Flue Temp Opinions

[RomanW]

I was poking around a few threads and just finished reading Webfish's resource write up about flue temps. I've been starting to get then hang of my Escape, but there are a few times, even when I turn down my air the same time as any fire, this thing will go up to 780-800f on it's own, fully shut down.

Is this something I should be worried about? I'm trying to do what Web said and "not be a slave to the thermometer", but I get a little anxious when it starts to creep near the high end of that white zone. (SBI Probe)

I mean, it's nice to watch it roll flames and have the secondaries running, I guess I am just so scared of having a run away fire or chimney fire or damage the stove due to high heat. It'll cruise at that temp for an hour or so as well... I only usually get 3-4 hours out of 4-5 pine splits in there, but I can't help but feel a little anxious waiting for the house to burn down LOL

 

[Poindexter]

700-800 flue temp isn't going to burn down your house with decent modern double wall chimney pipe. What make/model chimney pipe do you have?

However, (not familiar with the Escape) you are likely wasting some heat up the chimney running that hot. We aren't quite to solstice yet and I am a bit north of you. Not sure if you are in the windy part of Alberta. I am comfortable running flue gas temps in the 600dF range for the coldest month or so of winter that starts, umm, tomorrow according to my local forecast. I am at -1dF right now and looking for -30dF 24 hours from now, roughly dropping from -18 to -34C in the next 24 hours.

First thing to look at is air leaks. Just walk around you house putting your hand on the drywall around all the windows, light switches and electrical outlets on all of the exterior walls. Those have to be fixed, no matter what energy source you are using to heat your home. Think of air leaks as chinks in your armor. You don't want them.

If you can get your flue gas temp down to 250-300F, about 120-150C, you should have minimal creosote accumulation in your pipe and be able to sweep your chimney only once per year in the summer when it is safe to be up on the roof. At -18C right now my flue gas is running 400dF (about 200C) but my wife is wearing fuzzy winter pajamas.

 

[EbS-P]

How tall is your chimney? I have the 1800 insert. 24’ of insulated liner and a damper.

I think this design runs hot. I’m measuring temps at the appliance adapter with the probe touching or almost touching the damper.

Damper full closed it can get to 900 on a full hot reload. I don’t think it’s really efficient to run that hot.
We concluded the 2020 update has a thin stainless steel sheet soot welded to the inside of the top. And that the purpose is to help keep the flue gas temps up. I’m still learning my new stove. Like learning the effects the blower has on temps. Do you have a blower?

If a damper is an easy install you might consider it.

 

[Newbie78]

My Legend flue runs hot too. I keep it below 1000 degrees with the blower and a butterfly damper.

since the chimney is rated at 1000 degrees continuous, I'm not concerned.

I'm starting to figure this out (kinda). Each load of wood tells me what to do.

it sometimes cruises at 800 for quite some time. Yup, heat going up the chimney. Damn! Oh well. I have lots of readily available wood.

I have 7' of chimney sticking out of my roof. I'm pretty sure that -40 with a wind has a drastic cooling effect in the top few feet. No creosote issues with the Colombia last year (no real temperature monitoring either). I gotta check and clean the chimney hooked up to the legend on a warmish day in January I think..just to be sure.

PS, I am not too worried about infiltration/exfiltration of atmosphere to a point. As far as I'm concerned, that's fresh air in my house.

cruising at 750 right now. Secondaries firing about an hour into a reload. Stovetop about 650. Double wall stove pipe exterior at 340.

 

[RomanW]

700-800 flue temp isn't going to burn down your house with decent modern double wall chimney pipe. What make/model chimney pipe do you have?

However, (not familiar with the Escape) you are likely wasting some heat up the chimney running that hot. We aren't quite to solstice yet and I am a bit north of you. Not sure if you are in the windy part of Alberta. I am comfortable running flue gas temps in the 600dF range for the coldest month or so of winter that starts, umm, tomorrow according to my local forecast. I am at -1dF right now and looking for -30dF 24 hours from now, roughly dropping from -18 to -34C in the next 24 hours.

First thing to look at is air leaks. Just walk around you house putting your hand on the drywall around all the windows, light switches and electrical outlets on all of the exterior walls. Those have to be fixed, no matter what energy source you are using to heat your home. Think of air leaks as chinks in your armor. You don't want them.

If you can get your flue gas temp down to 250-300F, about 120-150C, you should have minimal creosote accumulation in your pipe and be able to sweep your chimney only once per year in the summer when it is safe to be up on the roof. At -18C right now my flue gas is running 400dF (about 200C) but my wife is wearing fuzzy winter pajamas.

ICC Excel. I usually have it running steady around 600. It's just a few times it gets up there. I have a feeling it's how I'm stacking the wood inside. I have it set up for efficient airflow down the glass under the wood and up the back, then over top.

Just a bit north?

I thought anything under 400 was creosote range...?

How tall is your chimney? I have the 1800 insert. 24’ of insulated liner and a damper.

I think this design runs hot. I’m measuring temps at the appliance adapter with the probe touching or almost touching the damper.

Damper full closed it can get to 900 on a full hot reload. I don’t think it’s really efficient to run that hot.
We concluded the 2020 update has a thin stainless steel sheet soot welded to the inside of the top. And that the purpose is to help keep the flue gas temps up. I’m still learning my new stove. Like learning the effects the blower has on temps. Do you have a blower?

If a damper is an easy install you might consider it.

13ish feet in total. 5-6 feet double wall inside, and 8 feet class A outside. Straight up from the stove.

The thing is, I thought of a damper, but this thing gets temperamental when the wind blows. I don't want another thing to have to fiddle with to get my fire right...

 

[ABMax24]

Now that I've finally got my stove dialed in, only took 3 years, I've concluded my stove operates best at a flue temp of 550F to 650F (at least for the active part of the burn).

That 100F temp difference produces pretty significant differences in heat output, if I really want it to throw heat I push it to 700F or 750F.

With my cap being 36 vertical feet above the stove collar overdraft is a huge issue for me, but I've got that pretty well dialed looking at the fire adjusting the flue damper, and I know pretty well where to set the flue damper based on outside temperatures at this point too. It's amazing how much heat you can blow up the flue, I can hold the same 600F flue temp with the flue damper wide open but burn twice as much wood and send only a little more heat into the room as when it's properly adjusted.

400F is the no go zone for me when the fire is active, below that I produce big icicles on my cap and about 3 weeks ago even had rain inside my chimney because the gases cooled so much, I had to dump about 1/2" of water out of the cap from the cleanout tee.

 

[EbS-P]

ICC Excel. I usually have it running steady around 600. It's just a few times it gets up there. I have a feeling it's how I'm stacking the wood inside. I have it set up for efficient airflow down the glass under the wood and up the back, then over top.

Just a bit north?

I thought anything under 400 was creosote range...?


13ish feet in total. 5-6 feet double wall inside, and 8 feet class A outside. Straight up from the stove.

The thing is, I thought of a damper, but this thing gets temperamental when the wind blows. I don't want another thing to have to fiddle with to get my fire right...

That’s not tall enough to warrant a damper. Load it tight. On a relaod I always use a piece or two of kindling on the bottom and top. This lets me get flames rolling quicker and and I can turn down air sooner. That’s really important turning down air asap.

I’m beginning to consider what a diy turbulator sitting on top of the baffle might do and what it might look like.

Any interest in starting a thread dedicated to dialing in the 2020 escape and equlavent Drolet models. The price point and Costco availability means there are lots of these stoves out there.

I have a magnahelic I can install but it’s going to be a bit of a pain to have it the probe and the damper in the appliance adapter

 

[Woodcutter Tom]

That’s not tall enough to warrant a damper. Load it tight. On a relaod I always use a piece or two of kindling on the bottom and top. This lets me get flames rolling quicker and and I can turn down air sooner. That’s really important turning down air asap.

I’m beginning to consider what a diy turbulator sitting on top of the baffle might do and what it might look like.

Any interest in starting a thread dedicated to dialing in the 2020 escape and equlavent Drolet models. The price point and Costco availability means there are lots of these stoves out there.

I have a magnahelic I can install but it’s going to be a bit of a pain to have it the probe and the damper in the appliance adapter

I have 14 feet of chimney above my stove top, and I have a damper that I use all the time. The most common position is 80 to 85 % closed...and this is with an enhancement made to the damper to block more air.
My two most important instruments are my manometer and my flue digital temperature probe. My decision are based on these reading.
This is my third year with this stove. The first year I had excessive overdraft. I could not get over 350 F on the stove top. All the heat went up the flue. 1100 - 1200 F temps.
Last year I installed the damper. I was able to control the draft to SBI standards. But I was only able to get good stove top heat (above 550 F) if I had a nuclear reaction going on in the firebox. My door would leak air at the bottom. I had flames igniting the air wash air and the air leaking into the fire box. Thus nuclear reactor. It was determined that stove was defective.
This year I have corrected the leaky door (well mostly) and I have much better control and stove top heat.
I'm cruising right now at 735 F in the flue; 600 STT. 21 F outside with 9 MPH wind; gusts to 15.

YES, I am interested in a dedicated thread to dialing in Escapes.

 

[Newbie78]

Now that I've finally got my stove dialed in, only took 3 years, I've concluded my stove operates best at a flue temp of 550F to 650F (at least for the active part of the burn).

That 100F temp difference produces pretty significant differences in heat output, if I really want it to throw heat I push it to 700F or 750F.

With my cap being 36 vertical feet above the stove collar overdraft is a huge issue for me, but I've got that pretty well dialed looking at the fire adjusting the flue damper, and I know pretty well where to set the flue damper based on outside temperatures at this point too. It's amazing how much heat you can blow up the flue, I can hold the same 600F flue temp with the flue damper wide open but burn twice as much wood and send only a little more heat into the room as when it's properly adjusted.

400F is the no go zone for me when the fire is active, below that I produce big icicles on my cap and about 3 weeks ago even had rain inside my chimney because the gases cooled so much, I had to dump about 1/2" of water out of the cap from the cleanout tee.

I am beginning to realize that while cold outside temperatures increase draft, very cold weather likely cools a chimney exposure drastically to counteract some of that effect. ?

in the fall I was able to replicate the advisements given from the experts on this forum re temps. Now, when it is actually cold out it seems impossible, for the most part, with my legend. It was impossible with the columbia last winter too. Even tho I wasn't measuring temps last winter I know I was generally running the chimney hot based on temp readings this winter and lots of feeling the chimney, walls and stuff both winters so far.