How hot is too hot?

[hemlock]

How hot do you run your woodstove? At what flue temp. do you start to get "nervous" at?

 

[Mad Tom]

Your manual for your stove should tell you your proper temps. My stove is 400 to 600 hundred. I wouldn't worry about going to 700 on mine. 600 stove top is probably the norm for most I would think. I don't measure pipe temp.

 

[begreen]

If this is for the Super 27 normal stove top temps will be 500-650, but can do an occasional foray up to 700-750 without ill effect. UL tested connector pipe is rated up to 900F continuous operation. However, it's good to keep the temp well below that, otherwise it's just heat wasted up the flue. On our T6 it may go up to 800 with a robust fresh startup (air wide open), but will drop down normal cruising temp of about 4-500F when the air is closed down. Note that these are probe temps inside the flue pipe. Surface temps will be about a third lower, so 600 surface is about as hot as you ever want to see. At that point you will also smell the dust burning off and paint baking.

 

[hemlock]

It is a "Super 27". I go by the stack temp, about 18" up - and I usually keep it in the 350 - 550 range.

 

[begreen]

Sounds ok. Thanks for adding to your sig. Is this with a surface thermometer or a probe?

 

[joecool85]

Sounds ok. Thanks for adding to your sig. Is this with a surface thermometer or a probe?

Hopefully surface otherwise wouldn't that be quite low?

 

[Kenster]

I stupidly walked away from my VC Vigilant 1977 recently for a few minutes longer than I intended and came back to fine the stove top thermometer pegged at the max of 900 degrees. Who knows how hot it actually was but it couldn't have been at that temp more than two or three minutes. (I reckon that cleaned the flue out nicely.) I closed everything down and it shortly dropped down to about 550. I like to keep it around 500-550 for our evening burn and may open it up to get a little hotter before closing it off at bedtime for the overnight burn. I don't worry about it getting up to 700 but that's about the time it starts getting stinky - another reminder that it needs attention.

 

[hemlock]

Sounds ok. Thanks for adding to your sig. Is this with a surface thermometer or a probe?

Hopefully surface otherwise wouldn't that be quite low?

Those are flue pipe surface temps. The stove burns 24/7 during the heating season, and I've yet to have any creosote trouble, so I think it's O.K.

 

[begreen]

Surface temp on the flue could drop to 300F and still be fine, especially with an interior flue. Once the wood has turned completely to charcoal it's past the creosote stage and lower temps are OK. We dip down as low as 250F (probe) late in the burn cycle.

 

[Dakotas Dad]

Surface temp on the flue could drop to 300F and still be fine, especially with an interior flue. Once the wood has turned completely to charcoal it's past the creosote stage and lower temps are OK. We dip down as low as 250F (probe) late in the burn cycle.

I would like to try a probe style, but my install makes even a surface mount iffy. But I have seen my surface mount, way late in the burn cycle at 150, while my stove top was still above 275..

@OP: I don't get real nervous about temperature so much as smell... when it really starts ripping, there is a certain odor/hot smell I pick up.. gets my attention every time.

 

[WES999]

How hot do you run your woodstove? At what flue temp. do you start to get "nervous" at?

When discussing stove temps you really have to be specific, are you talking about stove top surface temps, flue pipe surface temps ( applies only to single wall), flue pipe internal temp (single of double wall).

I have thermocouple probes on the stove top, and in the flue. I like to keep the stove top under 700*. The stove top TC controller will automatically turn the blower on high at 660* and sound the alarm at 670*

Class A chimney is rated for 1000* continuous, so I keep it under that, the alarm is set to go off at 875*.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Our stove top is run normally from 350-700. Most of the time we do top out between 600-650 and we are putting wood in around 350. Flue temperature (surface) we usually get to 400-500 on reloads and then engage the cat. The flue temperature then drops to 300-350.

 

[CTYank]

Stove top mainly 550 F (cruising)-750 F (after reload, before closing some.)

Typically surface of flue just above and off to side of stove (past 45 deg elbow) is half that of front center of stove top.
Relatively long (about 6') single-wall 6" pipe between stove and chimney thimble transfers lots of heat. Typically surface of
pipe near stove drops 80-100 F in the first 2' and is typically 170-230 F during pre-coals burn. Efficiency not a problem,
if all the volatiles are being burnt. (IR thermometers make data-taking soooooo simple.)

Which tells me: be sure it's burning clean, above all else.

 

[JotulOwner]

Surface temp on the flue could drop to 300F and still be fine, especially with an interior flue. Once the wood has turned completely to charcoal it's past the creosote stage and lower temps are OK. We dip down as low as 250F (probe) late in the burn cycle.

I would like to try a probe style, but my install makes even a surface mount iffy. But I have seen my surface mount, way late in the burn cycle at 150, while my stove top was still above 275..

@OP: I don't get real nervous about temperature so much as smell... when it really starts ripping, there is a certain odor/hot smell I pick up.. gets my attention every time.

I start paying close attention to smells too, but it doesn't concern me unless the other indiators (internal pipe temp, stove top, etc) appear to be abnormal. IMO, you can't have too many ways to make sure your system is operating properly. If one indicator is not accurate (for any reason) the rest put things into perspective.

 

[firefighterjake]

How hot do you run your woodstove? At what flue temp. do you start to get "nervous" at?

As others have said . . . temps all depend on your woodstove.

For me I start to get a bit nervous when the temp on my probe thermo goes above 800 or 850 and when my stove goes above 700 . . . generally I run my stove between 450-66 degrees F and the flue thermo at 450-550 degrees F normally . . . as others have mentioned I also go by what the fire looks like (after a few years you kind of begin to know what is normal and what seems not normal), sounds of the stove (again, normal sounds vs. non-normal sounds) and smells.

 

[devinsdad]

my probe has seen 1400 once and it was stinky and I was sweating. My cleaning burn once a day I run around 1000 waiting for the stove top temp to catch up a little

 

[pen]

You are all ok until:

 

[joshlaugh]

Stovetop on my Heritage is around 425-450 with the probe maxing out around 800*, I have had it up to 1000* and occasionaly 900*. The Jotul stovetop runs between 450-525*. No real place to put a probe thermo on that one.