Inserts, thermometers, and overfiring

[Cearbhaill]

Brought over from another thread:
[quote author="BeGreen" date="1226375956"][quote author="Cearbhaill" date="1226339719"]For future searches on "thermometers" can anyone give us recommended numbers for the front of an insert?

Do "front of insert" numbers correspond to "top of stove" numbers?[/quote]

Usually they're a little cooler on the front of the insert. But if I remember right Hog was seeing some 700+ temps on the front of his Summit.[/quote]

Ok.
Sorry to keep asking about this, but worrying about this thing dominates my life.

My insert wants to sit right at 600ºF as pictured. Is this too hot for everyday cruising?
I cut the air all the way back when it gets to 450º or so and it just keeps climbing and climbing and I keep watching and worrying.
Many times I am lucky if this is as high as it gets- two or three times it has gotten as high as 750ºF (dead on "3 o'clock" reading) even with my running the blower full speed to try and cool it down, with the air closed, and with foil over the air intake. This is where I gather up the cat crates and put on my shoes and realize that I have an old lady in a wheelchair upstairs who would need 15 minutes notice to evacuate. I have been truly scared.

I am so worried about it getting too hot that I tend to build smaller fires, which I understand are hotter. This leaves me running too many cycles per day and getting up in the night a couple of times (where I invariably fall asleep before cutting it back and let it get too hot yet again) to keep the fire going.

Do I need to build larger fires?
Cut the air back earlier?
Or am I good at these temps?

I am still burning my shoulder season maple- I don't have quite as much a problem once I get into the oak for real winter. But I'm just getting tired of being afraid of burning the house down and feeling like I have to sit there in front of it 24/7.

 

[LONDONDERRY]

That stupid magnetic thermometer has caused me some headaches. I used a temperature meter with a thermocouple that is accurate within +/- 0.10 degree F or C. Here this my thread explaing my situation
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/27927/

 

[jqgs214]

I've got the smae insert and same thermometer. I cruise there all day long with red oak, on real big loads i'll go over 700 for short periods. No problems so far. Thats where she likes it. Much cooler and he secondaries dont maintain themselves.

 

[RAY_PA]

My PE Summit really likes to cruise at that temp too. If it were ME, I'd not worry at all about it.

 

[Corey]

Good thread above. Could definitely be some issues with the magnetic thermometer being off by a couple dozen (or hundred) degrees. Plus, that 'overfire' range has always seemed a bit conservative to me as well. I've been watching my stove top a little closer this year (with a non-contact IR thermometer) and it doesn't seem like I'm "getting good heat" until it gets in the 550-600F range. When I'm running what I consider "full throttle" warming the house up when I get home in the evening, it seems to run about 850-875 and then I say "Yay, that is nice and HOT"

If you want to cool the stove down a little, try using a few bigger pieces of wood as opposed to smaller ones. ie - two logs of say 10 pounds each will generally burn cooler and longer than 5 small splits of ~4 pounds each. Since the wood only burns on the surface, cutting back on surface area available to burn has a large effect. You also might try cutting the draft back a little earlier - once the stove gets up to 450F you're pulling a pretty good draft and it may be a little harder to shut down, but if you start shutting down at say ~350, the stove isn't quite as hot and the draft will be a little less, thus easier to control. With some experimentation, you may find there is a 'balance point' where shutting down under a certain temp is easy to control, but going over that temp may be hard to control.

Lastly and somewhat ironically, burning hot is probably a good thing...stove is clean, flue is clean so there is really no worry about catching the flue on fire. Burning cooler can lead to some creosote buildup, and if it gets excessive, that's where a flue fire can happen.

Overall, though, nothing you've said seems terribly excessive to me, nor does it seem like one of those "you need to change that immediately before the house burns down" issues.

 

[Cearbhaill]

I know I'm a nervous nellie about it.
But it's fire! :bug:

I know that burning hot is good- my cleaning this last spring yeilded so little dust that my chimney guy told me he felt guilty even charging me.

There has to be a really fine line about when to start cutting back the air- too early and it slows down too far and too late and I'm planning the evacuation.
I just wish I didn't have so darn much of this maple to use up. It's the oldest wood I have and I do feel a need to get rid of it.