Got a smoke problem too

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weatherguy

weatherguy

Minister of Fire
Feb 20, 2009
5,920
Central Mass
Wednesday after I reloaded in the afternoon I got a strong smoky smell, I let the fire die down and let it go out. Today I cleaned it up and checked the cat, it has a small wound, about 4 squares worth. After cleaning everything up I fired her up tonight and my rooms filled with smoke right now. It doesnt appear to be coming from the door, forgot to dollar bill test but it seems tight. I didnt bother engaging the cat and Im letting it die down right now.
Ive been burning two years with no problems, anyone have an idea what it could be and what I should check next?

thanks
 
You light and burn with the by-pass open for awhile right..I'm sure you do.
Barometric pressure and humidity can mess with you.
Try using real small stuff till you get a good bed of coals..coals do help imo.
Mine is still going from the first fire from Oct.
 
when was that chimney last cleaned? Wondering if your cap is blocked up.

pen
 
Yeah if it is doing it with the bypass open that chimney is plugged somewhere. Most likely at the cap.
 
Yes, I always start with small stuff and keep the bypass open til it gets up to temp. It was doing it yesterday with a good bed of coals. Ill go up and check the cap tomorrow, or whenever the snow melts.
Thanks, I hope thats it, that would be an easy fix.
 
cleaning the cap is the easy fix if you find that to be your problem. But the real work will come in figuring out what about your setup / burning habits is causing the cap to get plugged and making that adjustment.

pen
 
weatherguy said:
Yes, I always start with small stuff and keep the bypass open til it gets up to temp. It was doing it yesterday with a good bed of coals. Ill go up and check the cap tomorrow, or whenever the snow melts.
Thanks, I hope thats it, that would be an easy fix.
Click to expand...

Yeah..if that don't do it check behind the stove and make sure the pipes are together good..you never know.
 
pen said:
cleaning the cap is the easy fix if you find that to be your problem. But the real work will come in figuring out what about your setup / burning habits is causing the cap to get plugged and making that adjustment.

pen
Click to expand...

That was going to be my next question, what would cause it to get clogged?
I just took a look with my binoculars and a spotlight and the smoke seems to be pouring out of a small area, not sure if thats proves its getting clogged, I can tell better in the morning. I know its a cap with a small screen, I thought I read where a couple people didnt like those, could that be the problem?
 
Another thought popped into my head, if the cap is clogged, which I think it is and heres why. I only got the smoke when reloading wed and the cat wasnt engaged and again tonight when I was getting it up to temp and the cat wasnt engaged. When Im burning hot and the cats engaged theres little to no smoke and I didnt have a problem until I let it get cooler and had to wait to engage the cap.
Ill know for sure tomorrow, thanks for the replies. If anyone has ideas on why it got clogged Im all ears.

thanks again
 
Mine actually drafts better with the cat engaged then not.
 
Seems to me most people who have or had a screened cap have experienced it plugged. I'm not sure if mine made it through the first yr or not but I know the first time I had to go up there I promply threw it away. In fact if your burning 24/7 I see no need for cap. I only recently installed a new open rain cap with no screen. I clean my neighbors about once a yr for him. Doesn't seem to take much smoke to collect creosote on those things.
 
wkpoor said:
Seems to me most people who have or had a screened cap have experienced it plugged. I'm not sure if mine made it through the first yr or not but I know the first time I had to go up there I promply threw it away. In fact if your burning 24/7 I see no need for cap. I only recently installed a new open rain cap with no screen. I clean my neighbors about once a yr for him. Doesn't seem to take much smoke to collect creosote on those things.
Click to expand...

I have a screened cap and have no signs of it plugging. The biggest reason that they plug is from running the stove too cool / closing the air down too early.

Often times the reason the stove is being run too cool is because the firewood isn't seasoned well enough to really burn hot. The cap is the coolest part of the system and the most prone to collecting creosote. The cooler the flue gasses the greater the risk of plugging the cap. Additionally, if the wood isn't well seasoned more smoke is going to be going up the chimney than should be simply putting more particulate matter in the right place to condense back into creosote.

pen
 
pen said:
wkpoor said:
Seems to me most people who have or had a screened cap have experienced it plugged. I'm not sure if mine made it through the first yr or not but I know the first time I had to go up there I promply threw it away. In fact if your burning 24/7 I see no need for cap. I only recently installed a new open rain cap with no screen. I clean my neighbors about once a yr for him. Doesn't seem to take much smoke to collect creosote on those things.
Click to expand...

I have a screened cap and have no signs of it plugging. The biggest reason that they plug is from running the stove too cool / closing the air down too early.

Often times the reason the stove is being run too cool is because the firewood isn't seasoned well enough to really burn hot. The cap is the coolest part of the system and the most prone to collecting creosote. The cooler the flue gasses the greater the risk of plugging the cap. Additionally, if the wood isn't well seasoned more smoke is going to be going up the chimney than should be simply putting more particulate matter in the right place to condense back into creosote.

pen
Click to expand...

I ran hot all year til this latest shoulder season, I made smaller fires and set my tstat lower, esp during the day. I thought that was one of the benefits of the cat stove with a tstat. I have an interior flue and liner is 26 feet long.
I know its not the wood its been seasoned 3-4 years and tested with a meter it was 10-12%.
If its plugged when I go up there Im taking the wire snips to the screen.
 
weatherguy said:
I ran hot all year til this latest shoulder season, I made smaller fires and set my tstat lower, esp during the day. I thought that was one of the benefits of the cat stove with a tstat. I have an interior flue and liner is 26 feet long.
I know its not the wood its been seasoned 3-4 years and tested with a meter it was 10-12%.
If its plugged when I go up there Im taking the wire snips to the screen.
Click to expand...

I would too then

pen
 
pen said:
weatherguy said:
I ran hot all year til this latest shoulder season, I made smaller fires and set my tstat lower, esp during the day. I thought that was one of the benefits of the cat stove with a tstat. I have an interior flue and liner is 26 feet long.
I know its not the wood its been seasoned 3-4 years and tested with a meter it was 10-12%.
If its plugged when I go up there Im taking the wire snips to the screen.
Click to expand...

I would too then

pen
Click to expand...

If you have any suggestions on what I may be able to do differently Im all ears.
I read through some old posts last night and there seemed to be a debate on whether a cap with screen should be used. Some of the more experienced members and I think a mod suggested cutting some of the screen to make the holes bigger. Since Im a fairly new burner I take all suggestions any of the esperienced burners want to give me graciously.
 
Your wood sounds like it should be dry enough, it sounds like you should be burning hot enough, and you have a good chimney which should stay warm. That said it sounds like you are doing everything right. Since you are doing everything well and still having a problem open that bad boy up w/ the snips.

The only other thing is can you see visible smoke from the chimney once you engage the cat? If not, then that's another feather in your cap that says you are doing things as you should be.

Maybe it's the cap design, a certain prevailing breeze in your area causing it, who knows, but if I couldn't find anything else to fix, I'd not hesitate to open it up.

pen
 
pen said:
wkpoor said:
Seems to me most people who have or had a screened cap have experienced it plugged. I'm not sure if mine made it through the first yr or not but I know the first time I had to go up there I promply threw it away. In fact if your burning 24/7 I see no need for cap. I only recently installed a new open rain cap with no screen. I clean my neighbors about once a yr for him. Doesn't seem to take much smoke to collect creosote on those things.
Click to expand...

I have a screened cap and have no signs of it plugging. The biggest reason that they plug is from running the stove too cool / closing the air down too early.

Often times the reason the stove is being run too cool is because the firewood isn't seasoned well enough to really burn hot. The cap is the coolest part of the system and the most prone to collecting creosote. The cooler the flue gasses the greater the risk of plugging the cap. Additionally, if the wood isn't well seasoned more smoke is going to be going up the chimney than should be simply putting more particulate matter in the right place to condense back into creosote.

pen
Click to expand...
Mind you now I had the problem when I was burning 24/7 with a homemade non EPA stove. Maybe I wouldn't have a problem now but I'm not going to try cause I see no need for the screen and I'm not taking a chance on it plugging in the middle of January on a 40' chimney. Not burning fires hot has never been a problem of mine. I like stove top temps 700-800 degrees. However depending on your stove that has nothing to do with pipe temps. So everyones situation has little twists in them.
 
pen said:
Your wood sounds like it should be dry enough, it sounds like you should be burning hot enough, and you have a good chimney which should stay warm. That said it sounds like you are doing everything right. Since you are doing everything well and still having a problem open that bad boy up w/ the snips.

The only other thing is can you see visible smoke from the chimney once you engage the cat? If not, then that's another feather in your cap that says you are doing things as you should be.

Maybe it's the cap design, a certain prevailing breeze in your area causing it, who knows, but if I couldn't find anything else to fix, I'd not hesitate to open it up.

pen
Click to expand...

Once the fire gets hot and the cats engaged you cant see anything coming out if the chimney, only on start ups and reloads do I see smoke and that goes away once the cats engaged.
Ill head up to the roof and take a look tomorrow and see whats what. still snow on the roof today.

thanks
 
If that screen is anything smaller than 1/2" opening. Get yourself 1/2 or larger opening s.s. screen, remove the old one and install the new one.
If you decide to remove the screen all together, make sure your local code allows that, and keep in mind there is a good chance of birds, or small animals getting down the stack when it is cold.
 
Hogwildz said:
If that screen is anything smaller than 1/2" opening. Get yourself 1/2 or larger opening s.s. screen, remove the old one and install the new one.
If you decide to remove the screen all together, make sure your local code allows that, and keep in mind there is a good chance of birds, or small animals getting down the stack when it is cold.
Click to expand...
I've posted this before but can't resist telling it again. Every spring after I stop burning I have birds that come down the chimney. Takes about 2 days for them to get to the stove. They scratch and claw all the way. When they get to the stove I open the basement door and let them out. By season end they have my pipe polished clean. Only bird to die was when we were gone on vacation and weren't there to let them out. I welcome my birds every year as it saves me a cleaning before fall.
 
Hogwildz said:
If that screen is anything smaller than 1/2" opening. Get yourself 1/2 or larger opening s.s. screen, remove the old one and install the new one.
If you decide to remove the screen all together, make sure your local code allows that, and keep in mind there is a good chance of birds, or small animals getting down the stack when it is cold.
Click to expand...

I was actually just going to make the holes larger by cutting every other one, I looked at it with binocs from the ground this morning and it is a small screen. I want a screen, just not so small.
 
If you checked with the binocs I guess it didn't look like this.
 

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The cap design on mine has no screen, and there is a round collar that blocks half the opening, centered from top to bottom. So, you have maybe an inch around the top and inch around the bottom, roughly. The only thing that gets in are the stink bugs that we have in eastern PA.

My first few years of burning, I used wood that was not as well seasoned, and almost clogged the gaps at the cap. Since then, I use better wood, burn at a pipe temp of 700-800 and have not had a problem.

I'd like to have a screen to keep the bugs out, but I think it would be too fine and would tend to clog. Just a guess.

ca. 1995 Quad 3100 flat top pedestal
 
BrotherBart said:
If you checked with the binocs I guess it didn't look like this.
Click to expand...

It wasnt that bad but it was worse than I thought. i would say it was 95% blocked, I cleaned it today and left it for now, Im going to replace it when I clean my liner after Im done burning for good this spring. I would just knock it with the screwdrive and flakes were falling right off, I cleaned every little screen. If I keep this one I would have to go up there at least twice a year during burning season to clean it, getting one with a bigger screen makes more sense.
 
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