QuadraFire 4300 Step Top Temperature?

[RedNeckGeek]

I'm a newbie wood burner and am curious about the stove top temperatures I'm seeing on a Quadra Fire 4300 step top stove I've recently started using. I have "Inferno" brand temperature gauges on both levels of the top, approximately centered side to side. They have ranges marked "Creosote", "Best Zone", and "Too Hot", with corresponding temperature ranges of 0F - 400F, 400F - 650F, 650F and up. I've been burning a half stove load of wood in the mornings to take the chill off, using the Automatic Combustion Control and Burn Rate Control set to high for the first fifteen minutes or so. During that time the lower step temperature will sometimes get into the "Too Hot" zone while the upper step barely makes it into the "Best Zone". At that point I'll throttle the Burn Rate Control down to about 1/3 open and temperatures will drop back into lower step "Best Zone" and upper step "Creosote" readings. Once the stove burns down to coals, the lower step runs in the lower part of the "Best Zone" and the upper falls into the low "Creosote" zone. Should I be worried that I'm running the stove both too hot at the start and too cold at the end? My initial thought is that the stove is just doing what it does naturally, and that is to vary temperature by the amount of fuel available at any particular time. The longer it burns, the cooler it burns as the fuel is consumed. From that perspective, the zones painted on the gauges by Inferno seem to have little correlation with what's really going on in the flue. I'll probably pop the chimney cap and run a brush through the flue (tripple wall stainless) just to see what, if anything, comes out, but I'm wondering what other Quadra Fire / Inferno users have seen?

 

[westcliffe01]

Don't concern yourself too much about the stove top temperature. Get a probe type thermometer for the flue and install it about 2-3 ft above the stove in the stove pipe. It is the flue that will gather creosote, not the stove. A probe type thermometer that is in direct contact with the flue gas is much more accurate than one on the surface of a pipe where many different factors will influence its reading.



Buy at Aamazon Amazon.com - FlueGardTM Thermometer (3-39). Most precise readings for DOUBLE WALL pipe. Durable genuine porcelain enamel with yellow, orange and red zones clearly indicated on black case -- shows temperatures in the center of the fluepipe, at a glance

It works perfectly well on single wall pipe. Much better that a surface thermometer.

 

[oosik]

When I had a wood burning stove - I would run the stove very hot for about an hour - once a week. I would use a flue brush each fall - before the wood burning season - and get little to nothing out of the chimney. I burned 100% pine - which produces a lot of flue gasses and creosote. Burned a wood stove for 16 years and never had a problem with a build-up of creosote. I never burned "new" wood. My firewood was always "aged" in the woodshed for at least one and a half years.

 

[KennyG]

Get the stove pipe thermometer. Stove top temperatures vary a lot based on the design of the stove. The ones I have recommend placement 6 inches above the top of the stove. (this assumes you have single wall pipe in the house)

 

[dmccarty]

Sounds like we have the same thermometer you are using.

We have a different stove and keep the thermometer on the flue but on the top of the stove. If the firewood is really dry, even with the air supply reduced as far as it will go, the temperature can get well into the thermometer's Too Hot zone. This is a bit worrisome since the location of the thermometer should be cooler than the temperature inside the flue.

The only way we can keep the temperature in the Best Zone is to use wood that is not too dry. Go figure.

We need to clean the stove and I think installing a flue thermometer is a good idea so I will see if the chimney sweep can add one. In previous cleanings we have had no creosote build up. :thumbsup: I think this is because we run the fires hot, and for the most part, burn dry wood. Sometimes we will have to burn wood that is a bit wet but so far, no problems.

Later,
Dan

 

[westcliffe01]

The reason to not install the probe thermometer too close to the stove top is that the bimetallic spiral which moves the needle is behind the circular scale. If you put the probe thermometer too low in the stovepipe, the bimetal will pick up too much heat off the stove top and it will read artificially high. The flue gas also needs some distance in the stovepipe to stabilize in flow. Thats why I suggest 2 feet. Higher than that will start to get difficult to reach for shorter people, depending on the height of the stove.