What do you guys use to check the temp output of your stoves? I have 2 different types of pellets and would be interested in testing to see which burns hotter. Thanks.
Taking temps?
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Actually that's a good question. I've often wondered that myself.
To my knowledge there is no standard way of measuring pellet and/or pellet stove temperatures. What I mean is that I haven't heard of an exact method or means such as what type of measuring equipment, where to locate the equipment, when to gather the temperature, etc.
To get a rough idea I guess you could place a regular indoor thermometer a set distance from the heat exchange tubes in the airflow of the hot/warm air being blown by the convection blower. Or perhaps a simple magnetc stovepipe thermometer placed at a specific location not far from where the vent pipe exits the stove... and so on.
Then there would be the real exacting procedure of measuring the temperature inside the burnpot with some sort of thermocouple/high temperature probe.
I'm sure there are others who will chime in here.
Steve
To my knowledge there is no standard way of measuring pellet and/or pellet stove temperatures. What I mean is that I haven't heard of an exact method or means such as what type of measuring equipment, where to locate the equipment, when to gather the temperature, etc.
To get a rough idea I guess you could place a regular indoor thermometer a set distance from the heat exchange tubes in the airflow of the hot/warm air being blown by the convection blower. Or perhaps a simple magnetc stovepipe thermometer placed at a specific location not far from where the vent pipe exits the stove... and so on.
Then there would be the real exacting procedure of measuring the temperature inside the burnpot with some sort of thermocouple/high temperature probe.
I'm sure there are others who will chime in here.
Steve
I bought a thermometer that is made to be placed on the door of a stove. This was the easiest method I could come up with to see which brand of pellets burned the best in my stove. I thoroughly cleaned my stove after each brand finished burning and checked the temp every 30 minutes.
My Quad castile burns roughly at 180 on medium. Weston temp probe down the center exchanger tube. hths
Wouldn't it make more sense to take the temp just outside the vents where the air actually comes out rather than inside the stove? I mean the key here is what temp are we sending out into the room right? I'll try a plane jane thermometer and see what I come up with.
Get a infra red thermom, point and shoot. Affordable now, and fun to play with. If you use one of these, make sure you 'shoot' the same spot for comparisons.
I have one of those (use it for my wood fired brick oven in the back yard for pizza) but it'll measure the temp of the exchanger tube not the air coming out. While that's interesting, I really want to know what the air temp is that's coming out of my stove - my mechanic uses a thermometer that goes in the vents of the car to check on temp of the air conditioning but it doesn't go high enough for the stove.GotzTheHotz said:
Dopeslap to the forehead here! Duh! I should have thought of that. I've got one on my Big Green Egg that has a clip that would let me clip it to the exchanger tube and keep it in the airflow. I don't expect I need to worry about the 750*F limit on it either. Good idea.JRB said:
With the probe down the center tube (On the outside of the stove) you will be less likely to have anything else influence the results. I was looking for the hottest burning pellet. When I was testing 4 different bags of pellets, the room temp would be different when the last bag was tested. Maybe 10deg. Damn I gettin old. I use to party to keep busy.Hths
Not hot enough for my stove. I figured maybe 150 tops. But, I just fired it up and put my stove thru its paces. I've got a Lennox Profile 30 Insert. It's got 3 heat levels & 3 blower speeds. I checked the grill right where the heat exchanger tubes come out and got a reading of 303*F on low feed/med blower and 445*F on high feed/high blower with a laser IR thermometer. I was suspicious that it was so high so I touched the grid rail and burnt my finger :-(slls said:
I also put my grill's thermometer into one of the exchanger tubes. It's for a Big Green Egg and runs from 50 to 750*F and is 3" long. Inserted so 2" of the thermometer is in the tube I checked on the 3 heat levels. It's 240*F on low feed/med blower, 310*F on med feed/med blower, and 380*F on high feed/high blower and it was climbing when the stove shutdown (turned out my thermostat override had expired and it moved to the next stage on the programming and it was plenty hot now for the thermostat to shut the thing off). I can't hold my hand 2" from the output tubes for more than 5 seconds before pain ensues.
I can stand a foot away and be warm without burning, and most of the stove is touchable, but that area right around the heat exchanger tubes is way hotter than I expected.
Something needs to be burning to make that kind of heat. What is the stove rated at ? Pellets per hr .. I've seen 200* but not constant. That thing's a BEAST
DiggerJim said:
Something does not seem right, a pellet stove is rated for vent temp less than 500 deg F. Your are almost getting that with your air temp readings. I would say to be completely accurate, put the thermometer a few inches outside the vent outlet.
I did a temp test about 1 inch from the stove and that's running 226*F at medium feed/medium blower.slls said:
I was curious after reading this post. I used a turkey fryer therm. It about a foot long. I held the tip 1/2 inch into the blower( were the hot air comes out). It read about 290 f. I have a QF mnt vernon ae running on m/h with pennington pellets.
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