So what happens if i over burn my wood stove?

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Ziprich

Member
Sep 19, 2011
64
Western Md (Hagerstown)
I came home tonight and when i came in the house i smelled something different. I always go down to the basement first thing to check the stove and when i did i found that my stove was at 900 degrees!!! My wife forgot to engage the secondary combustion system. So my stove was hot. Not sure if it did any damage, and if i did what should i do now? My pipe was not red or anything, so I'm wondering if i over burned my stove and if so how will i hurt my stove.
 
Should be able to survive an ocasional 900.
 
It won't hurt the stove.
I would be more concerned about stack temps..but if your flue is installed correctly and fairly clean ..prolly not much to worry about there either.
 
ya it smells allot like welding metal.


900F you shoulda had a gloing pipe, unless double wall then you wouldnt see it.

also your temp gauge may be reading high, most them magnetic stickon ones do that ive used. 1-200f to high usually.



im pretty much just using them for stove top anymore and using the irgun for the chimney.
 
It happens to just about everybody sooner or later. Most of these stoves are built to "survive" these types of overfire temps, however the hotter you get it, and more often you do it, certain tell tale signs will start to show up. Mostly warping of metal parts and even cracked welds. In most cases that I have seen the top of the stove is the first thing to warp. Sometimes they'll warp belly up, sometimes the'll warp belly down. Throw a straight edge on top of your stove and see if it's still flat. If not, take note of how much of a warp there is and which way it has warped, then keep an eye on it and moniter it to see if it ever gets worse ( it will likely happen again one day).

Note: Warping is a sure indication to the manifacturer that you have over heated the stove and they may void your warranty.
 
you get scolded by all of us (then we all admit we've done it too).
 
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