Made a bad mistake tonight...

DrivenByDemons · Jan 17, 2009

Wife let the Spectrum burn out today (it was -8F outside, why she'd let it go??) so I loaded her to the gills with good heavy oak and got her going. Left the pipe damper and air control wide open while I did a few chores. An hour later I realized I forgot to check on it and found the probe thermometer at 1400F and the first 4 feet of double wall from the stove was billowing smoke. You would not believe how much smoke that paint can give off when you overheat it. I almost soiled myself right there. Shut her down and it got under control pretty quick but that was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. This 4' of black metal pipe just SMOKING. I can tell you I WILL NEVER leave that stove alone with the air open EVER AGAIN !!!

pen · Jan 17, 2009

DrivenByDemons said:
Wife let the Spectrum burn out today (it was -8F outside, why she'd let it go??) so I loaded her to the gills with good heavy oak and got her going. Left the pipe damper and air control wide open while I did a few chores. An hour later I realized I forgot to check on it and found the probe thermometer at 1400F and the first 4 feet of double wall from the stove was billowing smoke. You would not believe how much smoke that paint can give off when you overheat it. I almost soiled myself right there. Shut her down and it got under control pretty quick but that was the craziest thing I've ever seen in my life. This 4' of black metal pipe just SMOKING. I can tell you I WILL NEVER leave that stove alone with the air open EVER AGAIN

I have a friend with an older Jotul that he has turned his double wall stainless cherry before accidentally doing the same thing.

It can happen quickly. I suppose the only upside is that you know your chimney is clean for at least a while. If you didn't have a chimney fire tonight, you shouldn't for a while!

pen

matt701 · Jan 17, 2009

On a positive note, it took me a few months to get rid of that burning paint smell when my pipe reached higher temps. Clean chimney and burning paint smell gone, you should be good the rest of the season

jadm · Jan 17, 2009

DrivenByDemons said:
Wife let the Spectrum burn out today (it was -8F outside, why she'd let it go??)

Maybe the same reason you forgot to shut air down.....we are all human. ;-)

Glad everything worked out and that you and your house are okay.

pistonslap · Jan 17, 2009

My furnace has a thermocoil on the main air intake so when the fire gets really hot the coil expands and closes the intrake. It makes me mad sometimes when I forget about it and it almost snuffs out a good start-up fire or reload. But it seems a lot better than the alternative you almost had.

Brian VT · Jan 17, 2009

pistonslap said:
My furnace has a thermocoil on the main air intake so when the fire gets really hot the coil expands and closes the intrake.

Print this whole thread and send it to the EPA ! lol
I think most of us have experienced an overfire like that and it is scary as hell. That's why we all need to make sure we have a good install.
Sure, "good enough" will probably work for years with no problems...until you have an oops.

Backwoods Savage · Jan 17, 2009

It's a shame some have to learn the hard way. Some get lucky though...

It makes us happy that you were able come out of that as good as you have. Whew! Now never forget that lesson!

savageactor7 · Jan 17, 2009

Well sometimes it can be a learning experience to have a close call like that. Happy to hear that nothing serious happened.

woodjack · Jan 17, 2009

The same thing happened to me when I put in a load of oak flooring and other wood scraps left over from a construction job. On the bright side, it's good to know your install can handle a hot fire.

What type of wood were you burning?

stoveguy2esw · Jan 17, 2009

lesson learned;

always be diligent in operation of your stove, its easy to get complacent especially once the "routine" becomes more familiar.

with the pipe getting that hot i would inspect it soon as possible and consider replacing the affected stove connector pipe if it has gotten hot enough to burn the paint off like that. too much heat can cause steel's crystalline structure to alter making it more brittle which lowers its tensile strength. it may not be able to handle a second incident such as that due to its weakened state. the flue itself is likely fine but my advice is to change out the affected flue connector pipe between the stove and the flue.

cannonballcobb · Jan 17, 2009

Get a kitchen timer and set it near your stove, just make sure you can hear it from all areas of your house.

DrivenByDemons · Jan 17, 2009

stoveguy2esw said:
lesson learned;

always be diligent in operation of your stove, its easy to get complacent especially once the "routine" becomes more familiar.

with the pipe getting that hot i would inspect it soon as possible and consider replacing the affected stove connector pipe if it has gotten hot enough to burn the paint off like that. too much heat can cause steel's crystalline structure to alter making it more brittle which lowers its tensile strength. it may not be able to handle a second incident such as that due to its weakened state. the flue itself is likely fine but my advice is to change out the affected flue connector pipe between the stove and the flue.

How would I know by looking if the stove connector pipe is OK? The paint seems to be fine. I have one of those small sections with the damper built in right on top of the stove.

stoveguy2esw · Jan 17, 2009

DrivenByDemons said:
stoveguy2esw said:

lesson learned;

always be diligent in operation of your stove, its easy to get complacent especially once the "routine" becomes more familiar.

with the pipe getting that hot i would inspect it soon as possible and consider replacing the affected stove connector pipe if it has gotten hot enough to burn the paint off like that. too much heat can cause steel's crystalline structure to alter making it more brittle which lowers its tensile strength. it may not be able to handle a second incident such as that due to its weakened state. the flue itself is likely fine but my advice is to change out the affected flue connector pipe between the stove and the flue.

Click to expand...

How would I know by looking if the stove connector pipe is OK? The paint seems to be fine. I have one of those small sections with the damper built in right on top of the stove.

ok , i misunderstood your first post when you were talking about the paint on the pipe smoking, i assumed that with 1400F and smoke billowing off the pipe that the paint had cooked off of the pipe.

gyrfalcon · Jan 17, 2009

cannonballcobb said:
Get a kitchen timer and set it near your stove, just make sure you can hear it from all areas of your house.

Better, get one that hangs on a string or a chain around your neck.

DrivenByDemons · Jan 18, 2009

stoveguy2esw said:
DrivenByDemons said:

stoveguy2esw said:

lesson learned;

always be diligent in operation of your stove, its easy to get complacent especially once the "routine" becomes more familiar.

with the pipe getting that hot i would inspect it soon as possible and consider replacing the affected stove connector pipe if it has gotten hot enough to burn the paint off like that. too much heat can cause steel's crystalline structure to alter making it more brittle which lowers its tensile strength. it may not be able to handle a second incident such as that due to its weakened state. the flue itself is likely fine but my advice is to change out the affected flue connector pipe between the stove and the flue.

Click to expand...

How would I know by looking if the stove connector pipe is OK? The paint seems to be fine. I have one of those small sections with the damper built in right on top of the stove.

Click to expand...

ok , i misunderstood your first post when you were talking about the paint on the pipe smoking, i assumed that with 1400F and smoke billowing off the pipe that the paint had cooked off of the pipe.

Well, maybe it wasn't the paint but something sure as hell was smoking like crazy from just above the stove. It looked like a KISS concert.

WES999 · Jan 18, 2009

Well, this seems like fairly common occurrence. Over heating the flue can happen in just a few minutes with a load of very dry wood, such as pallets or mill ends which heat up especially fast.

What I have done is to make a flue temp alarm that will sound an alarm if the flue gas exceeds the set temperature. It can also monitor stove top temp by using a magnetic mount surface probe. Generally what I do is to load my stove up full, leave the air open until the flue temp alarm sounds ( I have mine set for 850*, internal temp) Then I turn the air down some. This way I have little fear of over heating the flue, even if I am burning something like Pallets or pine.

I have received several inquires asking if these units are for sale. I have decided to start making a few and offering them for sale, as it seem like a product for which there is a real need, and nothing really available as far as I can see.

Here is a video I made showing how it works. And a link to some other posts showing some pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXMpyJ6c150

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/32390/#342638 (see 4th post down)

PM me if you are interested or have any questions

gyrfalcon · Jan 18, 2009

WES999 said:
Well, this seems like fairly common occurrence. Over heating the flue can happen in just a few minutes with a load of very dry wood, such as pallets or mill ends which heat up especially fast.

What I have done is to make a flue temp alarm that will sound an alarm if the flue gas exceeds the set temperature. It can also monitor stove top temp by using a magnetic mount surface probe. Generally what I do is to load my stove up full, leave the air open until the flue temp alarm sounds ( I have mine set for 850*, internal temp) Then I turn the air down some. This way I have little fear of over heating the flue, even if I am burning something like Pallets or pine.

I have received several inquires asking if these units are for sale. I have decided to start making a few and offering them for sale, as it seem like a product for which there is a real need, and nothing really available as far as I can see.

Here is a video I made showing how it works. And a link to some other posts showing some pics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXMpyJ6c150

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/32390/#342638 (see 4th post down)

PM me if you are interested or have any questions

How about, on the other end of the issue, a stovetop thermometer that can be read via some remote in another room, the way you can put a little device in one room and the temperature is somehow broadcast to the main unit in another?

My office is far enough from the stove room that I can't monitor the stovetop temp so that I can add wood or close or open the air at just the right time. With a too-small stove I'm trying to get the most heating out of, missing the key points can mean a real drop in room temperature.

If somebody could make such a thing, I'd sure buy it in a heartbeat.

woodconvert · Jan 18, 2009

DrivenByDemons said:
I can tell you I WILL NEVER leave that stove alone with the air open EVER AGAIN

Funny you mention it...tonight, I was loading the stove as i've done 1.35billion times in the past 8 or 9 years and my wife walks up and says "whatcha doin' lookin' at it?"...my heart sunk as I wondered what she did while I wasn't around... >:-(

Whatever you do, don't get distracted. You can't....yer litteraly playing with fire.

LeonMSPT · Jan 18, 2009

I don't answer the phone, go to the door, nothing else. It's a fire, and it's in my house. I load, watch it burn, close it down, and watch it peak. When it begins to back down, I'm gone. Nothing more to see here folks... move along.

Wood boiler in the basement? I dunno... maybe it's more automatic than it should be...

Jam the barometric damper closed, and turn off the combustion blower. Put on my dragon taming gloves, and open the mouth of the thing, a little bit and slowly. When the draft is equalized, I open about half way and check it out. Generally, I gather 6-8 good splits of wood and put them right in front of the boiler. I'll lay them in there, end first, with about an inch between, and try to keep them off the water jacket. Anything touching the water jacket doesn't seem to burn good...

When it's full, I close the door, open the barometric damper, and turn the fan back on. Then I go upstairs, turn off the light, and close the door. It seems to take care of itself.

Made a bad mistake tonight...

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