I woke up at about 2am, the Vigilant had puffed, not unheard of, but it has been behaving very well lately. When I came down to check the room was quite warm, stack temp was 800, and I usually run it around 350 in horizontalmode, so it had some creosote it was burning off in the elbow anyway, again, it has happened before, I checked the back with an IR thermometer, 550-650 on the back of the stove, 400 range at the doors and lid. As the temperature settled down in the elbow as did the back, down to 450, but then the front wood compartment of the stove started to heat up and really throw heat, 650-675 at the surface of the doors. Eventually I shut the secondary down and am monitoring it, still getting surface temperature readings of around 550-650 degrees depending on where I check. As time goes by now over the total course of an hour and a half, with the thermostatic damper closed, and the secondary now shut down, the fire box area is starting to settle significantly to surface temperature at the griddle of 480 and the doors around 500, so things are cooling down. I plan to take the morning off and sweep the chimney again, maybe shovel out the stove and pull the elbow off and see what things look like.
Clearly I need to replace my thermometer because what I thought to be 350 is reading around 250-275with the IR so it never actually saw the 900 degrees i saw the stack thermometer top out at.
The stove is due for another overhaul come spring, and I hate to pull it out right now and do it.
I have witnessed this behavior a couple times before here in this house I thought I had the problem resolved by redoing the door gaskets and reworking the doors for a better fit, which was done last year, and it has been well behaved ever since. I blame creosote buildup that I struggle with on the stupidly installed stainless liner. This stove was in my parents house before this, and I have never known it to behave this way there, but needles to say i have almost 39 years experience with this particular stove.
Anyone have an explanation for any of this that I am missing?
Clearly I need to replace my thermometer because what I thought to be 350 is reading around 250-275with the IR so it never actually saw the 900 degrees i saw the stack thermometer top out at.
The stove is due for another overhaul come spring, and I hate to pull it out right now and do it.
I have witnessed this behavior a couple times before here in this house I thought I had the problem resolved by redoing the door gaskets and reworking the doors for a better fit, which was done last year, and it has been well behaved ever since. I blame creosote buildup that I struggle with on the stupidly installed stainless liner. This stove was in my parents house before this, and I have never known it to behave this way there, but needles to say i have almost 39 years experience with this particular stove.
Anyone have an explanation for any of this that I am missing?