How hot are you "typically comfortable" running your stove (Peak Temperature)? My stove is a typical steel stove with tube re-burner setup. It is about 25 years old. It is a "T-top" style. When I am looking to quickly heat the house up by several degrees on a cold morning, I will see numbers in the 675 range when it starts to "smell hot". Yes, "smell hot" is a scientific term! Am I "over firing" in the 675 degree Fahrenheit range? Am I risking a flue fire? (I burn only dry wood, the flue gets cleaned.) Any other advice related to peak stove top temperatures? When you measure your stove top's temperature, where do you measure it at? I have found that the hottest spot on my stove top is directly in front of the flue. I have a double walled flue - so no point measuring temperature there. The following pictures all taken at the same time - notice "stove top" temperatures vary wildly from above 400 to below 200 at the same time. (I thought that was interesting.) 401 at the hottest spot - right in front of the flue. 224 over on the left side... 199 over on the right.
I like 650F and run the STT up to that temp on fresh loads before setting the cruise. Should be plenty safe.
Good poll and questions Buzz. 650 should not be overfire. Flue fire? Burning dry wood you should not have a problem but realize there is a maximum temp for stainless chimneys. About the only way the flue would get too hot would be to do something like open an ash door for too long or forget to turn the draft down. Peak temperatures are typically lower with soapstone stoves; ours is 700. However, I do know of one that exceeded that by a lot! He got away with it... Also one should be aware of possible warping inside the stove if too hot. We measure ours over top of the catalyst as that will be the hottest.
The people at SBI told me not to worry if the the SST is around 900*f for extended periods of time. I ran that stove hot but was not comfortable at 900! Lol
I truly don't remember. I think somewhere around 750-800 is a good cruise on a cold winter night. When I first got it, I paid attention to it. But then learn what it looked like, sounded like, and smelled like. I have two magnet temperatures on the pipe just above the stove (one holding the other up & the one holding it up doesn't work) on the stove pipe. I know where I'm at in the burn, whether I'm bogging down, cruising or burning rubber redlining it. That's the closest thing to a temperature gauge that I currently have.
I don’t pay a lot of attention to my stt. I watch my flue probe and my cat probe. I look at my stt more at the end of a 12-14 hour burn. When I’m reloading and my stt is 250-300 I’m all smiles.
On my little insert there's just enough room for a magnetic thermometer on the stove top in front of the flue. I've checked with a temp gun and that's the hottest spot. The hottest I've seen was just under 700. I'm ok with 600 on a regular basis. It typically runs 500-600 when loaded full. A bit over 600 won't bother me as long as I know it's not continuing to climb.
On stove top next to the flue I start at 500° to 600°with a full load. Reload at 250°. I get 9-10 hours usually. (Woodstock Ideal Steel) Sent from my Pixel 4a (5G) using Tapatalk
I've had mine as high as 700 without worry, but it just gets too hot in the building. 400-450 is plenty of heat even at 0 degrees. The stove is way more efficient than I expected. Packed full & closed down it'll still maintain 350 stt at 24hrs. with good Oak or similar.