Has anyone rigged a remote thermometer to their OWB that can be read from inside the house, preferably with an alarm feature for when temp goes above or below preset levels? Woke up yesterday morning to boiler water temp. of 210 and steam coming out of fill hole. For some reason damper door had failed to close. Steamed off about 10 gal. of water. Luckily we have been getting 12 hour burns with one large round and 2 splits of extremely dry wood so fire did not go nuts but could have been a bad deal if we would have had stove crammed full.
I have a BBQ controller called a Stoker that could be rigged to do what you want. You can put a probe on a 1/2 NPT fitting among other things. I imagine you could stick one of them into your OWB somehow. You would need to monitor it from a PC inside and let that sound the alarm. You would also end up with a season long temperature graph which might be amusing. It isn't exactly cheap though. Stoker
The stoker is something like $300. I have a feeling there is a less expensive solution that you can use. Especially if the probe is in your house, the need for the wireless nonsense is gone. But if you want the excuse to by a controller for a smoker, then here it is.
if youre thinking about spending that much then look into controlbyweb. i got an x300 unit. can monitor 8 sensors via cat5 cable and you can pull that display up on the computer or smart phone. also has 3 relays that you can control by time, temps, or manually. you can set up a relay to sound an alarm. unit can also be programmed to send emails to alert you of predetermined temperatures that you are interested in. i dont have my relays hooked up yet.
Going to give them a call to see how much simple unit would cost. Only need one monitor for incoming water line temp. with over/under temperature alarm.
I just used a wireless barbecue monitor... strapped the probe to my copper pipe that my pex adapted to from my wood boiler in my basement..Put some foam pipe insulation over the probe... Then the receiver was put up in my kitchen counter.. I could see when the stove needed to be reloaded... You can tape the probe on the pipe with foil tape. or wire ties.. I checked my both my feed and return water temps..
I got it at Lowes some years back... They might not even sell them anymore.. I would just GOOGLE it. http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-ET732-M...879?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43bb5c2097
I use a Wireless Barbecue Thermometer. http://www.maverickhousewares.com/et732.htm I was just looking for some thing to let me know if the temp got to high and had the potential for a boil over, or dropped to low if the fire went out. The Maverick fit the bill perfectly. It is a dual probe, but I am only currently using one. I have it under the insulation on the back of my hardy. It has a high/alarm to alert me. I keep the receiver in the kitchen about 70 feet from the boiler, and it works great. Best part, under $60.00.
I wonder if these wireless thermometers you guys are talking about could be applied to a woodstove as well? I can think of it as a backup reminder for low temps without having to actually be at the stove. Just not sure how it could be done
Don't see why not. The probe is rated for up to 700°. You would just need to figure where and how you wanted to mount it.
