Low Flue Temps on New to me Thermo Control 500 Stove

[Scotty Dive]

I recently received a Thermo control 500 boiler that included interior tubes for baseboard heating. I contacted the company and found that I could remove these tubes and use the stove as a basic wood burner.

So far so good and it really burns nicely and is very controllable. Huge firebox allows for longer/larger pieces of wood and lots of it.

My question is the stove runs at about 450 degrees but the thermometer (and verified by infra red thermometer) on the 8 inch stove pipe is 150-200 degrees. With my VC Vigilant I could get that stove pipe a lot hotter from time to time to burn it off.

Should I be concerned? With the low flue temps am I asking for trouble or just more frequent chimney cleanings?
As background - I am in Connecticut with a center chimney with the wood stove in the basement and total flue length of ~30 feet at 8 inches.

Thanks

Scott

 

[mikjmartino]

I recently received a Thermo control 500 boiler that included interior tubes for baseboard heating. I contacted the company and found that I could remove these tubes and use the stove as a basic wood burner.

So far so good and it really burns nicely and is very controllable. Huge firebox allows for longer/larger pieces of wood and lots of it.

My question is the stove runs at about 450 degrees but the thermomOeter (and verified by infra red thermometer) on the 8 inch stove pipe is 150-200 degrees. With my VC Vigilant I could get that stove pipe a lot hotter from time to time to burn it off.

Should I be concerned? With the low flue temps am I asking for trouble or just more frequent chimney cleanings?
As background - I am in Connecticut with a center chimney with the wood stove in the basement and total flue length of ~30 feet at 8 inches.

Thanks

Scott

H Scott. I had the same problem with my TC2500. The stack temp was low. I was really concerned about it and talked to everyone from the dealer that sold it to me to techs at Thermo Control. They "almost" sent a tech to my house to diagnose my issue as they are amazing with support for customers. I would give Thermo Control a call and see what they say. You can find them by searching National Stove Works.

Here are things I did to make it work just right.

1. The wood has to be DRY. It needs to be well seasoned and stored under cover. I know that is a given, but these stoves are especially sensitive to this. My old indoor wood boiler would burn very differently and I could store seasoned wood outside and bring it in and burn it almost frozen. Because there was no "reburn", it lit it up and away it went. (with a lot of he useable BTU's). I joked with them at Thermo Control and asked them if I needed to kiln dry my firewood.

2. These stoves do not like warm temperatures outside. If the draft is a little low because of warm temps, cold chimney or any other factor that impacts draft, they suffer from low stack temps. I never had a draft problem with my old stove but with this one, I needed to put a draft inducer in the pipe. I only use it on warm days and I always use it when loading my stove. I don't use it under normal running conditions.

3. I found the stove has to "get hot to stay hot". I tend leave the damper rod in until the chimney gets to about 400. Sometimes I need to run the draft inducer and keep the door open a little to get it that hot, then I pull the rod (with the door now closed) to get it to burn.

Now, I can get the stove to run a surface temperature between 300 and 550 pretty easily. Also, it depends on the size of the fire too. It is a big fire box and will absorb/radiate a lot of heat so small fires keep my flue temp low.

When you get it running right, if you have a stack limit switch, you may even need to space it out to keep the auto draft flap open if you have one. If you have questions, you can give me a call. 5184692530.