How quick does your probe thermometer respond?

[saskwoodburner]

Originally posted asking about height, but just went 18" and call it a day.

Now I'm curious how quickly these should respond? This is an Imperial brand, and it seemed nowhere near what it should be, and slow.

I had decent coals, did a semi hot load at 350 F with 4 sticks. I gassed it off the line to jump temps, and it took 20 minutes to go from 220 F to 390 F on the probe. I'm reading 270 F with the infared gun on the pipe beside it.

600 F on the front of my stove, very nice secondaries, and yet the flue only made it to 390 F. Bum thermometer I'll assume. How quickly should it rise?

 

[saskwoodburner]

edit

 

[saskwoodburner]

No one?

 

[DougA]

I've got a digital Auber probe and the read out is instant. Sorry, don't have your brand, seems crazy that it would be that slow.

 

[saskwoodburner]

It's Imperial brand, model KK0166. Same as this one here.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Imperial-Flu...Probe-Thermometer-1-700f-KK0166-/171253723320


I tried sticking the probe end in boiling water to get some result, and after 3 minutes, it said almost 100 F. I then turned a stove element on high, and held the probe a few inches above. You'd think that gauge would have run away......nope. I don't think it made it to 250 F in the few minutes I held it there.

They had another kind at the shop, SBI I believe. Maybe I'll try that brand.

What would be a realistic timeline for a mechanical gauge such as these, to run through it's range on a normal reload?

 

[DougA]

I've used mechanical thermometers for chemistry and cooking for many decades and typically, they range from 10 to 20 sec. Since you're going way up in temp, my guess would have been 30 sec. max. Please do yourself a favour (Cdn) and buy an Auber. It has a high end alarm that someday you will be thankful for.
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=292

 

[saskwoodburner]

I guess I should clarify(so you don't think I'm an idiot!) that as a general rule, I'm one of these guys that turns down my air by how the fire looks, I use the gauge on the side as a point of reference only. I'm more likely to turn down the air on the low side, and watch the fire walk up to temp, than leave the air wide open and raging.

I see no point in blowing all my heat up the stack, although a bit on a cold start is okay, as I have a short over all pipe/chimney combo.

I'm very confident in my burning techniques, but wanted to see if there was room for some efficiency, and generally where my flue temps are at.

My test was more a "oil furnace went out, -20 outside, kick the stove hard" type scenario. I didn't go full air for 20 minutes, just trying to get the point across I had the pedal to the floor.

Those Auberins set ups seem pretty neat, I'll have to read up some more.

 

[Babaganoosh]

I've used mechanical thermometers for chemistry and cooking for many decades and typically, they range from 10 to 20 sec. Since you're going way up in temp, my guess would have been 30 sec. max. Please do yourself a favour (Cdn) and buy an Auber. It has a high end alarm that someday you will be thankful for.
http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=17&products_id=292

Great. Something else I gotta buy. I have a condor probe but obviously I need this. Digital stuff is always cooler in my book.

 

[DougA]

Actually, I was assuming that you wanted to increase efficiency. How could a fellow Canuck be an idiot?

To achieve max efficiency, you're going to require fast response to your stove adjustments. What I love to do is watch the stove top thermometer and the flue one and see how they respond. Having the alarm is a bonus that is well worth it when you accidentally are an idiot and forget to turn the stove down. The other advantage is that I can read the flue temp from anywhere in the room. Yes, I admit I am very lazy.

 

[saskwoodburner]

I like ^^^ this guy. In general it would be nice to see how the gauge reacts to my normal burning practices, as I'm sure there's always room for improvement. I've been known to drop a small sustainable fire in pretty low though and it would be great to see what's going on while I'm being a miser on wood.

Returned the Imperial and got a SBI flue probe, so here's hoping this one isn't a dud.

I took a video with my phone one day of one of my small fires, with a piece of not quite there poplar (blue blue secondaries) in the mix. How's a guy put a video here? It's nothing special but looks kinda neat.