had burned down to roughly half its original size. About 30 minutes before going to bed, I put in a pair of Envi-Blocks, made sure that they started to burn, then turned my air intake down to about 15% or so.
A little later - maybe an hour or so, I went downstairs and the Morgan was churning out heat like there's no tomorrow. Secondaries were going pretty much full-tilt; the one furthest to the back was a dull brick-red glow. The one closest to the front wasn't glowing on the outside, but I could see through the perforations that it was glowing on the inside.
Without getting into a long story, the cast-iron decorative surround isn't currently in place, and neither yet is the top surface heat shield that redirects the blower's air flow from the back of the stove to the front of the stove. Consequently, I can use my IR thermometer to get a reading directly off the top surface of the stove. There is a oval-shaped area on the stove top (It's labelled "This End Up," and I am pretty certain that the official name for this is the flue collar) where it connects to the lowest portion of the stovepipe; this area of the top surface read in the low 700's. When I measured the top surface that was a bit more out towards the sides of the insert, they registered around 450-460.
At that point, I completely closed off primary air, and used a box fan that we keep nearby to blow heat across the stove face and draw off some of the heat, until that oval-shaped area on the stovetop got down into the mid-500's; the top surface out towards the sides were at around 375 at that point. Then I opened up primary air a tiny amount; temperatures seemed to stabilize there.
Anyone see anything here that raises their antennae? Or does this sound pretty normal?
Thanks for the advice.