Fasest way to get the stove hot

[begreen]

Sounds like another case of not turning down the stove soon enough. As long as the wood is dry, with good secondary combustion, the stove top temp should rise as the air is decreased and the flue temps should go down. The only time I see 1000F in the flue pipe (probe thermometer) is when I have spaced out turning down the air soon enough. :red:

 

[Jags]

The only time I see 1000F in the flue pipe (probe thermometer) is when I have spaced out turning down the air soon enough. :red:

Nope - I have never done that. Never. :red:

 

[oldspark]

With my Summit I have to slowly run the flue temp up to at least 500 (single wall magnetic therm) to get any heat out of the stovetop (above 550). Last year was my first year burning and was only able to get it up to 570.

Just to confirm - you do realize that internal temp is roughly double the reading of the single wall surface? Your 500 surface is equal to 1000 internal and your 570 is equal to 1140. That is pretty darn high. :ahhh:

Not that big a deal, do you remember last winter I had people tell me to not worry about the flue temp at all, now we come full circle, you go up the pipe a few feet and the temp tapers like a turd, wont glow until about 900 surface temp.

 

[Jags]

Not that big a deal,

And I am not trying to turn it into one. I have had those temps on occasion. I just want the poster to realize that the temps he/she was talking about are on the "high" side, not mediocre.

 

[Scott2373]

[quote author="gyrfalcon" date="1322828499"]I've never gotten the "door cracked open" thing.

+1 When I keep my door cracked the fire dies down. It starts roaring right up again when I close the door. I dunno if this by design or just the physics of my installation. I do read on here that a lot of the users keep their door cracked, but it does not work for me. Could this mean I have a weak draft, even though I haven't had any issues with it...?

 

[Jags]

+1 When I keep my door cracked the fire dies down. It starts roaring right up again when I close the door. I dunno if this by design or just the physics of my installation. I do read on here that a lot of the users keep their door cracked, but it does not work for me. Could this mean I have a weak draft, even though I haven't had any issues with it...?

Nope - it means that your stove/install works as designed. Congrats.

 

[oldspark]

Not that big a deal,

And I am not trying to turn it into one. I have had those temps on occasion. I just want the poster to realize that the temps he/she was talking about are on the "high" side, not mediocre.

Gottcha, he has been dealing with this for a while.

 

[gyrfalcon]

I've never gotten the "door cracked open" thing.

+1 When I keep my door cracked the fire dies down. It starts roaring right up again when I close the door. I dunno if this by design or just the physics of my installation. I do read on here that a lot of the users keep their door cracked, but it does not work for me. Could this mean I have a weak draft, even though I haven't had any issues with it...?

No, should mean your draft is excellent... I think. The draft is good enough to suck the right amount of air in with the door closed.

 

[Scott2373]

I've never gotten the "door cracked open" thing.

+1 When I keep my door cracked the fire dies down. It starts roaring right up again when I close the door. I dunno if this by design or just the physics of my installation. I do read on here that a lot of the users keep their door cracked, but it does not work for me. Could this mean I have a weak draft, even though I haven't had any issues with it...?

No, should mean your draft is excellent... I think. The draft is good enough to suck the right amount of air in with the door closed.

Sounds good to me! Good to know it's working properly. :cheese:

 

[lillyrat]

I have heard that 500 is high, but I am wondering if it is high just because people say it it high compared to what they run. Is it dangerous to run it up there and then back it down? I take it up to 500-550 and then back it down. This is the only way I have found to get stove top above 600. There was an article that Brotherbart referenced that explained that some people try to make their setup conform to the magnetic thermometers and that doesn't always work. Seems that Oldspark and Myself fall into this category. There are some on here that don't even monitor temps and don't start backing down their air till the stovetop gets to 450+, this is right about where I hit 500 on my thermo. I think I was hampered by watching the flue temp and being scared to death that I would set the Chimney on fire if I let it get above 500. I should just remove it but I am to anal to do that, still like to use it as a guide, I just don't worry as much about letting it spike to 550-600 when getting a load going.

 

[begreen]

Flue surface temps are inexact. I would estimate that with a 500F surface temp you are seeing 750F in the flue pipe. The pipe is designed to handle up to about 900F continuous I believe.

As described, if you are running it up to about 750F actual flue gas temp (say 500-550 surface), then turning it down, that's fine. There is no universal one way or running a stove. We all have different flue setups, stoves, wood dryness, wood species, weather conditions, house tightness, etc.. When you add up all of these variables you can see how wood burning is a blend of art and science. Every fire start is a different challenge, especially in milder weather. I know it sounds like we all have perfect fire starts and running all the time. But that just isn't so. There are good and less good days for almost all of us. Sometimes its just a random piece of wood that didn't dry the same and often it is just human error, impatience or the weather.

As long as you are burning dry wood and have your chimney checked at least annually, I wouldn't worry about a chimney fire even if the flue gets hotter.

 

[Scott2373]

For me, I don't need to go above 400° according to my surface thermo. My Rangeley will happily cruise at 385° alll day long. Once my afterburners kick on, the stove will set right there with the primary almost closed. It will continue to put out good useable heat hours after the secondaries stop firing during the coaling stage.

 

[LLigetfa]

Should I give it plenty of air to get the most heat or do I actually get more heat when I cut the air supply down?

You will probably get as many varying opinions as there are models of stoves. There are just too many variables at play. On my stove, it definitely has a sweet spot WRT the amount of air I give it. For years I was running it with too much air because it's somewhat counterintuitive to turn down the air to get more heat.

 

[Battenkiller]

With my Summit I have to slowly run the flue temp up to at least 500 (single wall magnetic therm) to get any heat out of the stovetop (above 550). Last year was my first year burning and was only able to get it up to 570.

Just to confirm - you do realize that internal temp is roughly double the reading of the single wall surface? Your 500 surface is equal to 1000 internal and your 570 is equal to 1140. That is pretty darn high. :ahhh:

Jags, I ran a small box stove for 18 years without a thermometer, but based on how hot I remember that pipe getting and what I have learned by using a thermometer, my best guess is that that stove never cruised with a surface pipe temp less than 450, and often ran into the 600s. I used the same pipe all that time. Every year I would ask the sweep if I should replace it, and every year he said it was fine. When I got the new stove I needed to run 8", so I dumped the old 6" pipe. It was sound as could be, even the elbows.

I know 1200ºF sounds high and that the pipe is rated for that temp continuously, but the fact that the thin-walled pipe never gets beyond 600º kinda tells me that the inner surface never gets close to that temp. If it did, the pipe would be close to the same temp on the outside. I've been told smoke travels upward in a spiral path, with the hottest gases in the center of the flue. Plus, even with gases that hot, there is always a thin coat of fly ash and light soot coating the inside of the pipe. This ash can provide an insulating effect. Not much, perhaps, but it may help to explain why there is such a disparity between gas temp and outside surface temp.

 

[Jags]

I need to learn how to explain myself better. As I read it, the temps from the poster were being seen as "only" or "barely". My post was nothing more than an attempt to point out that those temps were not "mediocre" and probably towards the top of the scale for most people.

 

[Battenkiller]

I need to learn how to explain myself better.

Nah, you explained yourself fine to OS... I just didn't read it. %-P

 

[lillyrat]

I think there is another variable at play that may not get mentioned. My flue therm. is located right where it makes a 45 into the thimble. (18-20 inches up from stovetop) I think my temps are higher there due to the fact that the exhaust goes up and is impacting the 45 and then heading horizontally through the thimble. On either side of the 45 temps are lower. I put it there to give me worst case scenario. If you have a straight up flue then you probably run cooler temps. This is just a theory I have come to after trying exhaustively to get stove temps up in the 600-650 range.

 

[lillyrat]

Not that big a deal,

And I am not trying to turn it into one. I have had those temps on occasion. I just want the poster to realize that the temps he/she was talking about are on the "high" side, not mediocre.

I appreciate the input. I have spent the last year searching this forum trying to find the "Holy Grail" that would allow me to reach 600 or higher stove top temps. I tried numerous things that I have gleaned from the forum and nothing seemed to work............till one night I left my wife in charge of the stove. She became confused on which way to turn the air down and was moving it the wrong way. She ran the flue up to 550 and my son comes running out to the garage saying mom is turning the stove down but it keeps getting hotter. I come in and shut it down before the flue get's in overfire range and end up with a new stovetop record. Have since adopted similar practice except I just dial the flue down real slowly and like I said earlier, have hit 660. Still have yet to see 700 but not sure I can do that with my setup and not get the flue over 600 external. I appreciate all input from the site and without it I would be burning blind.

 

[begreen]

That makes sense. Try a reading about 4" lower to see if that make a big difference.

Remind me, what are the chimney specs that this is connected to?

 

[lillyrat]

That makes sense. Try a reading about 4" lower to see if that make a big difference.

Remind me, what are the chimney specs that this is connected to?

45 out of the stove 19 inches up to another 45 for the 24-26" vertical run to the chimney. From there I have a 6 inch uninsulated liner in a 8x11 clay flue straight up about 22'. (exterior-block-encapsuled in stone).

I have thought about that but I think I should leave it there if I need to be concerned at all with flue temps. Otherwise I am just kidding myself. I was wondering what the theory is behind the 18-24" up from the stovetop? Why not 8-10"? Why not 32-36"? Just wondering? Thanks for the reply.

 

[Wood Duck]

I leave the door cracked until a good part of the load has flames coming from it, and I start to see significant amounts of secondary flames at the top of the firebox. Then if I turn the air down a little the stove will tend to get hotter a little faster than with more air. I can't be sure of this since each load of wood is unique, but I definitely think a little less air can give hotter temperatures during start-up. I am sure that less air can mean a hotter stove once the stove is hot, since at that point the I can lower or raise the temperature on my stovetop thermometer by changing the air setting. The hottest temperature will be somewhere between full primary air and no primary air.