Accuracy of front mounted thermometer?

[RedRanger]

Installed my thermometer this afternood on the front of my PE insert. Even after removing the surround there is no place to put it on the top. Cranked up the heat for about 20 minutes and it read 500. Been running on low heat-primary turned to low and secondary turned to low. and it has been reading a constant 375 for the past hour. Not being on top of the insert would I still consider this to be an accurate reading? Thanks guys

 

[Corey]

Well...it's going to be accurate for the location that the thermometer is in. As accurate as a $20 spring loaded thermometer is going to be, anyway.

The problem is, most people go by the "top, center" stove temp which is usually the hottest part of the stove. The general consensus is that when that part of the stove hits mid 700's you're cranking along pretty good and maybe up in the mid/high 800's is where most people start using the word 'overfired'. So how does that relate to the side of the door? The only way to know would be to measure both at the same time. I suspect there is probably a loose correlation - what that is...??? I don't know.

Last night I just happened to be killing some time taking various non-contact IR temps on my stove. Top, dead center, directly above the baffle on the inner firebox was ~650F, and IIRC the area about where you have your thermometer was ~345F for me. That was with a blower running and blowing air across the top plate, but none on the front. As a general rule, the top will definitely be hotter - in my case about 300F hotter at operating temp, but yours will most certainly be different.

 

[ERPARKER]

Installed my thermometer this afternood on the front of my PE insert. Even after removing the surround there is no place to put it on the top. Cranked up the heat for about 20 minutes and it read 500. Been running on low heat-primary turned to low and secondary turned to low. and it has been reading a constant 375 for the past hour. Not being on top of the insert would I still consider this to be an accurate reading? Thanks guys

I gave up on "accurate" and settled for "relative". I soon realized with my flush insert that I was never going to see the kind of temperatures others report without putting the thermometer either in the stove itself or somewhere where I couldn't read it. I ended up using a magnetic mount thermometer on the air output grates. This is essentially measuring the temperature of the air coming through the blower after it's been heated. The temperature is, of course, accurate for where the thermometer is located it's just not the temperature in the stove itself. I've learned what measurement is too hot, too cold, and just right.

 

[RedRanger]

Thank you Cozy and ER: It looks like just a little time needed to get a feel for using my new gadget. Main thing is I haven`t been underfiring (glass door still clean) nor overfiring (no glowing metal-lol). It does seem to be useful as to when to turn on my Manual Blower-light-up 40 minutes ago, and reading 400 so turned it down and turned on the blower. I`m guessing, as you indicated I would prettry much have to do (re-stove top temp). And guessing about 600 right now because the thermometer is on the door. Of course I won`t bother to add 200 degrees when it`s reading Zero-lol

 

[bcnu]

Cozy, I think my stove also had a "loose correlation" once. Gasket cement took care of it :cheese: My new thermometer is in middle top of my new Homestead. Seems to be pretty accurate - but that's just a guess.