How much heat from your stove

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.

MButkus

Feeling the Heat
Feb 4, 2008
253
Jersey
I just stopped at my pellet stove to order more pellets. They had two Harman stoves going on opposite sides of the not well insulated store. It's a pool store in the summer. I put my hand in front of the room fan tubes and it was warm. It had a pretty good fire going.

I know my Whitfield Advantage III, when on heat #2 of 5 I can barely keep my hand in front of the room tubes. So I got a meat thermometer, and measured the air. Not contacting the tip to the stove tube, the interior fan was at #3 of 5 and showing 180 degrees.

I'll assume my stove was putting out a lot more heat then the Harmans at basically the same settings ? I was wondering why they had two stoves going. It's not that big of a store.
 
I just stopped at my pellet stove to order more pellets. They had two Harman stoves going on opposite sides of the not well insulated store. It's a pool store in the summer. I put my hand in front of the room fan tubes and it was warm. It had a pretty good fire going.

I know my Whitfield Advantage III, when on heat #2 of 5 I can barely keep my hand in front of the room tubes. So I got a meat thermometer, and measured the air. Not contacting the tip to the stove tube, the interior fan was at #3 of 5 and showing 180 degrees.

I'll assume my stove was putting out a lot more heat then the Harmans at basically the same settings ? I was °wondering why they had two stoves going. It's not that big of a store.

Running my USSC 6039hf on heat range 3 of 9, 2.1875 pounds per hour, room fan on 9 of 9, 200°F on stove face, 110°F on exhaust pipe, 180°F coming out of the room fan holes. Burning grown in the U.S.A 100% corn.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bags
To assume 2 different stove mfg's settings are the same is wrong.Being in a leaky old store,doors opening and closing,is not a fair comparison.If you know your settings on a Harman,you can produce a nice flame,with little or no convection blower,it is called fireplace mode.Gives ambiance to the store.My Accentra on high(all settings,all modes),would never set your pants on fire,yet heats very well.However,my Integra,on anything above medium,you will not stand in front of it,3 foot away,for very long.BUT,my Integra,like most all older stoves,is not recommended to run on high,except for short times.Harmans you can crank to hi,and leave there,the exhaust probe makes sure no damage can happen.As Harman room blowers change with the temp and blower setting,it is not a constant thing.Dwayne Harman was/is a very good stove designer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bags and railfanron
My stove is 180° F on the lowest heat setting. I wonder what it would get to if I cranked it up? Not going to find out, however, unless the outside temp really drops.

FWIW, on my meat thermometer, 180° is labeled "Fresh Turkey." :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: railfanron
You don't say what the settings on the Harman's were. Nor do you say what model they were (P43, P61 or P68). They might have been in constant mode and set to a very low temp, which means most of the heat would be going out the exhaust and not into the room.

A more reasonable comparison might be what the required clearances are to the front and side of the stoves. I would think those would be more consistent with what the stove is capable of putting out. And then there are the rated BTU' specifications for the stoves to consider also.

For example, the front clearance for all 3 Harman models, free-standing, is 3 feet. And from experience I can tell you that with a good pellet you need every bit of that. From the manual I could find for the Whitfield, the front clearance is 18".

The side clearance for the P43 is 16" and for the larger stoves is 20". It looks like the Whitfield has much smaller side clearances (1" - that can't be right?). Even if side shields are placed on the Harman's, clearances are only reduced by 6".

If you compare BTU's, the Whit looks capable of putting out 38,000. The P43 is capable of putting out 42,500 and it is quite a bit more for the P61 & P68.
 
Last edited:
A couple of other variables that can come into play:

If the stoves had just started up (either in room temp mode, or just started by the proprieter for the day), then there wouldn't have been much heat to begin with. It takes a little while before the tubes start putting out the big heat.

The pellets they use can also make a difference. For example, a couple of years ago I had some Therma Glo's that the air barely reached over my skin temp when the P61a was going full blast. Easily the coldest pellets I have ever burned. Also this year's Oakie Plats ran cold for me compared to TSC MWP's that I had been running. Matra's OTOH (or Vermont's), get the air tubes plenty hot.
 
My P68 blows so hot you can only stand in front of it briefly and still walk away with a burning azz. Or I can throttle it down to blow luke warm as to not over heat the house. Bottom line the more BTU's the hotter. No way a 40K BTU stove holds a candle.

.