Different wood is going to give you different results. We burn mostly doug fir so the temps I have been giving you are for that species (in our stove). I just put in our first load of all locust on a restart. Locust packs a lot of heat. The flue temp is up to 630F with the air all the way closed. I started turning the air down at 400F and proceeded to just 1/8 open pretty rapidly. Now the air is all the way closed. The stove top temp has not quite caught up yet. It's at 625F, but climbing steadily.
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! Cleaning went great it was very clean considering the crappy wood i burned in the beginning. I will feel much more comfortable turning it down sooner now. The soot eater saved me from going on my steep roof in the snow although in the spring i will go up and inspect but its a great mid season cleaning tool. Btw it seems to be a better deal just to buy a whole second soot eater if you need extra rods than to buy the rods alone. So i assume your suggestion is to do as i said straighten it out as best i can and look at where the self tappers were trying to drill and put a piliot hole in and let the screw suck it straight?