Well, The Blaze King Was Overcome By Events . . .

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TX-L

TX-L

Burning Hunk
Sep 1, 2010
243
Tug Hill State Forest, NY
Monday through Wednesday of this week we have had steady 20-30 mph winds and temps around zero, along with prodigious (feet) of lake effect snow. At 2 am Thursday morning, I awoke to the smell of smoke in the house, and it was pouring out of the back of the stove where fresh air was supposed to be going in! Stove temp was down quite a bit as well. I immediately suspected that the chimney was plugged. I shut the air inlet damper all the way shut and stuffed a towel into the air intake of the stove to try and stem the smoke spillage; then it started coming out the seam where the pipe connects to the ceiling box.
So, I get the extension ladder and get up on the roof at 2 am, it was 1/10 of a degree above zero, strong steady wind, and a raging snow squall in progress. The downwind side of the cap was completely iced up, and I am surmising that the orientation of the wind was just right such that the iced up 1/2 of the screen was "catching" and funneling the wind and not letting any of the wind to pass through the screen, or any of the smoke to escape. I took off the cap and the world was restored to its proper order.

It's a good thing I fell asleep on the couch that night and was able to catch it just when it started! Here are some snow pics for your review. The snow measured 37" high in the garage door opening, and it snowed another 8-10" Wednesday night.
 

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All I can say is "wow!" that is quite a lot of snow there.

Glad you caught the stove issue and were able to resolve it - I can't imagine being up on my roof at 2a in a cold snowstorm...

I wonder what you could possibly do to prevent this in the future (leave cap off?).
 
Wow, Thats some serious winter business! That would be a hard one to suffice. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Maybe you could use a more open style cap through the real cold months.
 
The Buffalo area gets all the press for the LES off of Erie but I think you guys get it worse from Ontario. Does it ever freeze up enough to shut it down out there? I know it doesn't freeze over on this end, but something works in our favor (the escarpment maybe) so we don't usually get too much lake effect.
 
The downside of low flue temps. I need to run mine hot in this weather, so I don't ever expect a problem.

Do you normally burn it on the low end?

Four feet of snow at 0° has to make for some fun riding.
 
Glad that this turned out ok, it could have been nasty. Check those smoke detectors!
 
That does not sound like a fun nigh to me! Glad you figured it out.
 
You seem to have a house with a similar roof as mine (low grade slope/ranch style home).

Do you get on the roof after the storm like this with 1+ foot of snow on it and shovel the snow off before it starts to melt/freeze/melt in regards to possible ice daming?

Glad you were able to safely (hopefully) get the problem fixed.
 
Holy smokes!

I'm crossing NY off of my list.
 
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Slow1 said:
All I can say is "wow!" that is quite a lot of snow there.
Click to expand...
Tx...hello....hello? Anybody in there? _g
TX-L said:
So, I get the extension ladder and get up on the roof at 2 am, it was 1/10 of a degree above zero, strong steady wind, and a raging snow squall in progress.
Click to expand...
Well, at least it wasn't below zero....:rolleyes:
Highbeam said:
Holy smokes!
Click to expand...
Well, that's really a case of no-holey smoke....==c
 
To address the above posts:

- The cap is off the chimney at this time. I will probably put it back up this weekend and maybe check it out periodically during frigid weather.
- According to the Nat'l Weather Service, Lake Ontario rarely freezes; it's only frozen over 10% right now, compared to Lake Erie at 56% ice cover.
- I normally run the stove at a "2" stat setting, but about 2.5 when outside weather dictates. The stat was set at just below 2.5 when this happened. There's too much snow to ride
right now...
- The smoke detector is the kind that comes wired right into the house's 120vAC system, so there is no battery check/replacment, but it didn't alarm. Not sure why, but I am
going to investigate.
- I shoveled off the roof late yesterday afternoon, so that's taken care of before this weekends massive warmup and rain.
- Yeah, at least it wasn't BELOW zero... wow, I lucked out on that one! ;)

Here are some snow totals from the National Weather Service. Notice the 60" total in Rodman? I live 5 miles east of the Rodman Post Office! I'm glad I have a 60 HP agricultural tractor with a 6' PTO-driven snowblower! I would still be trying to clean the driveway with a walk behind blower!

...JEFFERSON COUNTY...
LOCATION---------------------TOTAL SNOWFALL-------COMMENTS

RODMAN............................60.0.................................910 AM 1/09 POST OFFICE

ADAMS...............................48.0.................................911 AM 1/09 POST OFFICE

WATERTOWN....................47.7.................................700 AM 1/09 COCORAHS


...LEWIS COUNTY...
LOCATION---------------------TOTAL SNOWFALL--------COMMENTS

COPENHAGEN.................54.0....................................910 AM 1/09 POST OFFICE

6 N CROGHAN.................28.0.....................................700 AM 1/09 COCORAHS

LOWVILLE........................14.7.....................................700 AM 1/09 CO-OP OBSERVER

CONSTABLEVILLE...........11.7....................................326 AM 1/09 CO-OP OBSERVER
 
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That lake effect snow is some cool stuff, I watched a video yesterday of some guy that went to bed with his driveway down to pavement and woke up to 4 feet of fresh powder in his driveway. That'll make you late for work.
 
What, you didn't stop and take a picture of the cap? ;)

That is enough snow for 2 winters. We got a warning for @ 2 feet earlier this week - never happened (well, probably did, but elsewhere around us). Very glad you got on top of the chimney situation. Worst I've seen so far with the tube stove is a couple icicles on startup, which don't last long after the fire as lit, that cap situation would have scared the crap out of me.

My smoke detector in the stove area is also wired into the house. It tests fine according to the status light a test button, but now I'm wondering if another battery unit in the same vicinity would be a good idea?
 
Highbeam said:
Holy smokes!

I'm crossing NY off of my list.
Click to expand...

Lake effect snow coming in the prevailing winds off of the Great Lakes. Other parts of the state saw 6".
 
begreen said:
Lake effect snow coming in the prevailing winds off of the Great Lakes. Other parts of the state saw 6".
Click to expand...


and others saw 0"...like me, lol.

I live like 400' from Lake Ontario and we don't get anywhere near what the Tug Hill Plateau gets. They are at the very end of the lake, on the eastern end, so winds, etc can flow along the whole length of the lake picking up moisture before reaching them. And Lake Ontario doesn't freeze over-I don't know if the very eastern end ever does because of the IJC (International Joint Commission-they control water levels here on the lake)/the dam in Massena but here, we're only frozen maybe 30' out, with little 'bergs floating around after that. I don't even think Erie would freeze as much as it does without the ice boom holding the ice back at the mouth of the Niagara River.
 
Holy Mackerel !! .............That's some awesome pics...........Thanks for sharing........Kind of exciting in a scary sorta way ........Heh
 
Some great riding on tug hill when it isn't all whooped out by tons of sledders
 
bag of hammers said:
What, you didn't stop and take a picture of the cap? ;)

That is enough snow for 2 winters. We got a warning for @ 2 feet earlier this week - never happened (well, probably did, but elsewhere around us). Very glad you got on top of the chimney situation. Worst I've seen so far with the tube stove is a couple icicles on startup, which don't last long after the fire as lit, that cap situation would have scared the crap out of me.

My smoke detector in the stove area is also wired into the house. It tests fine according to the status light a test button, but now I'm wondering if another battery unit in the same vicinity would be a good idea?
Click to expand...

It never hurts . . . especially if your electric one does not have a battery back up in case of power outages. My own recommendation would be a battery operated smoke detector -- combo photo-electric/ionization.
 
images
 
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Glad to hear it worked out OK. I wonder if a cap without a screen would help in the future.

As to the snow, we get it down here too. They were initially predicting that LE band that was over Buffalo to hit us instead (2 feet predicted). There is a reason why there is a ski lodge 5 miles from my house. We got a 1/2" and cold instead. From what I hear, Oswego get's it's butt kicked pretty good too.
 
TX-L said:
To address the above posts:

- The cap is off the chimney at this time. I will probably put it back up this weekend and maybe check it out periodically during frigid weather.
- According to the Nat'l Weather Service, Lake Ontario rarely freezes; it's only frozen over 10% right now, compared to Lake Erie at 56% ice cover.
- I normally run the stove at a "2" stat setting, but about 2.5 when outside weather dictates. The stat was set at just below 2.5 when this happened. There's too much snow to ride
right now...
- The smoke detector is the kind that comes wired right into the house's 120vAC system, so there is no battery check/replacment, but it didn't alarm. Not sure why, but I am
going to investigate.
- I shoveled off the roof late yesterday afternoon, so that's taken care of before this weekends massive warmup and rain.
- Yeah, at least it wasn't BELOW zero... wow, I lucked out on that one! ;)

Here are some snow totals from the National Weather Service. Notice the 60" total in Rodman? I live 5 miles eastt of the Rodman Post Office! I'm glad I have a 60 HP agricultural tractor with a 6' PTO-driven snowblower! I would still be trying to clean the driveway with a walk behind blower!

...JEFFERSON COUNTY...
LOCATION---------------------TOTAL SNOWFALL-------COMMENTS

RODMAN............................60.0.................................910 AM 1/09 POST OFFICE

ADAMS...............................48.0.................................911 AM 1/09 POST OFFICE

WATERTOWN....................47.7.................................700 AM 1/09 COCORAHS


...LEWIS COUNTY...
LOCATION---------------------TOTAL SNOWFALL--------COMMENTS

COPENHAGEN.................54.0....................................910 AM 1/09 POST OFFICE

6 N CROGHAN.................28.0.....................................700 AM 1/09 COCORAHS

LOWVILLE........................14.7.....................................700 AM 1/09 CO-OP OBSERVER

CONSTABLEVILLE...........11.7....................................326 AM 1/09 CO-OP OBSERVER
Click to expand...

And you're right near Barnes Corners I think that's what you told me. Anyways I might drop at Winona and go there(Barnes Corners) and then up to Copenhagen this weekend..most likely Sunday ..hope the snow survives Saturdays coming rain!
Nothing open around here but there is some snow.
 
So this is the result of your stack being cold enough to allow ice to accumulate ON THE METAL CAP? Shouldn't the flue be hot? Did this happen because you had the air flow really low? I don't know how hot my flue is while my stove is burning, but I can't imagine it is anywhere close to freezing. I know the weather there is really harsh, but I am surprised that ice could build up on the screen while the stove was burning.
 
Wood Duck said:
So this is the result of your stack being cold enough to allow ice to accumulate ON THE METAL CAP? Shouldn't the flue be hot? Did this happen because you had the air flow really low? I don't know how hot my flue is while my stove is burning, but I can't imagine it is anywhere close to freezing. I know the weather there is really harsh, but I am surprised that ice could build up on the screen while the stove was burning.
Click to expand...
Oh it can happen.
More so with a cat stove but it can happen to any stove with the wind and temps he had.
 
Glad you got it figured out in a timely manner before it got too bad in the house.

I'm jealous, I pray for snow like that and will trailer up to four hours in any direction seeking it. You need a 800cc 155x2.5 inch track or more and the possibilities are limitless in snow like that.
Stay warm
 
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