The lever was up(open) for the damper, but it did occur to me that maybe it was detached on the inside somewhere. Tube stove, so no cat to bypass. Thanks for the input. I have the chimney guy coming out to take another look. The gas water heater going through the same (dual) chimney is having issues maintaining heat through a shower as well. Maybe there are some leaves up there or something?
I was stacking and restacking wood today to stage some for next year and move oak back and locust up and I found a few stove-fills of ERC from last year(not-pictured), that should be good to go for our last few cold nights here. Chimney guy is coming on Sunday.
Is it possible there is a clog where the air comes in and/or that I might need to clean out the tubes or something? My lack of technical know how is really going to shine through here. I do have the stove manual, so maybe I'll start there. Even once the fire is going I am getting smoke coming out the door when I open it. Sometimes I'Ll leave the door open a crack to get things going, but even this I have to make the crack much smaller than usual to keep from getting smoke or ash in the room. Which makes me think any clog would be on the way out or post combustion. Because it is looking for another way out. Also, the damper lever (is it still a damper on the intake?) does still effect the burn.. Taking it from bad to worse if I close it.
Do you have a stainless liner from the insert in your clay flue? Partial up past the smoke shelf? I dont see a chimney cap, so I'm guessing you may not. I've seen over the years that two different flues exiting at the same height can cause drafting problems on windy days.
The previous picture was of the neighbors, just to show chimney height since we have nearly identical make/models of houses. I just went out and took a picture of ours, with the stove being connected to the left side. We had our hvac replaced a few years ago and they replaced the liner, presumably with stainless. Also, in the fall we had the chimney rebricked as it was in pretty bad shape. I wonder if something may have happened during installation, but the stove performed well up until the last few weeks when I admittedly started sneaking in some potentially wetter wood. I say potentially, because I didn't take a moisture reading on it, but now even yr old cedar is acting like soggy oak, with smoldering burns and smoke when the door opens. I'm going to take some readings on the cedar today to make sure.
Ok, good to have a liner all the way up. Wood may be suspect. I've seen many here mention on other threads to pick up a bundle of gas station wood that is kiln dried. That should give you a good idea if it is a stove or flue issue.
Check the mesh on your cap, it may be constricted from creosote. I've seen that happen before. It too comes from burning wood that's not properly seasoned or/and burning at very low temps.
Open a window somewhere in the house. Your 1st pic shows the creosote scrubbings made it to the firebox (presumably because the baffle board(s) above the tubes were removed during the sweep?)... So why not stick a handheld mirror in there and look up the flue? Maybe there’s a gentle bend in the liner to get around the smoke shelf of the original fireplace, just depends on the original geometry of the brickwork.
The sweep is coming back with a camera tomorrow, so hopefully we’ll get to the bottom of it. It did look pretty easy to take the tubes and baffle out. Our house is from the mid ‘40’s so there haven’t been tight house issues in the past that opening window might help, but I’ll give it a shot. There is only one exhaust fan in the bathroom downstairs that is rarely in use.
Mystery solved I think. We’ll fire her up w some kiln wood tonight just to be sure. Thanks to all for the guidance.
Because they didn’t catch the issue the first time around? I was both being a little “penny smart, pound foolish” and he was available sooner than the other guys that was $50 more. At least he came back out to make it right. I tried to get him to bring some dry or kilned wood to test, and I would pay him, but he was not interested. My wife said in Portuguese, her first language, there is an expression, something along the lines of “ in the Blacksmith’s house the poker (tool) is made of wood.” I guess the sweep doesn’t burn wood.
I doubt the sweep from last spring cleaned it either, and he was trying to sell me a new brick chimney.
I might try on my own next year and amble up on the roof to check it myself.. maybe. I’m pretty klutzy for roof work. I could just take it real slow.
Right! I guess he “cleaned” it from inside the house? The black flue cap should have been addressed the first trip. From your pics it looks like it should have been visible from the ground?
