Hello, all - I had my second chimney fire last week and it's making me think that maybe I'm just not cut out for wood stove operation. When I moved into my house, I had a VC Encore (cat) with a single wall 2 story chimney. I overfired and warped the stove, then replaced the stove with a VC Encore Everburn; then replaced the single wall chimney with double wall from stove to the part that goes through the ceiling. Both chimney fires were with the everburn - one before new chimney, one after. With this fire, I used the fire extinguisher on the fire in the firebox and I squirted some up the chimney. Tried to clean all the fire extinguisher gunk out of the stove and broke off a piece of that stupid refractory stuff, too.
I don't understand why I had the second chimney fire, after installing double wall to prevent that. Maybe it's because I'm too nervous to burn the stove hot enough to keep the chimney clean - I routinely burned the stove between 400 and 500, and occasionally took it up to 600-650, but the smell of hot metal (which you always get with new pipe, I know) just makes me really uneasy. Or maybe when the chimney was replaced, I should have had the section that goes through the ceiling and attic cleaned again - but the fire started pretty low down in the chimney.
So, questions:
Is a 2 story run of chimney just a bad idea unless you're going to burn your stove at 700 or something?
At what temp should the stove routinely be burning?
Do I need to take the stove apart and clean out the insides (i.e., the part you can't normally see - like take off the lid, take out the damper, etc.) before burning again (if I ever get the guts to burn again at all)?
Too many variables, I know - sorry. Getting the chimney cleaned, of course.
Thanks, all!
L-A
I don't understand why I had the second chimney fire, after installing double wall to prevent that. Maybe it's because I'm too nervous to burn the stove hot enough to keep the chimney clean - I routinely burned the stove between 400 and 500, and occasionally took it up to 600-650, but the smell of hot metal (which you always get with new pipe, I know) just makes me really uneasy. Or maybe when the chimney was replaced, I should have had the section that goes through the ceiling and attic cleaned again - but the fire started pretty low down in the chimney.
So, questions:
Is a 2 story run of chimney just a bad idea unless you're going to burn your stove at 700 or something?
At what temp should the stove routinely be burning?
Do I need to take the stove apart and clean out the insides (i.e., the part you can't normally see - like take off the lid, take out the damper, etc.) before burning again (if I ever get the guts to burn again at all)?
Too many variables, I know - sorry. Getting the chimney cleaned, of course.
Thanks, all!
L-A