Seeking reassurance from fellow Morgan/Clydesdale owners

[SaratogaJJ]

I've read about 15 posts so far on the topic of "glowing secondaries," but just needed a bit more reassurance that, as a new stove owner, I'm not over-reacting.

We had our first few nights this week where the temps dropped below 20...

So the other night I had a nice-sized bed of coals going, with one decent-sized split that had burned down to roughly half its original size. About 30 minutes before going to bed, I put in a pair of Envi-Blocks, made sure that they started to burn, then turned my air intake down to about 15% or so.

A little later - maybe an hour or so, I went downstairs and the Morgan was churning out heat like there's no tomorrow. Secondaries were going pretty much full-tilt; the one furthest to the back was a dull brick-red glow. The one closest to the front wasn't glowing on the outside, but I could see through the perforations that it was glowing on the inside.

Without getting into a long story, the cast-iron decorative surround isn't currently in place, and neither yet is the top surface heat shield that redirects the blower's air flow from the back of the stove to the front of the stove. Consequently, I can use my IR thermometer to get a reading directly off the top surface of the stove. There is a oval-shaped area on the stove top (It's labelled "This End Up," and I am pretty certain that the official name for this is the flue collar) where it connects to the lowest portion of the stovepipe; this area of the top surface read in the low 700's. When I measured the top surface that was a bit more out towards the sides of the insert, they registered around 450-460.

At that point, I completely closed off primary air, and used a box fan that we keep nearby to blow heat across the stove face and draw off some of the heat, until that oval-shaped area on the stovetop got down into the mid-500's; the top surface out towards the sides were at around 375 at that point. Then I opened up primary air a tiny amount; temperatures seemed to stabilize there.

Anyone see anything here that raises their antennae? Or does this sound pretty normal?

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Bump to the top.

 

[SteveT]

I had a pretty similar experience about 10 days ago. I put in about 8 or 10 BioBricks (loosely) on our first real cold night and when the secondaries took off it filled the firebox with some serious flames, way removed from the slow rolling "ghost flames" I usually get. And this happened on the one night I had loaned my IR thermometer to a friend so I don't know just how hot it ran (maybe that's a good thing for my peace of mind). For sure it was way over the 400 to 450 I usually get on the top front of the stove. And there was a hot metal smell, something I hadn't experienced since the break-in. It was an experience I hope not to repeat.

It's a week and a half later and I am convinced I didn't do any damage; I suspect you didn't either. Even if it was operated in an extreme way there are two issues. First of course is the temperature itself. Secondly, is the time at the extreme temperature. This is not to say that a stove can't be ruined in a single severe overfire because it can. But unless it was operated at a severe overfire the degradation from a single event is probably not going to do much.

Run it a few times with more conservative loads. If there is no difference (noises, excess burn rate or the like) from what you experienced prior to the "event" I think you can relax.

Final thought... A lot of folks on this forum talk of 600 degree stovetops (or more). I find that I can easily heat the house with much lower temperatures (like 450 max). I plan to run the stove at this conservative temperature and think that in general if you can find at temperature that is hot enough to prevent creosote but well below the maximum you could push it to you will prolong the life of the insert.

 

[SaratogaJJ]

it filled the firebox with some serious flames

That's what I had. The room, which didn't have any lights on at the time, was bright enough to read a book.

And there was a hot metal smell, something I hadn't experienced since the break-in.

Didn't have any smell in my experience.

Run it a few times with more conservative loads. If there is no difference (noises, excess burn rate or the like) from what you experienced prior to the "event" I think you can relax.

So far, none of these things. It seems to be running just fine with my subsequent burns.

Final thought... A lot of folks on this forum talk of 600 degree stovetops (or more). I find that I can easily heat the house with much lower temperatures (like 450 max).

Last night the top surface was in the 480-520 range. Good heat getting thrown off of that.


Another question that I have is, why would the temperature on the horizontal surface of the flue collar be so much greater than the temperature that is on the top surface of the stove, only about 6-8 inches to the left or right? I'm guessing it might be because the thickness of the metal at the flue collar is substantially less than the top cast iron surface of the stove...

 

[SteveT]

You could be right on the reason for the temperature difference. Or maybe it is that you're measuring a broader area than you realize.

The aiming dot is precise but the thermometer is measuring a greater area. Mine, for example, measures a 3" diameter at 36" (and I'm usually holding it at least that far from the insert). Unless you are holding the IR thermometer very close to what you're measuring you probably can't count on it to measure an exact spot. The thermometer measures the total IR energy --- maybe some of the "beam" is coming in from the background?

 

[SaratogaJJ]

You could be right on the reason for the temperature difference. Or maybe it is that you're measuring a broader area than you realize.

The aiming dot is precise but the thermometer is measuring a greater area. Mine, for example, measures a 3" diameter at 36" (and I'm usually holding it at least that far from the insert). Unless you are holding the IR thermometer very close to what you're measuring you probably can't count on it to measure an exact spot. The thermometer measures the total IR energy --- maybe some of the "beam" is coming in from the background?

I'm holding it pretty close - the opening on the IR thermometer is no more than maybe 4-5 inches away from the surface that I am attempting to measure, for the very reason you cite above. It makes the backs of my fingers pretty warm while I am taking a measurement, but no big deal there.