Overfired Ideal Steel, What damage to expect?

I put three honey locust splits on a nice coal bed about 7:40 pm. They filled the ideal steel maybe 2/3 full. I let them flame up, then gradually turned down the air. By 8:00 I had the cat engaged, a few floating ghost flames above blackened splits. Air control was set at the first small notch below the first big notch. Condor cat thermometer was steady around 1,000*. I don't remember the flue thermometer exactly, but I think it was around 400*.

I left for an errand. Apparently, about 8:30 pm the air control was turned up to the third large notch. I came back at 9:15 and thought I could smell something wrong.

The fire box was full of huge secondaries, the cat thermometer was locked up against the top of the range, and the flue thermometer was reading 750*.

I immediately closed the air all the way down and let it cool down.

How much damage can I expect to find tomorrow after it cools down enough to open up?

And, yes, there are strict orders against anyone else touching the stove.

 

I do have the Woodstock supplied magnetic thermometer on the stovetop near the exhaust flue. I didn't think to take notice of what it was reading. I was trying to figure out why in the world it had been turned up.

My flue thermometer is an Auber digital that reads off an internal probe mounted about 20 inches above the stovetop.

 

Let it cool down and go out. Then take off the top and start inspecting. Look at the radiator, the sled, the metal under the sled.

 

I wouldn’t panic at this point.
I had a pre production stove up there. Probably not quite that hot but getting close and I don’t believe there was lasting damage.
The IS is made from some big gauge steel. It can take decent hit. I’d be worried if I heard you were running that hot as a practice.
Inspect for obvious warpage or cracks and try to breathe easy. There is a decent chance you are fine.

 

I like to keep the cat probe between 800 and 1400, and the flue well below 600. Normally, if the numbers are getting close to the top of that range, I'll be shutting the air down.

I'll clean it out and check everything over tonight. If I don't see any obvious damage and the cat sled is contacting the gasket all around, it should be OK to go?

 

I’m not a stove builder or engineer but that’s what I would do based on my experiences with this and other Steel stoves. It’s not out of the question to call WS and get thier input either.

 

I hadn't thought about calling Woodstock. I might do that after checking it out, especially if I see anything off.

 

Yeah, what the Coach said.

More than likely, you did not badly overheat the stove; the firebox is fully insulated and you had the bypass closed and the draft was not all the way open..... my guess is that you just ran it pretty hard but no harm done. But by all means, take a look under the stove top plate to look for any signs of warpage or anything else wrong. If nothing is obviously miss- shapen and there are no broken welds, I think all will be well.

Brian

 

Yikes! That does not sound good.

 

I second this; they know the stove better than anyone.

 

It finally cooled down enough to open up. The only apparent damage is to the radiator shield above the cat. There were a bunch of metal flakes caught by that stainless shield on the bottom side of the radiator. Those weren't there a few weeks ago before I started burning for the season. The radiator shows color differences that I don't recall being there before. It's still pretty straight, not obviously warped. Otherwise, my condor cat probe is very slightly drooping downward and the long sides of the cat are warped a bit, but they weren't perfectly straight this fall. So I'm not sure how much of that happened last night. It still appears to be sealing to the gasket.

It looks like I used up a bit extra of the life of the radiator but no other significant consequences. Thanks for the advice and comments.

I'm gonna put everything together and fire back up with some nice dry ash.

 

I'd be more worried about how the control got moved than hurting that chunk of steel

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

 

Oh, I know who moved it. There have now been a couple serious discussions about it. I'm not too worried about it happening again.

 

my new one after a year looks like that.. call Woodstock I had a mishap got STT to 750 on their thermometer when someone forgot to close cat.. Owner told me not to worry that was only 3rd gear!

 

Yikes! I've had mine up to ~500 STT recently, and I was shocked at the heat output. Can't imagine that feeling at 750!

 

Apparently mine is not the first one to get hot!?! I don't think the magnetic STT could have been much above 750 when I shut the air down, if it was even there yet. I'm sure it would have gotten there and beyond if the air had been left on with that locust in there.

 

So where did the metal flakes come from?

 

Your radiator looks pretty good!

 

They came from the radiator. The cat was glowing hot enough to burn a layer of steel off the bottom side of the radiator. The stainless steel shield is placed there to protect the radiator from the direct heat. In this case, it wasn't enough protection, but it did catch the flakes and keep them off the cat.

 

On the few times I've run my IS a bit hard (but not that hard) I've noticed the highest temps on the front, right above the door, get to about that level. The top stayed a bit lower. I don't worry about 700-750 temps, as they were pretty common on my cast iron stoves that occasionally topped 800f (as were higher flue temps, often higher than 750 internal).

The fact that the stove was running hard for only a bit over a half hour bodes well. I'd guess all is well with it. The smell of a too-hot stove can be alarming, but that's mostly because the stove rarely gets that hot... doesn't necessarily mean any damage.