I am still slightly nervous about leaving my stove alone. I have a general question, regardless of how clean the chimney is (mine was cleaned about 1/2 cord ago). At what point of the burn cycle (startup, reloading, beginning, cruise, or end) would a chimney fire most likely occur?
When in the burn might a chimney fire occur
- Thread starter chris2879
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Must admit, it was timely. Funny and mean at the same time. Just as he is getting comfortable with the posts and walking out the door he reads this post and runs right back in the house and stares at the stove and touches the stalk.oldspark said:
chris2879 said:
Did you tell them to make it "to go"?
I was nervous too the first couple times. But all is well.
precaud
Minister of Fire
gyrfalcon
Minister of Fire
chris2879 said:
How's your wood? What's your flue and chimney set-up? With a good stove, an interior flue, an insulated chimney, good dry wood and you don't do low smoldering fires for hours a day, you're not going to have a chimney fire.
If this is your first year with this set-up, clean your chimney or get it cleaned now so you can see how much, if any, creosote accumulation you have so far. If you get just a small amount of fine soot out of it, you're good to go and you can stop worrying about chimney fires.
raybonz
Minister of Fire
gyrfalcon said:
The wood is pretty decent. Its silver maple and ash. Its been split since June (i know not a full year) but is burning pretty good. Moisture levels were around 20 when i checked a month ago. The chimney is about 32 ft tall. I have 28 ft of 6" stainless steel liner (not insulated) going through a 12x12 teracotta lined brick chimney. Wheni cleaned it, most of the creosote came out around the 14ft mark or so. I tend to think i give the stove more air than it really needs, at least this way i am never smoldering. I would say i close the air down to 10% open or so when in cruise.
tfdchief
Minister of Fire
+2, especially if you use very small kindling, newspaper, and the fire roars at start, sending flames out of the fire box and high up the chimney. I have gone to many flue fire calls and they all have the same thing in common.......lots of heavy creosote build up and lots of fire load when they get going.........Keep your flue clean, whatever the process is, how ever you do it, and a flue fire won't be very likely. I now have 2 stoves, one pre EPA that I have burned for nearly 40 years, no flue fires. And a new EPA stove that burns so cleanly that the flue stays clean and I don't have to do much to keep it that way. The old one......well, it started out venting directly into the fire box of my fire place (an insert of course) and the creosote build up in the top of the fire box was, of course a problem. The flue, I cleaned at mid season every year. At the end of the year, I pulled the insert and cleaned the top of the fireplace firebox......an ugly job. It is now connected directly to a stainless steel liner and 2 cleanings a year keep it clean enough not to have a flue fire, I hope. Anyway, like I said, by all the methods, new EPA technology, clean efficient burning, checking and cleaning your flue regularly......if there isn't enough to burn, you won't have a flue fire.raybonz said:
tfdchief said:
+3
I'll add using the stove as a means to burn up excess cardboard and / wrapping paper / etc as another likely culprit.
Often times people just think "I can get rid of this stuff in the stove and get a few btu's at the same time" w/out realizing that many things like this as well as small kindling / newspaper can release their energy so quickly that they create a situation in the stove that the stove wasn't meant to handle. When the flue starts taking the overflow of fire from improperly putting these fuels in the stove, a chimney w/ creosote can turn into a big problem.
pen
bogydave
Minister of Fire
I had a chimney fire after a few months of burning wet wood & lots of creosote build up.
It happened at night after a full re-load & I forgot to turn the stove down, it was burning full open for about 3 or 4 hours.
Neighbors drove by, saw flames out the chimney, woke us up.
I don't think it would have got going if I hadn't left the stove intake air wide open (by mistake).
I had about 1/4" to 3/8" creosote layer inside the 8" metal-bestos pipe. Most of it fell into the stove (over 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket full) after I put the fire out & it cooled. December 1982.
I learned that you have to clean a chimney frequently when you burn wet (3 month seasoned) birch.
Bought a brush & started brushing monthly.
Learned here about dry wood, problem solved,
But I still inspect the chimney monthly (new set up now, I can pull a plug & look up)
Have yet to see any creosote build up with dry wood & the new catalytic stove, but I still check
If you burn dry wood & have a clean chimney, you are not in danger of having a chimney fire.
Slow, low burns with wet wood takes time to build up enough creosote to start a chimney fire.
It happened at night after a full re-load & I forgot to turn the stove down, it was burning full open for about 3 or 4 hours.
Neighbors drove by, saw flames out the chimney, woke us up.
I don't think it would have got going if I hadn't left the stove intake air wide open (by mistake).
I had about 1/4" to 3/8" creosote layer inside the 8" metal-bestos pipe. Most of it fell into the stove (over 1/2 a 5 gallon bucket full) after I put the fire out & it cooled. December 1982.
I learned that you have to clean a chimney frequently when you burn wet (3 month seasoned) birch.
Bought a brush & started brushing monthly.
Learned here about dry wood, problem solved,
But I still inspect the chimney monthly (new set up now, I can pull a plug & look up)
Have yet to see any creosote build up with dry wood & the new catalytic stove, but I still check
If you burn dry wood & have a clean chimney, you are not in danger of having a chimney fire.
Slow, low burns with wet wood takes time to build up enough creosote to start a chimney fire.
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