chimney fire with duravent double wall connector and duratech chimney

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pglotov

pglotov

Member
Aug 9, 2009
32
SF bay area
Just a report of how it went:

Preface:
over last summer I installed lopi endeavor with duravent double wall and duratech chimney
have been burning it for about 3 months, pretty much every day;

Event:
opened the smoke bypass to shuffle logs inside the stove, some rattling sound from the double wall started on, some noise as well. then the connector got hotter, paint started to smell off with some smoke,
smoke alarm went off, then another one upstairs went off. Meanwhile I closed bypass and air supply, but the connector was still heating up, and chimney as well.
I could see a liner piece which goes from double wall to the finishing collar of the chimney - it was RED. It was no kidding burning hot in the chimney. BUT - the whole structure held on very well and contained all the inferno within itself.
I went outside two times - the first time there was only smoke out of the chimney, the second time the cap had flames on it. I went on the roof with a fire extinguisher and sprayed it off. The whole ordeal lasted may be 8 minutes. Two of my cats left the building, one stuck around with a very concerned look.

Morale: clean your chimney regularly.
 
Whew! Get that baby inspected before you fire it up again.

Shari
- who's sitting thinkin' her chimney needs cleaning....
 
Glad everything went *ok*. What do you think the cause was, are you burning green wood or not burning the fire hot enough?
 
I make a point of burning to the top of the burn zone at least once every day. I cleaned the stack last February. And will do so again this year first warmer day.
 
rdust said:
Glad everything went *ok*. What do you think the cause was, are you burning green wood or not burning the fire hot enough?
Click to expand...

Probably in the beginning it was greenish, making glass to go black, lately I got some dry firewood from a dead for a while oak, keeping glass clean and burning with nice secondary combustion flame clouds. It could have been dried better though, but for the rest of the season I'm cleaning it every two weeks, just for the fun of it. :)
 
The stove, the stovepipe, the chimney...they don't matter, provided they're all appropriate for the application (which yours quite obviously are). What you burn and how you burn it and how you maintain the system is what matters after the installation is done. Rick
 
petyanca said:
webby3650 said:
After only three months?
Click to expand...

Well my firewood leaves something to be desired.
Click to expand...

And thank you for being man enough to share that. (I am assuming you are a man, if you are woman, no offense intended)

So many individuals on here fight about problems they are having and swear their green wood is seasoned. It's refreshing to hear from someone who is willing to share in their failures to help others learn. No shame in doing so. No fingers pointed. Lesson learned and hopefully others will take note!

pen
 
Glad to hear you got it under control. Like mentioned have it checked.
Some of us are at the mercy of the local splitters that run out after work and split and deliver wood. Some people are lucky enough to have a good honest seller. I'm going to start stacking as much wood on my property as I can by trying to buy a cord a month. I'm on a 1/4 acre and no matter which way my smoke goes it's gonna hit a house so I try not to make too many waves lol
 
petyanca said:
Just a report of how it went:

Preface:
over last summer I installed lopi endeavor with duravent double wall and duratech chimney
have been burning it for about 3 months, pretty much every day;

Event:
opened the smoke bypass to shuffle logs inside the stove, some rattling sound from the double wall started on, some noise as well. then the connector got hotter, paint started to smell off with some smoke,
smoke alarm went off, then another one upstairs went off. Meanwhile I closed bypass and air supply, but the connector was still heating up, and chimney as well.
I could see a liner piece which goes from double wall to the finishing collar of the chimney - it was RED. It was no kidding burning hot in the chimney. BUT - the whole structure held on very well and contained all the inferno within itself.
I went outside two times - the first time there was only smoke out of the chimney, the second time the cap had flames on it. I went on the roof with a fire extinguisher and sprayed it off. The whole ordeal lasted may be 8 minutes. Two of my cats left the building, one stuck around with a very concerned look.

Check out this product, glad you are ok.

zap

Morale: clean your chimney regularly.
Click to expand...
 

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hareball said:
Glad to hear you got it under control. Like mentioned have it checked.
Some of us are at the mercy of the local splitters that run out after work and split and deliver wood. Some people are lucky enough to have a good honest seller. I'm going to start stacking as much wood on my property as I can by trying to buy a cord a month. I'm on a 1/4 acre and no matter which way my smoke goes it's gonna hit a house so I try not to make too many waves lol
Click to expand...

I started by getting on the "free firewood" ads on craigslist which gave me about 6 truck loads of unsplit stumps, and splitting and drying them myself. Some were already from dead trees, but still they need to be seasoned. Here firewood is about $300-350 a cord. Its one of my summer projects to stock up, split and dry it. Its very dry here during summer time.
 
Glad to hear you got it under control. From the discription it sounds like you stayed very calm throughout the ordeal.
 
albertj03 said:
Glad to hear you got it under control. From the discription it sounds like you stayed very calm throughout the ordeal.
Click to expand...

I did get scared, but thought - its easy to get out, so lets see what can be done. Even started searching on the internet, but only could find - "get out of the house and call 911".
 
by the time it got to your chimney cap it was almost all out. if you were to check the inside after it cooled you would find a very clean chimney. here is your second chance to burn hotter since your wood is not so good. after all the rain we had here in new england this past summer errr if you want to call it summer my wood is not dry either. burning hotter than normal and the connector pipe is clean but the last 5 feet of the chimney is shiney. lucky it's very thin. now we got snow on the roof. time to keep a good ear out until the snow melts.
 
I'd check all of your flue connections and make sure everything is secure. Pop the cap off and shine a light down there. I bet it looks pretty nice and clean. Then, you gotta do the best you can with your wood. Split it small. Keep it dry. Bring it inside. Stack it near the stove. Run the stove with a little more air to keep the temps up in the 500-600 range. All of these things will help you prevent repeating this exercise. I bet you are pretty happy you put in a full stainless liner. Be safe man.
 
keydiver said:
$300 - $350 a cord. Is that pine, almond or oak? It gets cold in the Bay area?
Click to expand...
its for hardwood - oak and almond are most popular, pine is about 250/cord.
as the temperature goes it did drop down to 31 for a couple of nights, but mostly is at low 40's during the night and at low to high 50's during the day. Its nothing comparing to what people in e.g New England have but still some heat is needed.
 
good to know it cleans itself in 8 mins :)

questions i have

1. does the chimney start to have a different odor outside or can you smell creosote buildup ??
(my chimney started to smell unnatural before it was due last time it was full of creosote)

2. i've heard a pre water saturated Sunday newspaper thrown into the stove will help put out a chimney fire ??
 
EL DRIFTO said:
good to know it cleans itself in 8 mins :)

questions i have

1. does the chimney start to have a different odor outside or can you smell creosote buildup ??
(my chimney started to smell unnatural before it was due last time it was full of creosote)

2. i've heard a pre water saturated Sunday newspaper thrown into the stove will help put out a chimney fire ??
Click to expand...

1. i would say yes. it smell kind of like a hint of tar and pipe tabacco. thats the way it smells to me. lots of people have small chimney fires and don't know it. if you had a small chimney fire going and it was burning slow you would get your chimney cleaned for free. controlling the beast is the hard thing. i've had several, only one looked like a roman candle. the rest were slow.

2. that sounds like it would work but you got to be careful when opening up the stove when the fire is going. and getting to much cold water on a hot surface. that is the only advantage to having a old air tite stove as you close it down and smother the fire out. you can tell when it goes out from the amount of smoke coming from the chimney. when there is a fire going there is no smoke. the fire in the chimney acts like a secondary burner. when the fire goes out and there is still alot of creosote left that stuff smokes like 5 stoves in one chimney doing a startup.
 
EL DRIFTO said:
good to know it cleans itself in 8 mins :)

questions i have

1. does the chimney start to have a different odor outside or can you smell creosote buildup ??
(my chimney started to smell unnatural before it was due last time it was full of creosote)

2. i've heard a pre water saturated Sunday newspaper thrown into the stove will help put out a chimney fire ??
Click to expand...

1. not really, I didn't smell anything unusual either before or after the fire, only when it was burning paint was smoking off.

2. i like the idea, need to subscribe for one :eek:)
 
fbelec said:
i've had several, only one looked like a roman candle. the rest were slow.
Click to expand...

all i've burnt is wet oak & it got to 450F the other day & it sounded just like that !!!

i checked outside 3 times, no smoke @ all...

then the banging stopped & it started smoking again...hmm

so just make sure to hit 500 every couple of days :)

i'll probably cork the oak if it happens out of control, b4 i put it out with the paper

thanx
 
Glad to hear your allright.

A couple of years ago I had very small chimney fire which taught me a lesson.

Call me obsessive compulsive but I run a brush through my chimney 1 X/month in the heating season whether it needs it or not.

Only a 15 minute job to have peace of mind and protect my chimney from damage of chimney fire.

Sometimes I only get a 1/4 gallon of soot/creosote but I sleep comfortable at night knowing I won't have a chimney fire.
 
Not to hijack the thread, but I have a double wall stainless stovepipe (~15ft from the stovetop, straight up and out roof) and I was wondering if stainless pipes such as these are more or less prone to chimney fires, than a traditional tiled brick chimney.
 
jzinckgra said:
Not to hijack the thread, but I have a double wall stainless stovepipe (~15ft from the stovetop, straight up and out roof) and I was wondering if stainless pipes such as these are more or less prone to chimney fires, than a traditional tiled brick chimney.
Click to expand...

less
 
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