Why buy a wood burning stove flue thermometer?

Anyone who has been using a wood burning or multi-fuel stove will know that it is far from a simple task.  Whilst they are not exactly rocket science to operate them on a certain level, making them as efficient and therefore effective as possible certainly takes not only practice but a certain amount of experience.

Many people like myself have installed a wood burner to reduce their gas, electricity or oil energy bills.  If you have a steady free supply of wood, them maybe increasing the efficiency of your stove is not so important.  However, wasting fuel is not clever in these environmentally enlightened times.

Unlike other heating appliances a wood burner or multi-fuel stove has no readout to tell you how well its going or what temperature it is working at.  This can make it difficult to know how well it is working, or when to add more logs or coal.  Whilst it is possible to learn how well the stove is operating, for most busy people this is not going to happen quickly.  So I decided to review the flue pipe or stovepipe thermometer that I recently bought from Amazon.

A flue pipe thermometer is a fairly cheap add-on which helps you avoid two key issues with a wood burning stove.

1) Over-fuelling your stove.  You won’t get more heat out of a stove, because you constantly add more logs.  It is rated at a certain output, adding more logs will just go up the chimney.  What a waste.

2) Running a stove too cold, can cause deposits of creosotes, which in extreme cases can lead to chimney fires or at least condensation running down in the inside of the flue.

 Installing a stove pipe thermometer

It is really simple to install, it is advisable that the thermometer is position on the flue pipe about one foot or three hundred milimetres above the top of the wood burner.  Most simply stick on via a small magnet on the back.  Where certain flue types are not magnetic, they can be attached with a piece of wire and a screw.

Here is a few pictures showing my wood burner with the Stovax stovepipe pipe thermometer during the first time I lit the fire with it installed.

You can see that the needle/marker moved as the fire grow.  These pictures were taken over a 20 minute period.  You can see the position of the stovax thermometer in relation to the stove.  I don’t know how accurate these are, but having used one for several burns now, they do offer reliable information about when to refuel and when to change the air dampers to keep the fire running nice and hot.  The most interesting thing for me, is that I’ve been getting the stove up to the far end of the optimum zone, nearly in the over-fuelling zone, but importantly will less logs that I used to put on.  So I guess I was over-fuelling most of the time.  I have since noticed that my consumption of logs has gone down significantly, yet nobody in the house has noticed the room any cooler.

Recommended Product:

Stovax Stove Flue Pipe Thermometer Temperature Gauge

What I liked about this one, is the fact that it is fairly small, lightweight and attached magnetically.  Therefore there is no damage to the flue pipe or lasting marks, should I ever decide to remove it.

The display is very simple, just three zones of operation; Creosote, Best operation and Too hot.  The temperatures are displayed in both Celsius and Fahrenheit.

I really didn’t know what to expect from a stovepipe thermometer, but for such a small cost and no installation worries, I was prepared to take a punt on the fact that I might save some fuel and keep my chimney running cleaner.

What other people are saving:

This product was exactly as described and does the job stated very well. it fits in well with the stove and does not look out of place, delivered on time and in excellent condition. fantastic customer service highly recomended.

Neat and contemporary gauge for checking on your stoves operational temperatures.Optimum zone is the target to achieve the ideal level. The magnetic fix has been reliable over several weeks of use, but you can screw to the pipe too. If you position the gauge high up on the stove pipe it the figures / zones could be a little clearer to read, but that’s nit-picking. Overall a very good device.

Great little gadget for lighting and maintaining the fire – helps me get it up to full temperature. sticks well to the flue.

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