Well I did it

I overfired my stove tonight,750*. I left the ash door open and got distracted with something else. It was like that for about 15 min before I relized it an *censored* the air down. I hope I didn't damage anything.

THis is the best $50.00 I've ever spent. It has alarms for high and low temps and 2 probes. I can carry the remote all over the house while I have the ash pan door open to rev up the fire

I have one probe secured to the flue pipe set at 260 degrees and the other probe secured to the front over the load door set at 400.


http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Wireless ... pd_sbs_k_1

You probably didn't hurt it. Look it over closely anyway, just to be sure and ease your mind. Next time don't get distracted.

I learned my lesson the hard way many years ago. This was with bituminous coal in an Anchor Oak stove. It was a tough stove. Once I loaded it up and opened the draft all the way. Now this stove was hooked up to a 70 foot high chimney so the draft was very strong. I walked away and forgot about it for a minute. I suddenly remembered it when I started smelling hot metal. I ran back into the parlor and the entire stove barrel was bright orange and the stove pipe was A TRANSLUCENT YELLOW!!!! Yes you could actually see the flames and smoke raging up the pipe through the metal. It was an instant away from melting down. I was scared to death. I was about to burn down one of the towns most magnificent Victorian mansions.

I shut the ash pan drafts completely off and the stove started to instantly cool down. I had to wait for the fire to go out. The stove was fine, but; the pipe had to be replaced. The rod that held the pipe damper had melted and sagged to the point that I couldn't turn it.
Lesson learned. It could have been a horrible tragedy.
Just for emphasis here is a picture of the house I lived in when the stove incident happened. I was restoring it in exchange for rent. I still think of it as my house since I put so much work into it.

Hmmmm, people getting distracted with the risk of burning their houses & families up???? Excuses don't work there!! Being I'm working on my social skills, I won't go off on a rant! Glad ya caught it Bruce.

wsherrick wrote:Just for emphasis here is a picture of the house I lived in when the stove incident happened. I was restoring it in exchange for rent. I still think of it as my house since I put so much work into it.

Beautiful Home alright!

And as most most people do.... I like happy endings.

Lightning wrote:

http://www.amazon.com/Maverick-Wireless ... pd_sbs_k_1

Thanks for the link, I will be ordering one today

That is a beautiful house, reminds me of my grandmothers old place. Had great fun in that house as kids.

Fred, flame away. In order to get hurt feelings one must have feelings first off, I've had mine surgically removed. Your social skills are tremendous.
And you're right, I put my families lives at risk. Very dangerous and irresponsible.

Glad there is a happy ending too. Stove temp at 750 I would rthink your stove is fine. That stove is built like a tank to begin with. I use that barbque thermometer also. Not so much to avoid over firing but in my case to avoid an outfire from random brain farts. Saved me one last year when I forget to turn the stoker motor back on. Beautiful home!

freetown fred wrote:Hmmmm, people getting distracted with the risk of burning their houses & families up???? Excuses don't work there!! Being I'm working on my social skills, I won't go off on a rant! Glad ya caught it Bruce.

dont worry bout social skills/polit correct...to much of that crap these days

I'm glad no one got hurt and nothing got damaged. I had a close call once...never walked away from the stove during reloading again.

I put a rocking chair down by the stove for a reason, now I will use it.

Bruce M wrote:I put a rocking chair down by the stove for a reason, now I will use it.

With an egg timer...in case you nod off.

This is the exact reason I don't use the ash pan door for anything. I want a hotter fire? I adjust the bimetallic thermostat. Even when I'm trying to liven the fire. I have enough bad luck without forgetting to close the ash door.

Glad things weren't worse for you and hopefully the stove is ok.

It think you're stove will be ok at that temp. It happens every year a couple times to someone on the forum, believe it.

I was "freshening" up the fire in my cook stove one time and I didn't even have the ash door open, just had the slide wide open and the stove in direct draft (not circling the oven) and like William I smelled that hot metal smell, ran in the kitchen and the two burner plates and the piece that holds them on top of the firebox was just starting to get that dull pink they start at. I threw the oven switch, closed the MPD a bit and let her come down. When I used my infrared thermo on it I got the h signal which means it was hotter than the scale reads (950 degrees) It was just a hair over though cause if I moved the lazer a bit I got the 900+ reading. As soon as it dropped down a little I tossed a couple scoops of fresh anthracite on top and it and that cooled it back to a reasonable level where I could set the controls normally.
Good old cast iron didn't really bother it a bit on the old gal but it was enough to scare me into a timer too.

I've got a security camera trained on the stove. It's saved me a bunch of times so far .. and provides entertainment whenever there's an explosion!

http://nepacrossroads.com/download/file.php?id=23780

http://nepacrossroads.com/download/file.php?id=37678

Poor Kitty.......