Stove pipe

So this is not a story that I'm in any way proud of, the only thing I can say really is this was the result of ignorance.
I have been frustrated for a while now with the draft in my stove... or should I say lack there of. I could put a full load of 20% mc ( best I can do as of now) leave the air wide open and would only have small, lazy flames. I knew something was wrong, but I kept checking my chimney and finding it just as square as ever. I began seeing smoke leak out my stove pipe, as well as smoke pouring out the door so thick it would make it difficult to see in the house by leaving the door open for less than 30 seconds. Also anytime I would have secondaries roll across the top of the stove, it would belch smoke back out.
I had been nervous to take the stove apart because I didn't want to mess anything up, but it got to the point where I just wasn't worth trying to run it any more like that. I decided it was time to take action, even if I didn't know what I was doing, so I let it burn all the way out and began pulling screws out of the stove pipe. When I finally got it apart I was awestruck at how much creosote was in my stove pipe. Choked down to a couple inches in some spots. I feel like the only reason I'm alive and have a not burned to the ground house is by the grace of God.
So I got the shopvac out and vacuumed it all out, finally clean. I decided I would tear into the stove a bit while I was at it, pull the baffle boards out and vacuum on top. As I removed the first one I noticed the ceramic insulating blanket was stuffed and wadded in there restricting airflow further, and when I went to take it out I found it was in two pieces. And as I removed the rest of it it basically disintegrated in my hands. Whoever owned and ran this stove before me was not kind to it at all, and I didn't have the knowledge to give it the TLC it needed until now. Thanks to you all here at FHC
After it was all clean and put back together ( minus the ceramic blanket) I lit it back up. I would guess that the ceramic blanket helps moderate the draft and prevent overfire and I can see why they put it in there, because when I lit the stove it darn near pulled me in it was drawing air so hard
Now no smoke spillage anywhere and what comes out my chimney is just heat vapors, I shut the air all the way down and get about 5 hours out of a load of ash and elm. I'm a happy camper for sure

 

Don't feel too bad, as I had a similar situation when we first moved here.
Little did I know the previous owners hadn't cleaned the flue system in about 870 years.
The 8" ID pipe was necked down to about 3-4" because of all the fluffy stuff in there. Once I swept it out, the stove worked better, but since the wood was wet, still didn't burn all that well. They left a bunch of wet Oak on the front porch for us.......how nice.
Thus began my journey to get dry wood.

 

Yeah, you should have taken it apart sooner probably but I understand why you didn't.
Its good that you got it cleaned out good though, now you just need to get you some new baffle boards have you found replacements yet?

 

Whoever owned my place and whoever owned your place should get together and discuss crappy burning practices sometime

 

The boards themselves are in OK shape, but what fell apart on me was almost like a piece of fiberglass insulation. ( obviously not actually fiberglass) and it sat on top of those baffle boards.

 

I have heard of those blankets getting bunched up in Stoves before, is your Stove supposed to have boards and a blanket?

 

I did find the replacement through northern tool, the thing is, not having it hasn't affected my burn times and as long as I shut the air down the stove doesn't get unreasonably hot so I'm not sure I even want to replace it...

 

Yeah, in the manual it does show it having both, although the one I took out didn't seem to fit properly

 

Good on you for tearing it open.

 

When I get back home tomorrow, I might take a short video of a burn with the air fully closed and see what you guys think about how strong the draft is now. I have a key damper that I removed from the pipe when I cleaned it and have been wondering if I should put it back in, I'm wondering if I could be getting a longer burn if I could slow it down a bit more

 

You should get that stove set up the way it came from the factory, no doubt that extra insulation will affect your burn times and efficiency

 

Do you have a STT (stove top temp) and pipe thermometer on this?

 

how tall is the chimney?

 

I do but it's pretty much junk, my stove pipe is double wall and I keep it on that and double whatever it reads to give me a rough idea.

 

are you using a magnetic monster on your pipe
dang autocorrect, magnetic thermometer

 

If it were me, I'd find a replacement for the insulation that went to hell. After that get the right thermometers. Take it easy until you get the setup right with monitoring tools, then experiment.

 

I haven't measured it exactly, but the stove pipe connects to the chimney at my head height on the main floor (5'10") and from there goes up past the second floor and the attic and I have 8' ceilings so say I got 2' main floor to second, 8' second to attic and 5' up to the peak of the roof. 15' ish

 

Sounds about awesome to me

 

Yep, I want to say it's like Rutland brand or something like that

 

You need a probe type for that double wall. A magnetic is completely inadequate.