SolaGracia said:
One question I have when reading these posts is---when you point the IR therm. at the glass, or you measuring the temp of the glass? Is this what the concern is about? I would like to know how to measure the internal temp of my Regency I3100. I want to know when to choke back the air control, and also avoid overfiring. Problem is, I asked Regency how one might do this. Their response? "There is no good way to measure temps on an insert." Thanks. "Oh", they say, "and by the way, make sure you don't overfire or your warranty is void."
Right now I have a magnetic thermometer mounted just above the door and below the blower outlets. I read temps here at a peak of about 400F, down to 300F during the course of a good burn. If only I knew the correlation between the temp at this location, and the internal burn temp, I would be able to rely on it for temp indication. If somehow I could measure flue temp, and compared it to the temp on the front of the unit, would this reliably set my temp ratio that I need to know?
One of the reasons why I never used to use a thermometer is that I knew I would drive myself nuts checking it. Once I had three of them (the IR, one on the pipe and one on the stove), I drove myself bonkers.
There is only so much any thermometer is going to tell you. At best, they will give you a good indication of whether or not you are within the parameters recommended by the manufacturer. Evidence of a strong, clean burn (which was my old thermometer), experience, and an absence of damage will tell you even more.
Yes, the IR will only give you the temp of the glass. And only the
outside surface of the glass, not the inside surface. Low emissivity glass (not used in stoves for obvious reasons) might read 400ºF on the surface while the actual temperature is 800º inside the glass itself.
Rest assured, if you are getting a proper burn, your internal temps will be above 1200ºF. My IR maxes out when I point it directly at the coals. They are significantly higher than 1400º. If they are glowing a bright yellow white, they are over 2000º. What good does this info do you you? Besides, different parts of the stove will hit different peaks at different times depending on how long they have been exposed to either the flue gases, the hot coal bed or both. These same parts will heat up faster or slower and hold the heat for shorter or longer times depending on their metallurgy, shape, size, location, and mass. Some of these parts can take the heat for years, other will need to be replaced as the stove is used over the years. That's a design issue, not a burn issue. These things are forever only in that they can be rebuilt as long as parts are readily available. Besides clean burning, efficiency and heat output, good designs are made to withstand lots of heat and to be rebuilt in an easy manner when the parts wear out.
Follow the suggestions of the smarter folks on this board (the pros and dealers, certainly not me) and keep your stove within these parameters and you shouldn't damage your stove. For my stove, my stove repair guys (30 years in the business) tell me to keep the flue temps between 400º and 650ºF on a magnetic thermometer 18" above the flue collar and just forget about the stove top temp entirely. But do I listen to them? :roll:
So when I see I'm getting a nice steady 400ºF three hours into a burn and then I point my IR at the door and get a reading of 875º.... who's picking up the bill for my therapist? But we all worry a bit about our stoves, and I'm no exception. If you really need to know how hot the internal parts are, get an IR, open the door and quickly shoot the part in question. Maybe this will give you the peace of mind you seek, and that will be a good thing.
I learned all I needed to know about my stove from the IR at this point. My magnetic thermos are calibrated to it. They are about 15ºF off from each other and less than 25º off from the IR throughout the burning range. I found out my stove develops hot spots during a burn and that they are somewhat predictable and that they haven't hurt my stove in the least. Now it's just another one of my expensive toys. When I can use it to figure out when the wife is in the mood... well, then I'll be getting somewhere.