How Hot Does A Fireplace And Wood Stove Get? Wood Fire Temperature Guide

How hot do fireplaces and wood stoves get?

The exact wood fire temperature will depend on:

• your specific wood stove or fireplace
• the variety of wood you are burning
• the wood moisture content
• which type of heat you are measuring

But I’m sure you didn’t come here to find out the exact precise temperature your fire is burning, so well give you some general guidelines just below.

Wood Fire Temperature

How hot do different types of indoor fire burn?

• A standard wood stove will generally burn at between 500 and 800°F
• A small wood stove will reach slightly lower temperatures than this
• A good fireplace insert will reach temperatures of 400 to 700°F
• An open fireplace puts out a lot less heat as most heads up the chimney

It’s important to recognize that there are different types of heat, and it depends on what you’re measuring.

The figures I’ve listed here are for the outside surface of the fire (other than the open fire), rather than inside the burning embers which get a lot hotter than the temperatures listed.

The Different Types Of Heat

There are 3 different types of heat that are helpful to be aware of when talking about how hot a wood stove or fireplace gets.

1. Radiant heat – the heat you feel when sitting in front of a fire or which warms up items around the fire
2. Convection heat – the heated air that is shifted by a blower in a fireplace insert or up the chimney in an open fire
3. Conduction heat – when something is heated through touch, such as a pot on a wood fire stove

So you can see why it’s difficult to say exactly how hot an indoor fire can get because it depends on the type of heat you’re measuring.

A good wood stove will efficiently heat the air in your home to 75°F in the winter, which is a very comfortable temperature. You can keep your home this warm by burning well-seasoned wood and ensuring you have a clean chimney.

The Benefits Of A Hot Fire

There are a number of reasons why a hot burning fire is a good thing:

• Most importantly, it will heat your home and water (if on a wet back) better
• The hotter it burns the less creosote build-up (the black sticky stuff you get when cleaning your chimney)
• You can cook or boil water on it faster (good unless you’re trying to slow-cook!)

Always mitigate the dangers of having a hot fireplace in the house by having a good safety guard to protect kids and pets, and keep a well-swept chimney to avoid a chimney fire and to run your fire more efficiently.

And yes, don’t let your fire get too hot!

How Hot Is Too Hot?

How hot is too hot when it comes to wood fire stoves and fireplaces?

Anything over 800°F is starting to get too hot and could damage your wood stove or fireplace.

Some types of wood, if they are let to burn at full force can heat up a fireplace too hot. For example, We burn a lot of well-seasoned gum in our wood stove and it’s something I really have to watch out for. Gum burns incredibly hot, so I always need to have the fire down low and mix with other varieties.

650 – 750°F is a good burning target to aim for because at that temperature you’re not going to get creosote build-up and you’ll have a warm toasty home.

If you would like to measure the temperature of your fireplace, grab an infrared temperature gun (here on Amazon). They are easy to use for a range of purposes including checking the temperature of your Ooni Pizza Oven (from experience 😂).

Let us know if you have any further questions in the comments below!