Plugged chimney cap

I have wondered the same. The best way to stop the smoke is to throw another split or two on, which gets the heat up, and off we go!

 

This will probably work fine for me, not from the ground, but easily from the roof.

 

Yup I would agree with that. We tend to put in three splits North South which do so much better than just two. I definitely think that the more wood you have the more they tend to feed off each other probably because there is more heat that spurs on combustion.

 

Lowe's Home Improvement is cheaper; they don't stock them you have to order them.

 

Watching the fire; and then shutting down the air at the appropriate time, will do more than just limiting the "logs on the fire" IMHO!!!

 

So here we are 3 weeks later, and last night and this morning I saw some smoke spillage from the stove when I opened the door. This morning as I was leaving for work, I saw the screen plugged again.

It is all new, the whole setup, so I am learning still. Tomorrow I will clean the screen again.

The wood is dry (2+ years stacked), I am sure of that. I believe my low overnight burns are plugging it up, I need to experiment with a little more air maybe.

 

So is it a dry soot that is clogging the screen? Perhaps you could put a screen with larger holes?

 

Yes it is dry soot, very loose. I am still considdering just removing the screen. When I cleaned it yesterday the cap was indeed plugged, but the chimney was pretty much clean.

 

What temp do you run your stove pipe at (make sure to mention whether it is surface or probe)?
I have a cap very similar to yours and have never plugged it and I had one on my non EPA stove and it never plugged in over 30 years.

 

Remove the screen.

You can always put it back on for the summer, no?

 

I don't have a pipe probe, doublewall pipe so cannot use surface on the pipe.

I believe the culprit is that I have been running it too low on my overnight burns. I can't say what the STT was, but probably too low as I thought the goal was to get it to flame on secondaries only. For that reason, after loading it up, I quickly had the primary air fully closed; probably both too early (temp wise), and too much (fully closed).

I am considering that, thanks. For the moment I would like to see if I can work with it. If not, I will probably try a larger mesh first, before removing it completely.

Thanks for all the input, slowly learning here. The old installation had no screen.

 

I might have done the same. Flue temp was in the middle of the good range and the STT was around 550F and I was seeing good flames at the secondaries. So I thought all was good to go to damp it down. When I went to bed, the secondaries were doing their job.

 

Maybe between the two of us, and all the generous help here at FHC, we'll figure this all out. I suspect your stove and mine will act much the same.

 

I can't run my stove like that, IMHO there should be flames on the wood and I believe I have read that some where also, if you turn it down too low the temp will fall below the level that the secondary combustion will take place and then you have no flames which results in smoldering fires.

 

I'm not sure if I missed it, but what are you using to check temperatures?

 

If it's a secondary-only stove (no cat) so long as you keep the secondaries lit you're fine (even if there's no direct flame off the wood). If you turn the air down so far the secondaries go out before the coaling stage of the burn, you've got a problem.

 

I have an IR gun, and springy type thermometer. They are generally with 50 degrees of each other on the stove top.

 

Mine wont do that (Drolet) and neither would my Summit, if I turned it down that far the secondaries go out long before the gas combustion stage is over. I am sure some setups can do it but maybe takes a very good draft.

 

I recommend a flue probe.