1200 degrees...check your door gaskets.........

[Motor7]

Night before last I was watching a movie. There was a scene where the two actors were walking out on a dock in NYC. They are talking and this truck is backing up somewhere on the street..."beep...beep...beep...." I'm thinking, "Gee, they should have shot that scene again.....wait a min.........OVERFIRE ALARM!" Mistake number two was a stack of CD's in front of the digital readout so I could not see it.....yep...1200 degrees and climbing.

So I run down stairs and the primary is closed like it is supposed to be, so I stuff the finger of my welding glove into the Secondary tube and immediately it starts to drop. I go back upstairs and check the insulated Class A that runs from the main floor to the cathedral ceiling and it is too hot to touch which is not normal. I go outside and there are no flames at all coming from the flue, no sparks, nothing. Back inside and after 10 min it is back down under 600.

I had cleaned the flue back in Jan, so I know I did not have excessive creosote. What I have not done this year was check the gaskets. Both the side load door and the double front doors failed the dollar bill test. So all the heart racing was my fault and I won't be burning again until all the gaskets are replaced. I inspected the firebox and stones....all looks good.

Anyway, even if your burn 24/7 you should pick a day and let the fire die out and test your gaskets.....1200 degrees is exciting but not fun.

 

[pen]

That 1200 degree temp from a probe in the stack?

Glad everything held together during the excitement.

pen

 

[Motor7]

Digital probe in the stack, 18" off the deck of the stove. I had re-loaded with Hickory about an hour and a half earlier @320 onto a 4" bed of coals which is SOP. The gaskets are so shot that there is almost zero resistance on the dollar.

 

[Motor7]

Cold snap is enroute here tonight. I replaced the gasket's this evening. They came apart, pulled out in chunks....way overdue. It took about 15 min to change them, so I think I will start doing this every couple of years...cheap insurance.

 

[BrotherBart]

Pffft. Try 1,000F stove top one night.

 

[begreen]

1200 in the stack briefly is exciting but I have visited there a few times. Usually from a spaceout. No harm done if it's caught and corrected quickly. Now I always have a timer set to remind me to turn it down. A 1000F stovetop is a whole nuther animal and one I don't want to see ever.

 

[Motor7]

Stovetop was around 700...not so good for soapstone but it seems to have handled it ok.

 

[DougA]

My alarm is set to 900. I have posted about taking half a minute to reach the stove after hearing the alarm and the readout is over 1200 by then. As others have said, not a huge deal but good that you caught it. I'll bet a ton on money that many, if not most of the members here have had flues well over 1200, just that they don't have a digital probe & alarm to alert them.

 

[begreen]

Stovetop was around 700...not so good for soapstone but it seems to have handled it ok.

The H1 is a beast.

 

[razerface]

i hit 1200 every day, on every reload on my digital probe in the flue, then i shut down the dampner.

 

[begreen]

Seems like a lot of heat wasted. Maybe throttle it down sooner or reload on less coals?

 

[NSDave]

HAHA / well not really; I did the same thing a couple weeks ago. new pants and an inspection to be sure all was ok, and I'm back burning.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Stovetop was around 700...not so good for soapstone but it seems to have handled it ok.

I know Hearthstone doesn't like that temperature but Woodstock recommends that temperature for the high. Still, we know of some who have had the soapstone stoves way above that mark and all came out fine. So I doubt you did any damage but am happy you found the problem and fixed it.

 

[Motor7]

It's snowing again outside so I fired it back up this afternoon. With the new gaskets I am still seeing an air leak on the front of the side load door(using the lighter flame method). Hopefully that gasket has not seated properly yet so I will check it again tomorrow after a full nights burn.

Dang wood supply is looking weak. I talked to my neighbor who said "Back in the 90's we got a snow storm here in mid April...turned to ice and knocked out power for two weeks." Let's just say if that happens I am screwed woodwise...............