Creosote smell in basement!

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J

Joe Rampey

Member
Dec 29, 2012
21
North Carolina
First of all just found this forum... Thanks in advance for any assistance!

I did a quick search but found nothing related. Here's my problem.

I have a Catalytic wood stove (Consolidated dutchwest) and love it. It lives in an unfinished basement. It is vented with 6 in stove pipe up to 6' then a 4" horizontal to a clay thimble. Through a masonry block wall into a clay lined 8" X 8" masonry chimney... Chimney extends about 35' from thimble to outlet.

The stove works great, but the flue gases are condensing in the chimney - running down the sides of the flue and eventually pooling in the bottom and leaching through the concrete block wall back into the basement... bringing with it the smell of creosote. My wife has finally forbidden me to use the stove.

What can I do? I'm researching stainless steel liners. will this solve the problem? I'm entertaining a flexible 6" liner with pour in insulation. If I do this how do I terminate the liner at the bottom? I hesitate to use a T- afraid that any condensatate will simply drip out the bottom and leach into the basement still. Or will the insulation be sufficient to carry the gases before they condense?

Can I flex the pipe sufficiently to make the turn from a vertical 8" X 8" flue to a 8" round thimble?

Any and all advise is welcomed.
 
Sounds like you have a good plan in place. That's a lot of chimney and an insulated liner should be a big help / solution.

In general, I don't see that liner making the turn for you unless you enlarge / change the crock and angle there.

Most times a T like this is used

flextee.jpg


The vertical part of the pipe is attached to the liner and lowered down the chimney when the liner goes in. There is a clamp on the "snout" part that the single wall pipe from your stove would attach to that you'd tighten once attached.

If your cleanout is far lower than your crock, then you could seal the cap at the bottom with furnace cement if it never could be reached, or you could put in a new cleanout. If the cleanout on the bottom is inaccessible, then sweeping the chimney would require you to cleanout through the "snout" by removing the stove pipe.

Welcome to the site.

pen
 
We had the exact same issues as your experiencing. Our flue was larger and our chimney is 32' tall. I was removing up to 2 gallons of liquid a day, and if I missed it then it would come into the basement and stink up the house. We had a cleanout below the thimble, but would have been difficult to line. We eliminated the cleanout and have to remove the flue pipe but it's no big deal. After lining (we choose a rigid liner) and insulating our problem disappeared. Not a bit of problems and it's been a couple of seasons now.
 
I would highly recommend putting in a new clean out in if you are going to put in a new liner. It was the best thing my installer recommended when I put in th SS liner. The new clean out was intalled at chest height, so no more bending down to clean the flue.

I had the same issue with my chimney. I had the clay liner broken and installed the SS liner (along with buying a new stove). Have not had any issues since.
 
laynes69 said:
We had the exact same issues as your experiencing. Our flue was larger and our chimney is 32' tall. I was removing up to 2 gallons of liquid a day, and if I missed it then it would come into the basement and stink up the house. We had a cleanout below the thimble, but would have been difficult to line. We eliminated the cleanout and have to remove the flue pipe but it's no big deal. After lining (we choose a rigid liner) and insulating our problem disappeared. Not a bit of problems and it's been a couple of seasons now.
Click to expand...


Thanks to all for confirming my thoughts... - rigid vs flexible... The flue is straight up... is there an advantage to rigid?
 
You can make the turn into the thimble, me and member Todd have both done it, but I wouldn't recommend it. It makes cleaning the flex liner harder to do and a lot messier. Use a tee.
 
If it a straight shot up I would recommend rigid. Most of mine is rigid, but I have an offset part way up the chimney where flex liner was used.
 
Joe Rampey said:
is there an advantage to rigid?
Click to expand...

There are advantages to rigid liner. It will give you best draft because it is perfectly smooth inside, less creosote build up because it is smooth. The pipe is very strong and will handle and mechanical cleaning, you can use wire brushes on the rigid pipe, unlike flex you need a special plastic brush. It is more difficult to install but the best liner you could get.
 
Welcome to the forum Joe.

While considering the chimney, please also do some considering about your fuel. These new stoves will not burn that green wood like the old stoves did. If you aren't burning good dry wood, even a liner will not help much. Good insulated liner and good dry wood and you will be amazed at the difference.

Good luck.
 
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Well, here's an update... Last week I ordered a 5.5" smooth interior flexible stainless liner, tee, cap, and black pipe to connect to the stove. Got the liner in yesterday - wow, quite a job for 54 and 90 year old men! My dad helped me by watching the liner as I pushed. I climbed that ladder so many times... Anyway, its in - now I'm rebuilding the stove during this warm snap we're having. Can't wait for it to get cold again so I can try it all out.
 
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Sounds like you are on the road to recovery. I'm glad to hear you downsized the liner a little. 35ft is a tall chimney. Did you insulate the liner?
 
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