My infrared thermometer only said 550-600on the pipe air was all the way open but had not been burning very long maybe 30 min and the wood is wet ash, I shut it down and turned on the fan and it stopped turning red then turned red again a little later. Stove top temp was 350 but it is hard to find a good place to measure that on the t5 insert. How hot do those stainless flex liners have to be before they turn red? Was that an over fire?
Stainless flex liner turned red hot
- Thread starter Mumster
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Excavator
Feeling the Heat
Do you have single or double ss liner. If single wall that is about right and wood might have been very dry.
If double wall the 600 is very wrong as you are not measuring inside liner. My double wall turned red on me twice and that is just too hot.
My double wall liner did it because very dry wood and too much air on first fire lighting this season. Stove was 300 but flames were dragged right up flue.
I pay more attention now on cold starts. If yours is double wall and turned red, I would cut down the air in take and let it get hot at slower pace.
Do you have a T at bottom of liner or is it straight down connection into stove. Mine has T connector and clean out cap at bottom of T. I pull clean out cap off once a week even when stove is burning slow just for a minute and make sure all is clean.
If double wall the 600 is very wrong as you are not measuring inside liner. My double wall turned red on me twice and that is just too hot.
My double wall liner did it because very dry wood and too much air on first fire lighting this season. Stove was 300 but flames were dragged right up flue.
I pay more attention now on cold starts. If yours is double wall and turned red, I would cut down the air in take and let it get hot at slower pace.
Do you have a T at bottom of liner or is it straight down connection into stove. Mine has T connector and clean out cap at bottom of T. I pull clean out cap off once a week even when stove is burning slow just for a minute and make sure all is clean.
Maybe your IR thermometer does better than mine, but mine tends to read low on shiny surfaces like SS. Just saying that to make sure you play with yours shooting the temp of a bunch of shiny things to make sure you can trust your IR on them.
Regardless of the temperature, the issue is that the liner was turning red. Unless the firebox was completely engulfed with flames, this wasn't an overfire, it was a small chimney fire.
It's hard to tell but if burning wet ash has been the pattern, I'm betting on a small chimney fire.
How long has it been / how much wood has been put through the system since you cleaned it?
pen
Regardless of the temperature, the issue is that the liner was turning red. Unless the firebox was completely engulfed with flames, this wasn't an overfire, it was a small chimney fire.
It's hard to tell but if burning wet ash has been the pattern, I'm betting on a small chimney fire.
How long has it been / how much wood has been put through the system since you cleaned it?
pen
It is a single layer liner. I have been burning wet ash all season (about 2 months). I thought this could be a small chimney fire. Probably worth it to have a mid season sweep.
Sweep and inspect. Chimney fires should not be taken lightly. I would also step back and evaluate your practices. If burning less than seasoned wood, more frequent cleaning should be practiced. Do what it takes to keep this from repeating. It is not a good thing.
Jags said:
Agreed. This is my first season with this stove, I was a fireplace guy before this. I wish I could get my hands on some decent wood, everything I can get is ash or won't be good till next year or the year after.
If you can find bio brick, envi blocks, etc, people with marginal wood have reported good success by mixing a man made fuel block or two in w/ the wood.
pen
pen
Sweep is coming Monday, gonna try to get a cap installed also. You guys think I should stop burning till then, or just stick to small fires? I haven't added any wood since It happened.
Mumster said:
If it is not a deal breaker for you, I would hold off till ya got it inspected. More than likely everything will be okay, but there is a chance...
Excavator said:
So a single wall liner will turn red at 550-600F? Is that normal? That seems to be in the safe burn temps.
I am going to stop till the sweep comes. Not a deal breaker but I love burning.
Mumster said:
No. A surface temp of 550-600 will yield somewhere in the range of 1000-1200F internal temp. Getting to the upper limits but 600 at the surface will not cherry a pipe. The problem with a chimney fire is that if the fire is above the thermo, you ain't reading the really hot area. All the fuel is above it.
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