Poor draft, any help?

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nate379

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Now that it's warmed up a bit I have been having trouble with draft.

It was about 25* yesterday morning. Bit chilly in the house when I got home from work, so I made a small fire before going to bed.

I am using spruce wood and it's super dry. I can usually get a fire going with putting a match to it and that's all.

Well the fire is really slow to burn even with the temp control wide open. If I crack the open it helps, but even still it's not burning that great. It took a good 2hrs of burn before the stove was hot enough I could engage the cat. This winter I had the OAK get clogged from a snow drift and it's burning the same way now.

What could I do to help the draft other than making the chimney taller? It's about 15ft, ~7ft of that is through the roof. Sure I "could" add more length, but it will look like a freaking factory stack that's 40ft in the air.

GRES-2.jpg
 
Unfortunately I think you've answered your own question. You have to admit that 15' isn't terribly tall, and now that you're in the less "HOLY CRAP ITS FREEZING OUTSIDE" weather, the short stack's showing its flaws. Even another 2 or 3 feet might make all the difference in the world, and its worth a shot.
 
Did you check your cat? Could be a little plugged with fly ash, you may also want to check your chimney cap.
 
I don't think anything is clogged as it was fine with colder temps. If CAT was clogged it would be burning ok on bypass and it's not.

Cap looks to be fine, but I might call stove company and see what they think. I'm not getting on the roof... fell off one a few months ago and broke my back. I get the shakes climbing a couple feet to change a light bulb.
 
Agreed, given the conditions described, I would check plugging of the cat, the flue and the cap screen if there is one. A 15' flue at 25ºF should draft fairly well unless there are a couple 90 elbows in there. Could be time for your mid-season cleaning.
 
Our chimney is not that tall plus we have horizontal through the wall and we have no problem with draft.

Apparently this is something you've never encountered before. Of course that suggests something may have gotten into or something is wrong with the chimney. Things can happen fast. I recall one year when it was still early for heating season but on Thanksgiving morning my father-in-law called us to come help. His house was filling with smoke. Needless to say, it did not take us long to get there and we found....a clogged chimney. But it was burning fine up to that point.
 
Nate, it really sounds like a clogged chimney.
 
NATE I dont want to raise any hairs but you always mention about burning at 12oclock or #1 setting. You say you get smoke. I never get any smoke after a good fire and turn down. I am thinking your chimney needs a cleaning. I know at the beginning of the season you were not happy with your wood you started with. Your collection in the flue could of started then and now has compounded. You are right about the cat being bypassed. It should draft better on bypass even if you had a clean CAT. Time to brush. How long has it been?
 
I noticed last night mine needed to be turn up a notch to burn good. We had a "Low Pressure" front move in.
Barometer went form 30.0 to 28.8.
I also talked to the AK fireplace guy. Sent him pics of my setup.
He made some recommendations.
I'll start a new post so not to walk over this one.
 
Is your OAK clear? Any chance a critter or something (other than snow) has clogged it?

Edit: Also, is the chimney a straight vertical shot or are there any turns/horizontal runs?
 
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