Rutland Products 701-6 Magnetic Burn Indicator, Red

Let me caveat this review by saying I love Rutland products. They're affordable, high quality, durable, easy to use, and available. My favorite Rutland product is their wood stove glass cleaner. My second favorite product is the thermometer. We bought our first Rutland stovetop thermometer about six years ago when we installed our wood stove and it's gone through its paces. We have to have a stovetop thermometer since we have a double-walled chimney. For those of you who have double-walled chimneys make sure you get a stovetop thermometer. There's not a thermometer made right now that goes into a double-wall pipe.It's important to me to know if the wood stove is burning efficiently and that's why I use a thermometer. My husband thinks the more wood, the better. He's been banned from the stove - the overfire section on the thermometer is there for a reason. The poor little thermometer needed to retire and go to the take-apart-all-gizmos pile. I don't know what happened to it (probably the last overfire which caused hubby to be banned); but, I'd have to tap it to make the needle move. (Note - don't tap a hot thermometer with your finger.) It was obviously time for a new thermometer. They're not meant to last forever. Let me clarify the thermometers are not meant to last forever. I'm keeping hubby.I have a bad habit on Amazon. I like free shipping. Rutland + Free Shipping and there was my favorite thermometer. The picture on the Amazon website looked just like the one I now have - red on black. Imagine my surprise when I received the package today and the new thermometer didn't look like the old one. Physically they are the same size. They both have the Rutland name. The zones are the same. The numbers on the new one are bigger. The color scheme is different.I called Rutland (did I mention I was a fan of Rutland products so I know them pretty well) and told them about the new thermometer being a different color than the old one. The old one is red on black. The new one is yellow (creosote) and orange (burn zone) and red (overfire) on black. It's a completely different color scheme. I told the Happy Rutland Lady - aka HRL - (they are always friendly and happy) that I was concerned about the thermometer I just received being a knock-off. The HRL laughed and said I got the newer version of the thermometer. They just haven't replaced the old picture with the new one. And, no, this wasn't a knock-off - it was the real deal.The new thermometer is on the wood stove and happily enjoying its new place in the family. I must admit the new color scheme is a bit easier to see from a distance. Maybe change IS good.2/4/12 ETA: I've been monitoring the temperature of the stove (inside and stove top) with a laser thermometer and comparing those temperatures to the Rutland thermometers. I've been raised on the "Trust but Verify" rule. The Rutlands (we have two) were low about 100 degrees. So my husband (Rutland folks, cover your eyes) adjusted the needle on the thermometers to be more in line with the laser thermometer. It only took a little tweaking. I think the springs were just too tight on the new thermometers. Now I absolutely trust the information I get from the Rutlands.

I grew up with a wood stove - thought I knew how to run one pretty well, until I moved into a new home with a relatively new wood stove that had a catalytic converter. I couldn't get solid success with the damn thing, and even failed once in front of the father-in-law. So I went and read the manual.What I learned was I couldn't just move levers around willy-nilly, but doing so at specific temperature ranges would a) make things easier, and b) make the stove a lot more efficient. Basically, this thermometer turned running a modern wood stove into a science for me.It worked great - until a friend's kid started playing with it one summer day. See, in the winter it's child proof - child touches part of stove, child gets burnt, stove has successfully defended itself. In the summer, it's this room temperature thing that's ready to play with. And he decided he wanted to see how far he could push that temperature pointer on the front. Alas, it never returned to zero.This time I purchased another of the same. Would be nice if it had a glass cover. If curious hands wreck another one, I'll have to look for something a little more enclosed. Or I could get smart and put it out of reach in the summer months...

I bought the Rutland Stove Thermometer figuring I would use it to see how well my new wood stove insert is burning so I don't over burn when in high use this winter. I have a flush mount wood stove so I was not expecting this thing to work out well since there is not much direct stove metal contact due to the large glass view door on it. I bought a little laser thermometer to test out the best place to put this thing and how well it works. When I did I found out the laser thermometer would read 455 at the spot and when I placed the Rutland there it says it's around 200. Basically this Rutland thermometer is a piece of metal face with paint and a magnet and a little coiled spring to drive the needle when heated on the back. Not sure about the rest but my seems to be very inaccurate or maybe it's just my stove setup. The laser thermometer I got though is very cool, easy to use, and with the tests I did seems very accurate on all surfaces. I would return the Rutland thermometer but looks like the kids broke it in one day when they wanted to see what would happen when you move the needle all the way to the right and let go.... Guess I'm keeping it.

This lasted about a year on our wood stove before the spring on the back fell out of the channel that connected it with the indicator arrow on the front. My guess is that if you were to use this vertically on a single wall stove pipe it would last much longer. We had it laying horizontally on the top of the stove because we have a double walled pipe. Eventually all the back and forth, along with gravity, made the spring fall out. That said, I ordered the same model again. It's pretty cheap and good enough.

We've had this thermometer for about a week - using it on the stove pipe above the wood stove - and it seems to be fine. I'm pleased with it. It has replaced one that got lost when the chimney sweep misplaced it. Based on the former thermometer I believe this one assesses the temperature accurately. (I wish they would make one that is easier to read from a bit of a distance - such as from ten or 12 feet away. In other words, more contrast in the dial markings. And I'd love a "glow-in-the-dark" needle on it - so I could REALLY see it in the evening when we have the lights turned on low.)