My Ideal Steel Is Pooping Creosote onto the Hearth Pad

My old eyeballs might be seeing funny golf, but it looks in the picture like maybe that plate is bent a little? Even with a hot stove you could hold a straightedge against it to confirm. If not bent, it still looks like the gasket may not be complete on that end of the plate where the poop was. Agree it would suggest you remove the plate to investigate (after this next storm for sure). Do you ever get the smell of wood smoke in your house ( other than from opening the stove door)? Does it back-puff?

 

How does your chimney exit your home from the stove?

 

Creosote is the direct result of incomplete combustion. Meaning that all of the gasses in the wood haven't been burnt and begin condensing on internal surfaces. Keeping temperatures above approximately 260 degrees does not allow it to condensate. In most cases incomplete combustion happens because moisture needs to be driven out of the wood lowering combustion temperatures. All wood has moisture and that moisture needs higher combustion temperatures to be properly evaporated.

With cat stoves you can close the bypass and let the cat burn those un burnt gasses at a very low temperature. However, too low of temperatures means condensation can build in your firebox. That usually isn't a problem until it starts pooping on your hearth.

That's why I suggest burning a bit hotter off the bat to increase internal temperatures before shutting it down.

I agree with others that the stove does have a defect, though, I still don't think there should be liquids running inside your stove.

 

The plot thickens....I removed as much of the back panel as possible and found some interesting things. Let's start with a pile of metal filings below the butterfly valve; how they got there is a mystery because they are on top of the paint.



Next up is a top view of the port with the cover removed. Notice the creosote splatters:



Last but not least, and close-up view inside the port. Notice the creosote dripping down:



This is as far as I was able to disassemble. To be blunt as a bowling ball, I'm starting to think that this stove is a misfire in the production run.

 

Is this the side of the stove that got "forked"?
Could be something got bent when that happened, even if it didn't take a direct hit.
That is definitely not good.
Can you get a flashlight and look up in there? Use a mirror.
A lemon is also a possibility.
I'd wanna' know where those drips are coming from, as I'm sure you are.

 

I'd have to wonder if the forklift incident broke a wield in the firebox somewhere, letting the creosote condense and drip down because of cool air introduced by the break?

 

Great photos and great information.

It looks like the creosote, at least a good deal of it, is coming from the secondary air intake rather than the primary. I would think but of course do not know, that the secondary air feed would be sealed all the way to the top of the firebox where it is introduced behind / over the stainless steel, perforated firebox top. Nothing there should be dripping creosote, again in my opinion.

Also, you may well be right in that there was a defect during manufacturer- hey, it happens. Maybe a seam was not welded, maybe a corner was not sealed or something similar.

So now I would suggest taking the next step and sending this information to Woodstock and further, call them on the telephone and speak to someone about it. At least give them a chance to make this right, and I bet they will do so. I understand you contacted them before but we live in an imperfect world and perhaps your problem slipped through the proverbial cracks.... ? Contacting them again will cost you nothing and take very little of your time- you already did the time consuming part by documenting the problem very well, just a few more minutes of effort on your part and I think this whole issue may be resolved to everyone's satisfaction.

All in my personal opinion of course. And the very best of luck whichever way you go.

Brian

 

I can't do it today but I might just take off my cover in the same location to see if there is anything similar. Any other volunteers? That might help determine whether this is a general design issue and therefore gasket or cover panel related or something specific to your stove's firebox.

 

Brian,

Thanks a lot for volunteering to do this and I look forward to what you find. The metal filings really stumped me, as how in the heck did they get there? I looked closely and found no instance where Woodstock ground a weld after the stove was painted. The only other source is the butterfly valve located directly above the filings. How does a butterfly valve produce metal filings? I will again close this post by saying I love this stove and very much want it to be 100%. It has kicked the snot out of my prior EPA tube stoves, but the creosote and metal filing issues have to be resolved.

 

Some of the cat stove owners have reported creosote in their chimneys also due to low flue temps.

 

Good on 'ya Brian......again.
Another reason to love this place.

 

To offer more data, this picture shows no creo drips or drops behind the single-bolt plate on our stove. We've burned about 2 cords (18% MC) and burn cat only mode mostly.

 

Gark, is that a gasket, or a weld?

 

golf66 Same here, no creosote drips/drops behind the plate on our stove, so it looks like it might be a bad weld or other manufacturing defect or forklift damage inside your unit, not a problem common to the IS stove design itself (judging by Gark and my photos so far).

We've probably burned 3-4 cords of 2-3 year seasoned mix of cherry, ash, locust, hard maple and oak. I wasn't able to get a great view because I didn't remove the rear heat shield, just tilted it away from the base of the stove.

 

True. Here is an example. 3 year css oak. Burning too cool for an efficient clean burn.

But even this doesn't get creosote puddles standing or running.

 

I must be missing something, but what tells you that these dark splotches are creosote, and not some other substance?

 

What other substances might be dripping out of a wood stove during a season of normal use?

 

Is any type of high temp caulk used in these stoves? Maybe they got a bad batch.