Stovetop temp variation

[woodmiser]

I have a IR thermometer and have noticed 600deg in the center but if I move off center the temp drops by hundreds by the time I get to the side edge. So when the manufacturer says do not exceed 600 for long amounts of time dothey mean search for the hottest spot? You know people don't do this and those cheapy candor thermometers aren't being repositioned to find hot spots?

 

[pen]

In general, if the manual doesn't specify where to put the thermometer I'd personally go by the hottest spot I can find. Having variations like that are normal.

Just ran my IR over the stove and it's roughly 100 degree variation from the hottest spot to the lowest spots on the stove top.

What type of stove is this?

Welcome to the site!

pen

 

[woodmiser]

It's a clydesdale by hearthstone. I had it installed and had my first fire the other night. Unfortunately my IR gun was reading dashes after 500 deg. I overfired the thing to 850 because the IR kept making me think it was holding at 500 and change. I was skeptical so I put a candor on it and it shot up to 850. I shut down and she slowly dropped back to normal. That was last night. I checked it out today and nothing looks unusual or warped. The paint didn't discolor. I'm thinking the 850 at the hotspot but the rest of the stove was well below. Today everything seems normal. Thank you for the welcome. I got a new gun. Klein reads 1000

 

[pen]

Hehe, oops. That'll put your heart in your throat. As a teen I was fooling around in a s-10 pick-up truck trying to keep ahead of a buddies car which was faster. I had a 4.3 v6 and 5spd. When shifting from 2nd to 3rd at redline, somehow I missed 3rd and actually got it back into first. Lifted the clutch up and as I heard the tires screaming saw the tach peg out at over 7k rpms. Redline was 4800 rpm. Shut the truck down, coasted to a stop, lit a cigarette, built up the courage to restart it and it fired back up no problem. Drove it 3 more years, sold it w/ 192k on the odometer and saw it on the road still 4.5 years after that. Sometimes we just get lucky I suppose

Can't speak for hearthstone but when speaking to some woodstock soapstone co people about temps a few weeks back I asked what their max was and they kinda shrugged, "Um, 750 or in there." In other words, to them they really weren't concerned about the heat as much as hearthstone seems to be. Not sure if it's due to less stove cement in between the joints or if Hearthstone is being conservative.

In any regard, I'd say if you can't see the damage now you should be fine. I just wouldn't make that a regular habit.

pen