1979 Alaska Kodiak - looking for advice

[Wilhelm911]

Hi all,
Last December we purchased our first house. In the basement sat an Alaska Kodiak wood stove for supplemental heat. I had never burned wood before, but was very excited to learn about it. I've been on these forums since - learning so much its unbelievable. I've been working like mad to get 3 years ahead on wood, along with trying to make stove improvements. Just to give you some background information - It is a 79 Alaska Kodiak stove, with an inner baffle. 6 inch outlet out the back. My chimney is masonry, centrally located in the house. It has a 6 3/4" x 6 3/4" square terracotta pipe for the wood stove and a 6 3/4" x 11" for the fireplace (main floor) The height of the chimney from the basement is approx 21 feet, and from the fireplace, 12 feet.

My first year of burning was a quick learning one. That year I bought wood, which is the typical story, not seasoned nearly enough. I struggled to keep fires but learned alot in the process. So I made up my mind, this winter, I was going to be ready. I have wood that has been split/stacked for a year now. Most of it was deadfall when I had processed it. Walnut,Maple,Cherry, and some Ash. I have a Harbor Freight moisture meter, and most of the wood is 20% or less. It all burns so nice compared to last years wood - that was hissing and bubbling water.


The stove setup the original owner had was not very efficient. There was 3 90 degree elbows before it had to go up the chimney. So I decided to change that to get a better draft. My result was 2 45s before hitting the chimney. See pictures of before and after. Also the stove pipe going into the chimney was a mess. A 6"x8" fitting into an ugly hole in the block. I fixed this by cementing a piece of 8" terracotta flue pipe into the block. Also I got the "soot eater" chimney sweep and made sure the chimney was nice and clean to start the new burning season. They also had a "heat box" on the top of the stove with a blower, and a 4 inch duct going upstairs to an outlet in the hallway. I "improved" this setup by running new ductwork to a floor vent in our living room and bedroom. This helped heat the house considerably. The heat has a hard time making it upstairs without the duct system. The basement is all concrete and soaks up the heat like a giant sponge.


So now it is December, I have been burning since October - ish. Lets say about 3 months. I burn about 12 hours at night every night and 24/7 on the weekends. The new setup seems to work pretty great. I still have short burn times with the longest being around 6 hours. I just caulk that up to "oh well what can I expect,its an old fire dragon". I tend to burn pretty hot, stove top around 600F. I have gone through about 2 1/2 cord of wood so far.
I decided to clean the chimney today to see how I'm making out and was less than thrilled. About 2 gallons of fluffy creosote came out of that chimney. I am thinking that the air temp is not hot enough going up the chimney and creates alot of creosote towards the top. So my ultimate question in this huge novel I've written is - Do I install a stainless steel liner, to try and keep temps up to reduce creosote? Or Do I abandon the old fire dragon and purchase an insert for the fire place? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[begreen]

Getting a modern insert connected to a stainless liner will save you wood, provide heat where you need it and will be safer than the jerry-rigged blower system. As long as the wood is fully seasoned, you also will be seeing about a cup of sote instead of a couple gallons.

 

[coaly]

Depends on what you want and need too. Do you need a warm basement? Is it needed to dry it out? I like to keep the mess in the basement, be able to cook in a power failure, and dry laundry and humidify the house with a "hot" room. That's a whole lot cheaper than a liner AND Insert for the second flue. (that may not do what you need)
If you don't need the heat downstairs, decreasing the heating area and loss through block walls is going to save fuel big time. If both are appealing, I'd line the basement flue first, and consider the Insert and liner later as a secondary heat source.

As you probably know;
The reason for your flue temperature drop is going from about 28 square inch outlet to 49 square inch flue. Expansion of the exhaust into a larger area cools as it expands, and a lot is absorbed by the masonry, so you need to leave about twice as much heat up as you would with a 6 inch insulated liner. If you're closing the damper now, watch the temp on the pipe where it enters chimney so you know how cool you're getting. It probably needs to be almost wide open most of the time.

Nice heat exchanger;
Do you keep a door open for return air to get back to the basement, or have a return duct / vent from each room heated? Trying to pressurize a room upstairs without returning air doesn't allow the blower to move as much, and depressurizes the downstairs where the stove intake needs the high pressure area to push through the stove and up the flue. It's easy to overpower the draft with a mechanical fan. Slowing the draft this way results in slower burn / cooler flue. (and more air infiltration into basement) The second capped off air vent would work good for a return with a duct fan in it. (returned from the same rooms heated) That would keep the extreme heat off your blower too. Looks like an "air over" cooled motor not getting the best of air ! Can't be good for that motor. Insulating air ducts on the longest run is going to get hotter air upstairs too.

 

[Wilhelm911]

Thanks for the replies. I do like the warm basement. It comes in handy, for drying snow soaked clothes, warming up my shop and garage if needed, ect. I believe I will get the liner for my current wood stove, see how that works out and go from there.

With my stove top temp at 600 degrees, the damper open, the flue pipe going into the chimney is only 250 degrees. So this must be the issue. Looks like I'll have to keep a careful eye on the chimney until winter is over.

I leave the door at the top of the steps open for air to move down to the stove. Also, I have a cold air return from our bedroom to the basement. A simple vent in the floor with a 4 inch pipe running to about 6 inches above the basement floor. It's amazing to feel the cold air sucked down that pipe.

 

[coaly]

With a liner, you may need to use double wall pipe inside to get your flue temp up to at least 300 at the bottom. Then you'll stay clean.

You know that can handle another heat duct with dual blowers next..........