Tarm Question

Are you sure it's smoke and not steam?

Hi Lawandorder,
From my limited experience I have noticed that steam is usually pretty white in color and whispy rising straight up or moving fast with the wind. Smoke is anything not pure white and dropping out of the chimmeny falling or rolling low and slow.

Also on mine if you look right at the top of the chimmeny all you see is heat wavering for 10 -12 inches then the steam condenses in the cold air (very white). It only lasts 20 or 30 feet then its gone. If it were smoke you would see it keep on going.

lawandorder said:

Thanks for the help.. Does everyone else see steam in very cold temps?? I just want to make sure this is normal and I stop worrying about bad wood.

Click to expand...

I would say yes. When the hot gasses hit the cold air, they condense.

This issue of condensation is partly why our gassers are protected with either thermostatic mixing valves or temp controlled circs... to keep the water temp up in the heat exchanger thereby reducing the possibility of the gasses condensing before they exit the heat exchanger, which can cause corrosion.

cheers

Piker said:

lawandorder said:

Thanks for the help.. Does everyone else see steam in very cold temps?? I just want to make sure this is normal and I stop worrying about bad wood.

Click to expand...

I would say yes. When the hot gasses hit the cold air, they condense.

This issue of condensation is partly why our gassers are protected with either thermostatic mixing valves or temp controlled circs... to keep the water temp up in the heat exchanger thereby reducing the possibility of the gasses condensing before they exit the heat exchanger, which can cause corrosion.

cheers

Click to expand...

My experience is much the same. Once the temp gets low enough you are going to see something come out no matter what. Look at the color of the flame and the stack temp to tell how well you are burning and not necessarily what is coming out of the chimney.

I see steam from my tarm solo 40 when it is very cold like today.
Other days when it is warmer I do not see any.

Ethan

I saw lots of steam when I fired up my EKO for the first time the other day. First it smoked while warming up, about 20 minutes then I heard the roar in the lower chamber. I checked and saw a nice flame in the lower comustion chamber. When I went back outside I was surprised to see all this "smoke". I soon realized it was actually steam. It was getting dark so I couldn't see the color or if it was dissipating so I went down wind and couldn't smell any smoke.

I've seen some smoke with first start-up, but on the colder days like today after 15 munites of burn I see the white steam. It only lasts for a while. Clean your viewing port glass with some fine sand paper and take a good look. Within 1/2 hour you should see bluish, whitish, and orangee curling flames in your ceramic chamber. That's the 2000 degree gasification! set your secondary air control in the center right notch! sweetheat