Coal stove, burning wood, and chimney fire(s)

Ok, so had the sweep by Friday. He brushed out a whopping 1/8 to 1/4 cup of fine powder creosote. He basically said there is no reason I should have had a fire. The other guy with him thought that maybe some coal fines collected on the corrugated liner and lit up. With the draft I have it is possible for the fines to get sucked in and flames to get into the T-snout, I'm not sure the gases are hot enough to ignite them though. He said my firewood looked ready to go then he in not so many words said I was a p^&&y and with my type of stove I will have mini fires from time to time. I'm not cool with any type of chimney fire, flames, red cap, etc. If I have another one I may ditch this thing and go with a dedicated EPA wood burner.

 

Welcome to the club!

I'm not sure if you need a new MM, but it sure sounds like you need a new chimney sweep! You'd think he'd show a little more concern about chimney fires?!?

I agree with others who suspect your wood is not dry enough. Firewood dries from the outside first, so if you're not re-splitting the pieces you're testing, you're probably not getting an accurate reading. If the wood sizzles out of the ends it's not dry enough.

KaptJaq 's advice about watching the amount of smoke coming out of the flue I think was spot on. If your wood is dry enough, and you have the right combustion conditions in the firebox, your "smoke dragon" ought to run nearly as clean as an EPA stove. Starting from a stone cold stove, within about 30-45 mins, I have very little visible smoke coming out of my chimney. If you're smoking the entire time, something is dangerously wrong.

[EDIT] One other thing - I see 2 chimney caps... Your furnace isn't sharing the same flue as your stove, is it? Oil and gas furnaces mostly exhaust moisture, which could lead to rapid creosote buildup when it mixes with the wood and coal smoke.

 

Naahhhh, the sweep is a great guy, he's been at this for 30+ years and he knows his stuff.

My boiler is on it's own chimney and chimney liner.

I don't mind burning hot but I'm loading 3 to 4 logs in this thing every 1 to 1.5 hours, it cranks thru them like they are nothing. I'll have to do some searching but is there any way to get at least 3 to 4 hours out of a load of wood? For over night burns the stove is basically cold in the morning and there is no controlling the temp in the hearth room, when I'm burning hot I'm at a sweltering 88*F, that's blowing cold air in from my bedroom and sucking hot air out to another bedroom.

 

Is the box full with 3-4 splits? My stove runs a lot differently if the box isn't full. It requires more air since there's less in the heat and fuel side of the pyramid. Smoke is wasted BTUs: given a little more heat or oxygen, it would have ignited in the box and provided a little more heat.

Many of us here prefer to use softer woods (even pine! ) this time of year when you don't need as much heat. That way I can fill my stove normally and the temp spike in the house isn't unbearable. I do like to run my stove on the hot side, so usually I like to have an overnight fire.

In regards to burn time, that's also related to how much you're filling the box, and what with. A full stove of oak, running right, would give me 8hrs of good heat with plenty of coals to get her going again in the morning.

 

Need your definition of a "log".
Pics might help.

 

This really sounds like an "old school" thought process, and his 30 years of experience only means that he's had that much time to either get it right (doesn't sound like it), or continue doing it wrong the whole time (more likely).
Just remember, WAY back in the day, the prevailing thought amongst the scholars and learned of the time was that the Earth was flat.

 

you guys had me rolling on the log pic, was debating putting up a pic of a turd, yea I may be middle aged but I'm still in eight grade. lol flat earth.

I'm burning oak now, that's all that's sort of ready besides the poplar but I typically burn that outside, about 4 splits fills my box. keep in mind it's for coal, it holds about 70#of nut.

 

I was doing that with my old Ashley, once I got it all fixed up.
Pretty much the same with the new stove, but better.

 

If 3-4 splits are filling your stove, you should consider splitting them smaller or getting a different stove. I like having at least 3 crisscrossed layers in there for good air circulation. I don't do the top down thing - if you didnt have air coming in from the bottom id say that might be half of your problem right there.

It sounds to me like you just need to still figure out how to run that stove. And the absolute key to that is having dry enough wood. I'd try that poplar if it feels light when you handle it. That oak may need a bit longer - if its sizzling its not ready. Split it smaller and find a good place to stack it with sun and wind and it might be ready next year. Spend the $40 on a moisture meter too.

Sorry for the woodburning 101 class, but were all just trying to help. We don't like our members having chimney fires at all! No matter what your sweep thinks. And please please check your smoke detectors and have an extinguisher ready!

 

It is still basically a coal stove. It will take a while playing with it to figure out how to best burn wood in it. As already mentioned, make sure your wood is dry. Then tinker with both air adjustments to get the heat level you want with minimum smoke. On mine the bottom adjusts the burn rate (hot, warm, cool) then I use the top to burn off the smoke.

If you get moisture or the brown sludge in the firebox your wood is very wet. In that case Try some store bought klin dried wood to see how it works.

Good luck & patience,
KaptJaq

 

I tried lighting from the top and bottom yesterday, much better results, my kindling was gone in 10 min.
I'd like to do the criss cross thing but I'd need 2 different length of logs, 20" and 12", is it worth the effort? you think the size of the splits I have in the pic are too big?
none of the wood I'm burning sizzles, it lights up pretty much instantly. I love burning poplar, great visual flames, the stuff I have is super light.
I don't like chimney fires either, and yes, in addition to the hardwired smokes/carbon, I have added 3 battery smoke/carbon and change the batteries every year. I also have 2 A B C extinguishers.
don't worry about schooling me, something isn't going right, hence the chimney fires. I'm trying to exhaust all options before I give up and buy a new stove.

 

kaptjaq,

"basically coal..." that's the conclusion I'm coming too, even though they say it burns both it only burns 1 properly. my top knobs seem to have zero effect on the wood burning, open/closed/half the fire never changes, although I haven't check outside smoke while doing so, I'll try that tonight.

 

so I have a theory on my"chimney fires". since the flue is practically clean with no real creosote build up, is it possible the stove is so inefficient at burning wood that the flue is hot enough to burn off the flue gasses? Gasses that would normally be burnt in a secondary? Could the conditions be just right in my set up that it's possible? Last night I was hearing some thumping and checked my cap, it was red, no flames. I let the stove go for another 5ish minutes and it stayed red for most of that time. I cut some air keeping a healthy flame in the stove, 550ish temp on the door, the cap redness went away and I didn't have an issue the rest of the night. however that was the last load I put in there. The red cap is occurring during loading with the air intake knobs opened significantly to light up the new logs. I'm thinking it's great A/F ratio to burn flue gasses.

 

I would have said no way...but it kinda sounds like you are onto it...man that is a ton of heat wasted up the flue!
Sounds like this stove would be a good candidate for a secondary air tube mod

 

My Aunt's parents house burned down on Tuesday due to a chimney fire. So, yeah, they're a BIG deal.

Sounds like you're burning WAY too fast. Does that thing have forced air blower or something? I don't think I could get mine that hot if I tried.

I'd think real hard about hanging it up if I was you. You wont have saved much money if you burn your house down.

 

Totally agree that something isn't right. If the cap is that hot, how hot is the rest of the pipe lower down?

 

I agree with you guys, this thing scares the s##t out of me. I'm going to burn coal to get rid of the 4ish tons I have and at the end of the season sell the stove as a coal stove and buy a dedicated wood one. at least I think that will solve my chimney fire issues, the one I'm looking at has both secondary and cat, flue gasses shouldn't be nearly as hot as what I have, and will be much cleaner and efficient. shouldn't have a blast furnace effect. I can always measure the actual draft too and talk to the manufacturer to see if that's an issue.

 

Is this normal coloring?
I too was wondering how the cap could be red. That should be the coolest part of the flue........right?
Unless the stove is running like a blast furnace (and I have no idea how those run).

 

That color down on the tee is only mildly alarming (that much of it this soon anyways) but up on the cap...no, not normal at all

 

do you guys think this is characteristic/design of this stove or do I have something else going on?