Ordered some stove goodies

[Highbeam]

Since my hurry up and buy it fireview install went south I decided to buy the old heritage some bling. I ordered a condar (now called "flame") flue gas thermometer and also a simpson double wall appliance adapter with a damper in it! My chimney is only like 13-14 feet tall so I don't need the damper but I have had my share of fires that I wanted to slow down but the lowest draft setting wouldn't do it.

I used the ventingpipe.com site and things went smoothly.

I hope to actually use some screws to hold the stovepipe together. Right now I only have screws in the slip of the slip joint. Can you just buy those fancy screws at any hardware store?

On the condar. What is the recommended distance above the damper shaft? Easy to drill the double wall?

Does it really matter which way I set the damper? I want the handle to be in the front and not to the side.

I realize that my annual chimney sweeping just got much more difficult.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

The recommended hight is 18" on the probe. If i remember correctly it takes two sizes for the bit. One size for the collar that goes on the shaft of the probe, one for the probe itself. I wish i remember the bit size, it will be on the box.
The damper section does not care what orientation, however, if you want to match the seams it will be on the side.
The screws are just self tapper blacks. Available at most hardware stores.

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

dura vent parts come with screws, but they aren't self tappers so i never use them...

 

[firefighterjake]

As MSG said the probe thermometer from Condar went in at the recommended height of 18 inches above the flue collar . . . an easy peasy job . . . even for a mechanically disinclined idiot such as myself. You will need two different sized bits and don't want to be so zealous that you drill in through both pipes with the same bit . . . but in reality a 5-15 minute job.

 

[boisblancboy]

With that probe in the pipe, do you have to remove it when you sweep your chimney? What is the advantage of having one of these thermometers?

 

[Ratman]

As MSG said the probe thermometer from Condar went in at the recommended height of 18 inches above the flue collar . . . an easy peasy job . . . even for a mechanically disinclined idiot such as myself. You will need two different sized bits and don't want to be so zealous that you drill in through both pipes with the same bit . . . but in reality a 5-15 minute job.

Jake you made my day...hehehe
"even for a mechanically disinclined idiot such as myself"

I'm using this one...Nice

 

[Highbeam]

With that probe in the pipe, do you have to remove it when you sweep your chimney? What is the advantage of having one of these thermometers?

Yes, you need to literally pull it out before plunging the pipe with your brush. The purpose of a flue meter is to measure the amount of heat being sent up the chimney so that you don't overheat the flue and also so that you don't send such cool gasses up the flue that they condense into creosote. With a soapstone stove, the surface temp doesn't react to fire changes for a long time. I will always consider the stove surface temp to be more important but the flue temp will be good to watch too.

I planned on running the first, smaller it through both walls of the pipe and then using the outer small hole as a guide to place my second larger hole in the proper place. Did you all drill the big hole and then chuck up the small bit and try to drill it right in the center of the big hole?

Anybody know about the brand change from condar to "flame"? Part number is the same and photo shows the condar. My order shipped this morning.

 

[firefighterjake]

With that probe in the pipe, do you have to remove it when you sweep your chimney? What is the advantage of having one of these thermometers?

Usually . . . in my case when I did the yearly disassembling and cleaning of the stove pipe I simply dumped out what little ash had accumulated in the pipe . . . no creosote build up to speak of and the probe was very clean.

 

[firefighterjake]

As MSG said the probe thermometer from Condar went in at the recommended height of 18 inches above the flue collar . . . an easy peasy job . . . even for a mechanically disinclined idiot such as myself. You will need two different sized bits and don't want to be so zealous that you drill in through both pipes with the same bit . . . but in reality a 5-15 minute job.

Jake you made my day...hehehe
"even for a mechanically disinclined idiot such as myself"

I'm using this one...Nice

Glad I made your day . . . sadly this is all very true . . . as my wife tells me constantly "You're always making a project out of a task" since I tend to over-think things . . . and then still mess them up somehow . . . on the rare occasion when everything works well I find myself second guessing my work and wondering what I did wrong even though everything looks right.

 

[firefighterjake]

With that probe in the pipe, do you have to remove it when you sweep your chimney? What is the advantage of having one of these thermometers?

Yes, you need to literally pull it out before plunging the pipe with your brush. The purpose of a flue meter is to measure the amount of heat being sent up the chimney so that you don't overheat the flue and also so that you don't send such cool gasses up the flue that they condense into creosote. With a soapstone stove, the surface temp doesn't react to fire changes for a long time. I will always consider the stove surface temp to be more important but the flue temp will be good to watch too.

I planned on running the first, smaller it through both walls of the pipe and then using the outer small hole as a guide to place my second larger hole in the proper place. Did you all drill the big hole and then chuck up the small bit and try to drill it right in the center of the big hole?

Anybody know about the brand change from condar to "flame"? Part number is the same and photo shows the condar. My order shipped this morning.

I think you might find having both thermometers to be rather useful . . . in my case I tend to use both the stove temp and flue temp to know when to cut back on the airflow.

In my case I opted to drill the big hole first and then rechuck with the smaller bit into the inner wall . . . although I suspect you could run the smaller bit all the way through and then use the larger bit for the outer hole . . . heck, that may be an even easier way of doing it.

 

[bbc557ci]

. . . sadly this is all very true . . . as my wife tells me constantly "You're always making a project out of a task" since I tend to over-think things . . . and then still mess them up somehow . . . on the rare occasion when everything works well I find myself second guessing my work and wondering what I did wrong even though everything looks right.

I can identify with that..... VERY well said !!

 

[boisblancboy]

What kind of temperatures do you tend to look for in the flue?

 

[Todd]

What kind of temperatures do you tend to look for in the flue?

Probe thermometers are broken up into different color coded ranges, my Condar safe range is 400-900 but my stove likes to burn about 400-600 with a full load. I find I watch my probe more than the stove top, like Highbeam says it's quicker to react especially with a soapstone stove and it also tells me if my cat temps are active.

 

[firefighterjake]

What kind of temperatures do you tend to look for in the flue?

Probe thermometers are broken up into different color coded ranges, my Condar safe range is 400-900 but my stove likes to burn about 400-600 with a full load. I find I watch my probe more than the stove top, like Highbeam says it's quicker to react especially with a soapstone stove and it also tells me if my cat temps are active.

+1 . . . since installling the probe thermometer, like Todd, I tend to watch this more often than the stove top thermometer.

 

[WoodMann]

Hey, thanks guys- I learned alot from this thread having stepped out of the ashcan for awhile and just cruising the normal threads. Now I'm gonna get me one of these................

 

[WoodMann]

Hey guys- question I thought would be appropriate here. What's the optimum stove temp? I've been doing about 700* and felt comfy. Now with this flue temp guage, what are optimum flue temps..........................
Thanks

 

[diane09]

Hi everyone,

This thread helped me so much. Thanks so much for the help.

Regards,
Diane
Pret travaux

 

[firefighterjake]

Hey guys- question I thought would be appropriate here. What's the optimum stove temp? I've been doing about 700* and felt comfy. Now with this flue temp guage, what are optimum flue temps..........................
Thanks

As you probably know the optimum stove temps vary from manufacturer to manufacturer . . . some prefer the stoves to run cooler or hotter. I've found that my Oslo seems to like 500-600 for the stove top temp.

The flue temp on the probe style thermometer should run between 400-900 . . . cooler temps = more creosote and hotter temps = danger of overheating and wasted heat going up the chimney.

 

[bren582]

Great thread..

Concerning probe placement on the flue, I have an Insert with only about 12 inches of flex liner exposed before it passes through the damper block plate. I would have to install the probe maybe 5 or 6 inches up from the collar to be able to see the reading through the gap between the surround and the insert.

Is it OK to place the probe that close and what temp range should I look for ?

 

[WoodMann]

Cool- thanks, Jake.....................

 

[Slow1]

What kind of temperatures do you tend to look for in the flue?

Probe thermometers are broken up into different color coded ranges, my Condar safe range is 400-900 but my stove likes to burn about 400-600 with a full load. I find I watch my probe more than the stove top, like Highbeam says it's quicker to react especially with a soapstone stove and it also tells me if my cat temps are active.

Do you use the probe temp or stove top temp to decide when to engage the cat when starting from a cold stove? I've wondered about this one as I like to monitor both and I know the stones take a while to warm up and carry the heat to the surface so if the flue is running nice and hot for a bit but the Fireview stovetop is still not up to the 250 min, is it ok to engage the cat?

 

[hibeam]

Great thread..

Concerning probe placement on the flue, I have an Insert with only about 12 inches of flex liner exposed before it passes through the damper block plate. I would have to install the probe maybe 5 or 6 inches up from the collar to be able to see the reading through the gap between the surround and the insert.

Is it OK to place the probe that close and what temp range should I look for ?

I contacted condar because my probe height was going to be 14" above the stove instead of the 18" required and they said no problem, it might read slightly hotter but many folks put them right near the flue collar. Not sure about installing it into a flex liner but as far as 5 or 6 inches that should be very useful.

 

[wendell]

Highbeam/hibeam, you're making me confused! Is there room enough in Buckley, WA for the both of you?

 

[Rob From Wisconsin]

Since my hurry up and buy it fireview install went south I decided to buy the old heritage some bling. I ordered a condar (now called "flame") flue gas thermometer and also a simpson double wall appliance adapter with a damper in it! My chimney is only like 13-14 feet tall so I don't need the damper but I have had my share of fires that I wanted to slow down but the lowest draft setting wouldn't do it.

Same thing here on my Tribute! Adding the double-wall w/ damper really helped to control the burns on high-draft days.
Also made burns longer, w/ better heat transfer. But of course, not everyday was conducive to its use.

 

[hibeam]

Highbeam/hibeam, you're making me confused! Is there room enough in Buckley, WA for the both of you?

Sorry wendell, I am having trouble getting my password to work for the highbeam name and just couldn't wait so I made up an alias. It's just temporary until I can get hearth.com to work for me.