The post arrived today with a nice gift for me from Machria Thank you and big hugs Inside the package was: I put the thermometer on the horizontal section of stove pipe. For now I am using an old oven thermometer but will get a proper one. So now I need some info on how I am to use the pipe readings. Again, thanks so much Machria for this very nice gift. Big hugs.
Depends upon the stove. 200 is a bit low for the flue. 250 is better. On reloads, we watch the flue and if it hits 500, that for sure is time to cut the draft. For the stove top, again, depending upon the stove and it also depends upon where you locate the thermometer. That is one good reason to check the stove with IR to find the hottest part of the stove and this might surprise you where the hot spots are! We don't want to go above 700 stove top and 500 flue. But once we reduce the draft, the flue temperature drops fairly quick usually to around 350 at the peak of the burn and gradually goes down from there. If we have lots of coaling, when the stove top reaches 350 we open the draft all the way and this gets rid of that problem while maintaining the stove heat.
