T5 stove tops temps?

[sblat]

This is my first full season with my T5. I just wanted to check to see what kind of stove top temps others get with their stoves. The wood I am burning is Ash that was cut last winter and was split and stacked by April. I have no hissing or bubbling at all from the wood. If I put a full load of ash in the stove, the stove top temps will at the highest hit 550 F. I do have the blower that I know cools down the top quite a bit, but it is always on low. Does this seem right? I read about all you guys getting your stoves up to 650 +. I am wondering if I should be running the stove a little different, or if my temp gauge is not in the right spot. Currently is it on the center of the stove about 4 inches from the front. Any suggestions or thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[begreen]

Run the stove for a day or two with the blower off and check the temps. Also remember that cheap thermometers can be off, sometimes by quite a lot.

Where is the air control set when the wood is fully aflame after startup?

 

[jetmech]

Sblat, the hottest spot on my T5 is near the collar just left or right, you might want to put your thermometer there.. my stove will hit 650 no problems using 2 yr old oak.. i just did some tests with the dime sized hole plugged and have now removed the plug as it changed start up performance. i have 16 ft of straight up chimney.. you will love your stove.. it is easy to use and puts out serious heat

 

[hemlock]

I can hit 650 - 700 with little effort on the Super 27. As already stated, try taking your temps without the blower going, for a more accurate reading, and go from there.

 

[oldspark]

Do you have a flue temp gauge, I am still fighting high flue temps at times and the stove struggles to keep up with the flue temp, bad wind yesterday and had 600 flue temps and the stove was at barely 300, I am getting better stove top temps with the damper in use, how tall is your chimney and do you have any 90's?

 

[gogreenburnwood]

It has not really been cold enough for me to gather consistent data at anything but air control all the way at low. I too burn ash that was cut and stacked last summer. I have seen temperatures of 550-600 with the thermometer on the front right side but that is when I'm warming the house with air at high, but I can't leave it there long enough for the stove to settle out. It just puts out way too much heat for our current weather. I'll move it back towards the collar to see what I get. I do not have a blower. I have about 25 feet straight up pipe, with 17' of double wall in the house. I have a flue temp indicator and it seems to like to ride about 600 with the air all the way off and a lazy flame on the splits. Stove top at this setting is around 450-500. My stove is new to us this year and so far I just love it. Can't believe how easy it is to operate. Like I said our weather has not been cooperative for constant fires, so I've had to start many and it is so easy, not at all like my Dutchwest. It's quick and puts out heat much faster then the Dutchwest. I just love the fact that I can put in a couple of pieces, crank it for a minute to get the flue temp up then shut it down for a long burn. With the Dutchwest I felt I needed to pack the firebox then wait for 1/2 to 1 hour at wide open air to get the combuster engaged, by that time most of the load would burned up, necessitating more wood for the long burn. The other thing I really like is at about 450 flue temperature I have absolutely no smoke out of the chimney (if I look hard I can see heat waves, but that's it, if I didn't know better it would seem I didn't even have a fire). I always had some smoke out of the Dutchwest, even with the combuster fully engaged.

 

[oldspark]

Your flue temps seem to be a little high, 600 with lazy flames and air on low, they should be lower than that, you are sending some heat up the flue, one site stated above 450 was a wasted of heat, on startup and reload they will be high but after the stove settles they usually run cooler than the stove top.

 

[sblat]

Thanks for the replies. I loaded it up this afternoon with a pretty full load, not to the gills, but pretty full. I moved the stove top thermo back to close to the collar, just off to the left. I got the stove top up to 600 with out the blower running. I still think that I should be able to get higher temps. When I load the stove the air is all the way open, then I start gradually closing it down in stages. If I close it down too fast, I feel like the fire is not active enough, but if I wait too long I feel that the fuel is mostly burned up before closing it down. When loading on a hot bed of coals, how are you guys running your stoves?

 

[jetmech]

Sblat, sounds like you are learning the curve... i have found from this forum it is best not to reload untill stove top is less than 300 deg. i use my flue temp thermo as a guide after reloading , i try to not let it get above 450 [ single wall pipe].. after reload the fire will start to really crank up. i start closing down usually 2 or 3 steps, at some point stove top temps will pass flue temps. after about 45 min to a hour air is closed all the way and it cruises along. usually around 600 with flue around 300. more wood more heat, pretty simple, i also keep a good ash bed over the clean out. about 2 inches i just shovel out ash when needed, seems with this stove i dont have to do it very often. you will get the hang of it after a while.. i have the blower but rarely use it, it works good to cool stove if you get it a little too warm...

 

[raybonz]

It has not really been cold enough for me to gather consistent data at anything but air control all the way at low. I too burn ash that was cut and stacked last summer. I have seen temperatures of 550-600 with the thermometer on the front right side but that is when I'm warming the house with air at high, but I can't leave it there long enough for the stove to settle out. It just puts out way too much heat for our current weather. I'll move it back towards the collar to see what I get. I do not have a blower. I have about 25 feet straight up pipe, with 17' of double wall in the house. I have a flue temp indicator and it seems to like to ride about 600 with the air all the way off and a lazy flame on the splits. Stove top at this setting is around 450-500. My stove is new to us this year and so far I just love it. Can't believe how easy it is to operate. Like I said our weather has not been cooperative for constant fires, so I've had to start many and it is so easy, not at all like my Dutchwest. It's quick and puts out heat much faster then the Dutchwest. I just love the fact that I can put in a couple of pieces, crank it for a minute to get the flue temp up then shut it down for a long burn. With the Dutchwest I felt I needed to pack the firebox then wait for 1/2 to 1 hour at wide open air to get the combuster engaged, by that time most of the load would burned up, necessitating more wood for the long burn. The other thing I really like is at about 450 flue temperature I have absolutely no smoke out of the chimney (if I look hard I can see heat waves, but that's it, if I didn't know better it would seem I didn't even have a fire). I always had some smoke out of the Dutchwest, even with the combuster fully engaged.

There are a few of us old CDW converts that have bought the T-series Alderleas here on the forum and all report the same thing.. I too find it's much easier to run and also burns nice and clean.. I also find it puts out alot more heat and faster as well.. The blower is much quieter and effective than my CDW was as well.. So far we love our T-5..

Ray

 

[certified106]

It has not really been cold enough for me to gather consistent data at anything but air control all the way at low. I too burn ash that was cut and stacked last summer. I have seen temperatures of 550-600 with the thermometer on the front right side but that is when I'm warming the house with air at high, but I can't leave it there long enough for the stove to settle out. It just puts out way too much heat for our current weather. I'll move it back towards the collar to see what I get. I do not have a blower. I have about 25 feet straight up pipe, with 17' of double wall in the house. I have a flue temp indicator and it seems to like to ride about 600 with the air all the way off and a lazy flame on the splits. Stove top at this setting is around 450-500. My stove is new to us this year and so far I just love it. Can't believe how easy it is to operate. Like I said our weather has not been cooperative for constant fires, so I've had to start many and it is so easy, not at all like my Dutchwest. It's quick and puts out heat much faster then the Dutchwest. I just love the fact that I can put in a couple of pieces, crank it for a minute to get the flue temp up then shut it down for a long burn. With the Dutchwest I felt I needed to pack the firebox then wait for 1/2 to 1 hour at wide open air to get the combuster engaged, by that time most of the load would burned up, necessitating more wood for the long burn. The other thing I really like is at about 450 flue temperature I have absolutely no smoke out of the chimney (if I look hard I can see heat waves, but that's it, if I didn't know better it would seem I didn't even have a fire). I always had some smoke out of the Dutchwest, even with the combuster fully engaged.

Wow your post sounds eerily similar to my Dutchwest experience and my T6 experience. I love the T6 and how easy it is to run. I actually get the same burn times with my T6 as I did with the dutchwest and I get alot longer useable heat.

 

[raybonz]

It has not really been cold enough for me to gather consistent data at anything but air control all the way at low. I too burn ash that was cut and stacked last summer. I have seen temperatures of 550-600 with the thermometer on the front right side but that is when I'm warming the house with air at high, but I can't leave it there long enough for the stove to settle out. It just puts out way too much heat for our current weather. I'll move it back towards the collar to see what I get. I do not have a blower. I have about 25 feet straight up pipe, with 17' of double wall in the house. I have a flue temp indicator and it seems to like to ride about 600 with the air all the way off and a lazy flame on the splits. Stove top at this setting is around 450-500. My stove is new to us this year and so far I just love it. Can't believe how easy it is to operate. Like I said our weather has not been cooperative for constant fires, so I've had to start many and it is so easy, not at all like my Dutchwest. It's quick and puts out heat much faster then the Dutchwest. I just love the fact that I can put in a couple of pieces, crank it for a minute to get the flue temp up then shut it down for a long burn. With the Dutchwest I felt I needed to pack the firebox then wait for 1/2 to 1 hour at wide open air to get the combuster engaged, by that time most of the load would burned up, necessitating more wood for the long burn. The other thing I really like is at about 450 flue temperature I have absolutely no smoke out of the chimney (if I look hard I can see heat waves, but that's it, if I didn't know better it would seem I didn't even have a fire). I always had some smoke out of the Dutchwest, even with the combuster fully engaged.

Wow your post sounds eerily similar to my Dutchwest experience and my T6 experience. I love the T6 and how easy it is to run. I actually get the same burn times with my T6 as I did with the dutchwest and I get alot longer useable heat.

I actually get much longer burn times with the T-5 without even trying to.. I find the recovery time is rapid as well if I start the stove with a house temp in the low sixties it heats up to 70 pretty quick with the blower on.. Cert you was the other CDW burner I was referring to in the previous post..

Ray

 

[jrwhite]

Another CDW to Alderlea convert here. T4 in my case, as the T5 was a bit too big for the kitchen. The T4 is about the same size as the CDW was.

Our T4 can pretty easily get up to 650 on the stove top and 800 at the stove pipe ( double walled with temp probe ) when it's wide open. Shut it down completely, and the flue drops to around 450-500, and the stove top cruises at about 500 - 550.

My stove pipe goes up 36", then a 45deg bend and a run of about 24", then a 90deg into the wall, and another 90 into the liner for about 18'. My VC insert is a bit easier to cold start, but it just goes about 20' straight up.

This is my first EPA stove, so I'm still getting to know it. Basically, I fire it up in the morning, and when the flu hits around 800, I just close it down. At first I was obsessing with the burn tubes, but posts by wiser burners here seemed to indicate that you just ignore them ... run it hot, controllable, then shut it down.

Aside from the ash removal system, I've been really happy with it.

Jonathan

 

[raybonz]

Another CDW to Alderlea convert here. T4 in my case, as the T5 was a bit too big for the kitchen. The T4 is about the same size as the CDW was.

Our T4 can pretty easily get up to 650 on the stove top and 800 at the stove pipe ( double walled with temp probe ) when it's wide open. Shut it down completely, and the flue drops to around 450-500, and the stove top cruises at about 500 - 550.

My stove pipe goes up 36", then a 45deg bend and a run of about 24", then a 90deg into the wall, and another 90 into the liner for about 18'. My VC insert is a bit easier to cold start, but it just goes about 20' straight up.

This is my first EPA stove, so I'm still getting to know it. Basically, I fire it up in the morning, and when the flu hits around 800, I just close it down. At first I was obsessing with the burn tubes, but posts by wiser burners here seemed to indicate that you just ignore them ... run it hot, controllable, then shut it down.

Aside from the ash removal system, I've been really happy with it.

Jonathan

Hi JR welcome to the CDW convert club! How about some pics of your T-4? What are you getting for burn times?

Ray

 

[jrwhite]

Hi Ray,

Glad to be a new memeber! I think we chatted last season when I was investigating rejuvinating the CDW, only to find out the real extent of the damage.

I've never been clear on the practical definition of 'burn time'. With the firebox about 3/4 full with 4 medium/smallish splits, it will cruise above 500 for about 2 hours or so, then it gradually declines to about 300 after 4 hours. If I load before bed, I always have enough coles in the morning for a warm restart.

The T4 is mainly to keep the kitchen / dining room warm. Both my wife and I work from home, and often spend a good part of our day at the dining room table with our notebooks. The chimney wall separates the kitchen from the livingroom, and the Winterwarm is on the livingroom side. It keeps the livingroom warm, and the heat wicks up the stairwell to the upstairs, but doesn't do much for the kitchen.

During our shoulder season, when it's hovering around 0 Celcius, the T4 is pretty much all we need. It will keep the kitchen at 24C, and the livingroom at 20C during the day. Our bedroom is above the livingroom, so the heat ends up there at night. When we're in the 0C to -10C range, I've been firing the T4 during the day and the WW at night. Over the holidays we had my wife's family here, and they like it 'warm'. When the temp was -10C we had both the T4 and WW running, and the kitchen was 27C! and the livingroom 23C. I almost took off my sweater! Today was an unusally cold day for Dec ... -20C. Fired up both and could keep the livingroom at 20C and the kitchen at 22C. ( This is a VERY leaky house ... we've been working on fixing the leaks for several years, but it's a big job )

The propane furnace just kicks in in the morning to bring the house up to 20C.

Don't want to hijack this thread, just thought the OP might be interested in the heating observations.

Here are a few crappy phone pics of the T4, and one of the WW for good measure.

Jonathan

 

[raybonz]

Beautiful stove, insert and home! Thanx for the pics.. Love the room the T-4 lives in!

Ray

 

[jrwhite]

Thanks Ray.

Here's wider shot of the room the T4 lives in ... complete with the Christmas aftermath ( family just left today, after a full week visit ).

Jonathan

 

[raybonz]

Very cozy and homey place to gather! The T-4 looks right at home there.. Haven't read much about the T-4 but quite a few have the T-5 and T-6's.. I did post a review on the T-5 on the forum main page maybe you might want to do that as well..

Ray