What temps should I be at?

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Mooch

Member
Jan 23, 2019
201
Jm
Hi guys, I have a osburn Stratford zero clearance wood burner. My question is what temps should my stove be at? Since I cant put a thermometer on the pipe. Can I put it on the door? Would the same ranges for a pipe thermometer work for the door temps? Obviously I'm a newbie, so any help is greatly appreciated
 

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  • What temps should I be at?
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Can you remove the faceplate and put a thermometer at the base of the stove pipe? That's where I monitor temp on my ZC (Quad 7100).
 
Yes I can. Does it matter if it's that low on pipe? Or that close to the top of stove?
 
That's a spot where lots of ZC owners here monitor their temps. I use a magnetic thermometer and it holds there fine. I've read where others had to wire theirs on after the heat got to their magnet, so while you're at it you might as well do that too.
 
I just used my infrared thermometer and shot the flue collar and temp was 132° with a really hot fire going with fresh are damper closed off fully. So the collar I'm guessing is insulated. So I'm not gonna get a true temp reading from that location
 
I do with the right wood. One thing I've learned about these new stoves (this 7100 is my first EPA stove) is that they really need wood with MC under 20% to perform well.

You can load them up with wetter wood and they'll burn it, but you'll have to keep your air control open more which cuts down your burn time significantly, plus you end up burning more wood to keep temps up.

Looks like you have a blower too. That's where your real heat will come from.
 
You may end up needing to monitor stove top temp then, at the top of the firebox. What is that temp?
 
If I go through the top grating and shoot the top of firebox its 145° so that must be insulated as well. Yes you definitely need dry wood
 
Your IR thermometer is probably just reading the front grate. It wouldn't make sense to insulate the firebox when the blower's job is to extract heat from around it.

I've not seen an IR gun that would read accurately through a grate like these ZC stoves have. The laser pointer part on my gun might make it through, but the IR reading would be of the grate.
 
Ok, yeah that's a great point. I will work on taking off the grate and getting an accurate reading
 
Ok I took grate off and put thermometer on collar and top of stove and readings around 190-200 on both thermometers and IR. With a really hot fire. Also been burning straight for a couple of days, so box should be hot
 
How on earth is your firebrick clean after a 2 day burn? How much wood are you putting in there? Might explain the low temps.
 
Yes I can. Does it matter if it's that low on pipe? Or that close to the top of stove?
Put it about 6" in front of the stove pipe on the firebox top.
 
Position it so that it's visible through the vent slot. Take reading with the blower off for 5-10 minutes.
 
Position it so that it's visible through the vent slot. Take reading with the blower off for 5-10 minutes.
240-250 and I should mention that it is thermostaticly controlled to turn on when box is hot enough. I think that gets its reading from the base. But I did turn off the blower for this experiment
 
240-250 and I should mention that it is thermostaticly controlled to turn on when box is hot enough. I think that gets its reading from the base. But I did turn off the blower for this experiment
Seems cool. Is that current temp at coaling stage with the blower off?