chimney smoke

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jaydee

Member
Apr 11, 2010
53
north GA
Hi, a quick question:

I started up my new small non-cat stove today for a trial run - it lights nicely, good draft.
I am not sure if the wood is completely well-seasoned, but I've had it
under shelter since the spring, plus I had tried to buy some that was not freshly cut.
Still, I don't think it's completely seasoned.

When I looked outside, it seems that there was a lot of smoke coming out of the chimney.
At least, at first. After about 45 minutes, the smoke wasn't
that bad.

Would the issue be not lighting enough wood to get the fire hot quickly?
It took a while before the temperature got up to around 350 or so. Or could it be that the wood
wasn't dry enough? Or a combination of factors?

I'm sure you get this type of question all the time, but still I'd like to get feedback.

thanks.
 
No response is okay, if these questions can be answered just by looking around the forum.
But being a newbie, any advice is welcome!

I checked my older wood with the moisture meter - well below 20 percent, more like 14.

So it doesn't seem to me that moisture is the cause of the smoke. Probably need smaller pieces of wood to get
the temperature hotter quicker? And make a larger fire?

The temp reading was with an IR thermometer to the glass door, so it was probably much hotter than that inside.
How does one check the temperature? I've read lots of different ways here on this forum.
 
Hi Jaydee. I would not worry about smoke when you first start the fire and also immediately upon reloading the stove. It is very normal. For example, even though we have a cat stove, we bypass the cat when reloading or starting a fire and naturally, we do get smoke then.

You are very right too in assuming you will get more smoke from not properly seasoned wood.

btw, this being Monday, probably most of the posters are busy getting the week started and will be on the forums sporadically.

Good luck.
 
Keep in mind that many folks work . . . so you may not get a response right away . . . more folks tend to stop by here in the evenings . . . plus other folks may be out working on the wood . . . just be patient.

However, I am here . . . it could be that the wood isn't seasoned enough . . . your wood should be good . . . assuming that you split a piece of wood and tested the face of the fresh split and didn't just put the moisture meter up against a split without resplitting it . . . doing so would only tell you the moisture of the surface.

As to the wood . . . how have you stored it . . . and when was it split . . . saying it has been under cover (hopefully not completely covered) since Spring doesn't tell us much . . . a more important date would be when the wood was bucked up and split.

You also didn't mention if you had started to cut back the air and/or if you achieved secondary combustion . . . generally there will be some smoke when you first start the fire or do a reload . . . but once things are up to temp and you start to cut back on the air and achieve secondary burn you should get to the point where you see little to no smoke.

The amount of wood would play a factor to some degree . . . generally it is easier to get a good secondary (and therefore cleaner) burn with more wood vs. less wood . . .

The temp . . . assuming this temp of 350 was the stove top temp . . . this doesn't seem especially hot . . . and is probably not hot enough to burn cleanly or efficiently . . . i.e. achieve a secondary burn.

Checking the temp . . . I have a stove top thermometer and an infrared thermometer that I use to check the stove top temps . . . but I most often rely on my probe style thermometer.

--

Here's what you can try the next time you light up.

1. Build a top down fire . . . put 2-3 medium sized splits on the base. Place 2-3 smaller splits on this in a loose configuration. On top of this place kindling and then ball up (or tie some bowties) out of newspaper . . . light.

2. Keep your door ajar and your air control open all the way. Sit back and let the stove get nice and toasty . . . at some point you will want to close the door, but leave the air open for a bit longer.

3. The time will vary . . . but after awhile you'll want to start dialing back the air control . . . do this a quarter mark at a time . . . wait for 5 minutes . . . and then if the fire is still going strong . . . dial it back down another quarter mark . . . eventually you should reach the point where the fire is going nicely and you'll have some good secondary burns (i.e. the Bowels of Hell, Northern Lights, Propane BBQ jets, etc.) in the top 1/3 of your firebox.

4. At this point go outside and see if there is any smoke coming out of your stove.

For a decent primer on how to light a stove and get it going you can do a search for a thread I did last year (and recently re-posted) on how I light my Jotul . . . you may or may not have a Jotul . . . but many of the same techniques would be applicable to a non-cat stove.
 
~*~vvv~*~ said:
white smoke = water
blue smoke= unburnt pyrogas

Purple haze = you're not burning wood in your woodstove. ;) :)
 
Even EPA stoves will smoke quite a bit in the early stages of a fire. The initial burn will progress to the stage where there is enough heat in the firebox to start burning the smoke (secondary combustion). A fire that is too small for the firebox will have a tougher time making that happen.

Your wood sounds plenty dry (make sure you are testing a freshly split surface) so yes, you may just need some smaller splits or a bigger fire. Give it a few tries, be patient. For checking temps, a magnetic thermometer on the stove top (or on the flue) is commonly used. What stove are you running? Search the forum to find posts on its operation.
 
most? love seeing "heat waves" coming off the top of the chimney. i figure the top of that chimney has to be 212*f to do so, considering that combustion of perfectly dry wood [0%] still produces water so= is it easier to WORK the wood or PERHAPS CLEAN THA CHIMNEY? & then thers global warming :roll:
 
Thanks so much for all your replies -

The wood I checked with the meter was the outside of the split - I didn't split it further to check.
It was wood that was supposed to be "older" according to the dealer - it certainly looks it.
Plus I've stored it under an overhang, so it's had no rain on it now for at least 7 months. It's the best I've got, so I hope it will work out okay.

I've got more drying outside for next year.

It's reassuring to know that some smoke is normal. I just want to get good at getting the amount of smoke down quickly
so as not to annoy the neighbors.

I'll try that method of lighting a fire. There wasn't enough wood used to generate the heat for a secondary burn.
Being new at playing with fire, I was a little shy of trying too much at first.

This is a Buck Stove, which is a good local brand. It has no dial, just a handle to pull in or out for air control.

Thanks again! this is going to take some work before it's done right....
 
jaydee said:
Thanks so much for all your replies -

The wood I checked with the meter was the outside of the split - I didn't split it further to check.
It was wood that was supposed to be "older" according to the dealer - it certainly looks it.
Plus I've stored it under an overhang, so it's had no rain on it now for at least 7 months. It's the best I've got, so I hope it will work out okay.

I've got more drying outside for next year.

It's reassuring to know that some smoke is normal. I just want to get good at getting the amount of smoke down quickly
so as not to annoy the neighbors.

I'll try that method of lighting a fire. There wasn't enough wood used to generate the heat for a secondary burn.
Being new at playing with fire, I was a little shy of trying too much at first.

This is a Buck Stove, which is a good local brand. It has no dial, just a handle to pull in or out for air control.

Thanks again! this is going to take some work before it's done right....

As I -- and others -- have mentioned to get an accurate reading with your moisture meter you need to split the wood again and measure the moisture on the fresh split face. That said . . . I'm guessing this is your best wood and you're stuck using it regardless . . . again . . . pallets are your friends.

Don't be too shy . . . woodstoves are designed to hold fires . . . granted you don't want to over-fire them . . . but they are meant to contain very hot fires . . . and actually designed to work with very hot fires.

Finally, when I mentioned "dialing" the air back I meant simply reducing . . . my Oslo does not have a dial either . . . it's a lever you slide back and forth . . . poor word choice on my part . . . I should have said reduce in its place.
 
Not many Buck users on the forum, but heard only good things. They don't sell 'em up here. You'll get the hang of that stove in no time, I'm sure - keep us posted, and add your stove/model to your sig so any new Buck users down the road can ask you for help!
 
It was really chilly here yesterday morning so I cranked up the stove. For the first 30 minutes or so there was quite a bit of smoke coming out of the chimney which is perfectly normal. As soon as I started shutting down the primary air the smoke was less and less and when I had good secondary burn going there was no smoke at all. Stayed that way for the rest of the burn.

I find that a good fire starter like Super Cedars help get the stove up to temp quicker than just news paper and kindling. I also noticed that it seems to take longer for the stove to reach temp if I leave the air wide open for too long because most of the heat is going up the chimney so once the fire is going good I set the air to 3/4 then bring it down to 1/2 after a bit and so on.
 
It's a very solid stove, that's for sure!

Thanks for the tip, I hope this post will have the stove listed under my signature now.

Just checked the wood moisture on a fresh split: it still reads 14%.
It read over 20% when I first bought it.

I appreciate all the help!
 
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