Stove Top Thermometer

[taweste]

I am new to wood burning and I just installed my stove top thermometer. Right now I am around the 500 range but the fire looks to be smoldering and I am getting smoke from the chimney. Should I get the fire burning more or should I focus on the stove temp and sit back and relax?

I have an Englander 30.

Thanks
Tim

 

[Todd]

Turn up the air, if it's smoking your not burning efficient. You still have some room to spare as far as 500 temp goes, keep it under 700.

 

[logger]

Unless Im chilly (which I never am when the stoves at 500), I usually wait to the temp drops to at least 300 or 250 before I reload. Otherwise I'd have way too many coals in a short time and my stove top temp would end up much too high. I do have a different stove, but I don't see a huge difference in our outcomes.

 

[jharkin]

Maybe your thermometer is off and ithe stove is cooler than you think?

I wonder about the accuracy of those cheap coil thermometers... I have a condar chimguard on my stovetop (left by previous owner) and Ive noticed that when it reads 600, my cheap IR temp gun reads 300-400. So either one (or both) of them is way off. Or maybe the chimguard is calibrated to estimate the internal temp of flue pipe and inst useful on the stovetop... who knows...

 

[Valhalla]

Search hearth.com for stove top thermometer info and temperature verification. There is a great deal about this subject.

 

[savageactor7]

Maybe your thermometer is off and ithe stove is cooler than you think? Yup that would be my guess too with a reported smoldering fire and smoke coming out of eh chimney.

 

[madison]

Put the thermometer on a pizza stone or pan at various oven temps to compare.

 

[firefighterjake]

I am new to wood burning and I just installed my stove top thermometer. Right now I am around the 500 range but the fire looks to be smoldering and I am getting smoke from the chimney. Should I get the fire burning more or should I focus on the stove temp and sit back and relax?

I have an Englander 30.

Thanks
Tim

Thoughts . . .

My first thought was you had seen this with right after reloading and the firebox was still plenty hot . . . hadn't allowed the wood to go to coals . . . and the wood was not as seasoned as it should be. Normally, with a reload you will see some smoke and the wood (depending on how dry or not dry it is) can smolder for a bit . . . but generally we don't see firebox temps in the 500 range with this type of thing.

It's possible the thermometer is off . . . as mentioned several times. Give the stove a little more air and see what happens with the fire and the temps.

 

[Skier76]

That'll sometimes happen to me Jake. I'll reload and the stove will stay hot, but the new wood will smolder just a bit. I have some wood that's a bit "boarderline" seasoned.

It may sound silly, but I can tell when the stove begins to cool after a new split is tossed on. It will make a slight "tick.......tick.....tick" noise as the metal in the box cools slightly. It'll also do the same thing when it starts to warm up in a hurry.

 

[firefighterjake]

That'll sometimes happen to me Jake. I'll reload and the stove will stay hot, but the new wood will smolder just a bit. I have some wood that's a bit "boarderline" seasoned.

It may sound silly, but I can tell when the stove begins to cool after a new split is tossed on. It will make a slight "tick.......tick.....tick" noise as the metal in the box cools slightly. It'll also do the same thing when it starts to warm up in a hurry.

Ah young Padawan . . . you are now learning to use all your senses when it comes to burning wood . . . knowing what your stove is doing truly involves more than just seeing with your eyes . . . it's about listening to the noises to know it's cooling or warming, it's about feeling the heat and knowing when to reload rather than going by an arbitrary number, it's about smelling that tell-tale smell that lets you know your stove may be over-heating, it's about going up to the stove and licking it to determine if it is still hot or not . . . and then cursing yourself for such a bonehead move that surely even JarJar Binks would not even do.

 

[Skier76]

LMAO! "touch" is one sense I don't really use when dealing with the stove. Once that thing gets over 100F, hands off!

Well stated. It's amazing how much you can "sense"...from the noises; be it ticking or secondary burner rumbling to the smell whent he stove starts to really get going. At times, I feel the stove top thermometer is just a visual confirmation of what I already knew. Although, I haven't gotten to the "It ticked 11.5 times...and by the way it smells...I recon we're running about 575." I'm going to need another few years before I get that good. :lol:

 

[FireWalker]

That'll sometimes happen to me Jake. I'll reload and the stove will stay hot, but the new wood will smolder just a bit. I have some wood that's a bit "boarderline" seasoned.

It may sound silly, but I can tell when the stove begins to cool after a new split is tossed on. It will make a slight "tick.......tick.....tick" noise as the metal in the box cools slightly. It'll also do the same thing when it starts to warm up in a hurry.

Ah young Padawan . . . you are now learning to use all your senses when it comes to burning wood . . . knowing what your stove is doing truly involves more than just seeing with your eyes . . . it's about listening to the noises to know it's cooling or warming, it's about feeling the heat and knowing when to reload rather than going by an arbitrary number, it's about smelling that tell-tale smell that lets you know your stove may be over-heating, it's about going up to the stove and licking it to determine if it is still hot or not . . . and then cursing yourself for such a bonehead move that surely even JarJar Binks would not even do.

When I was running my DW, to test for a good hot fire I would lick my finger and touch the corner of the stove top....a sizzle gave me the answer I was looking for without said sizzle, some sort of tending was necessary. Quick, easy, no tools or thermometers needed. I did get a rusty spot on that corner though.

 

[firefighterjake]

LMAO! "touch" is one sense I don't really use when dealing with the stove. Once that thing gets over 100F, hands off!

Well stated. It's amazing how much you can "sense"...from the noises; be it ticking or secondary burner rumbling to the smell whent he stove starts to really get going. At times, I feel the stove top thermometer is just a visual confirmation of what I already knew. Although, I haven't gotten to the "It ticked 11.5 times...and by the way it smells...I recon we're running about 575." I'm going to need another few years before I get that good. :lol:

Actually you may be using your sense of "touch" . . . or rather sense of feeling . . . just not the one-on-one physical contact type of touch. Feeling or touching the higher output of heat or drop in the heat radiating from the stove is another way you can tell when it's time to add wood or adjust the air control. I often feel the difference before looking towards the stove and the thermometer . . . perhaps it is just my heightened Jedi awareness though . . . although I must confess as hard as I try I still can't use the force to push that chimney brush up through the flue so that I don't have to stand right underneath it.

 

[Skier76]

If you figure out the chimney brush thing...let me know!

I hear you on the heat sensing. Our stove is near our spiral staircase. Whever I walk down those, I can feel the heat. I can usually get a good idea of what the stove is doing by how warm or cool it is when I make my way down those stairs. So I guess there is a bit of the touch sense involved. Glad it doesn't leave blisters....

 

[bsearcey]

Yeah...experiencing the same problems. My probe is off, but kind of expected since it is original to my 1983 stove. I just bought a new one off Amazon. I have a cat stove and the probe is right above the cat. This morning I was waiting for the probe to get above 500 so I could engage the cat and it was hovering just below 500. I have an IR thermometer from harbour freight ($35 on sale) that I used to measure the temp at the cat. It was reading over 700. I engaged anyway since because of the IR readings. The probe started going up, but only got to around 800. I checked the temp of the cat (by now the cat is glowing red) and the IR couldn't get a reading on it because it was too hot (reads into the upper 900s).