Edwin Pawlowski wrote:
wrote in message

I should have specified the pipe temperatures in my original post. The
thermometer I use shows the "best combustion" range as 300 - 475 F.
Over 475 is labeled "too hot". When it gets up around 500, I shut 'er
down to cool off a little.

Just let it burn down. That is not a big deal. As I said, I'd heat it up
every day to prevent creosote.


The stovepipe is defintely single-walled - I have pulled it out of the
chimney myself to look at it. It is probably not up to code.

Sure,it is. I've never seen multi-walled pipe in an exposed situation. You
want that heat in the house, not to force it up the chimney and waste it.
If you look at photos from many years ago, the stove would be in the center
of the old general store and a long pipe to the chimney to get the most heat
from it. Steel takes quite a bit of heat.



And to clarify, it is the brick chimney that I am worried about, not
the metal pipe. I have inadvertently let the metal pipe get red hot,
so I'm pretty sure it can handle 500 F. I'm just not sure how hot the
chimney itself is supposed to get. It is the chimney that gets too hot
to touch. (I may have mis-used the word "flue" in my original post.)

Now that sounds too hot. I've never had my brick chiney so hot that I could
not lean against it easily. Right at the thimble it may be very hot, but
the mass of the chimney itself will usually absorb and diffuse the heat
safely. This is hte portion that is in touch withthe rest of the house,
like the framing.


Good post but...

A properly constructed masonry chimney will not touch any framing. At
least not in the few constuction manuals I have read. They specified a
2" clearance minimum. I don't know what code calls for.

Harry K