A black outside Wall...

Bout time you showed up !!

That is not Good... At All! ! ! ! !!

Im betting on a dirty stove (obviously) and more than likely it an Englander where the Owner messed with the Bottom 3 Buttons. That end cap comes with the Kit at Lowes/HD. All my snouts from Stove shops are nozzle types. If they bought that stove from a Hearth Shop, it should be a Nozzle.

That Hood is part of the 3000 kit. That why I am betting Englander.

To the OP. You should stop by there. Even if you dont help him clean it? Give him the info on this Site and tell him to join Hearth.com

All well meaning but if someone stopped by my house poking their noise about something "oh I can help" I'd be much more inclinced to show them the buisness end of my dog vs inviting them to help!

I bet that's a coal-fired dryer vent - no need to worry...

It's a moral dilemma - ignore it and chance a fire, or try to talk to the owner and risk intruding. If there are kids living there, the owner should be educated about his stove.

send a nice post card with a friendly invitation to hearth.com

You never know what will happen. That home owner knows all about that situation and may appreciate help in stopping it.

Yes, that could be one of those 3 alarm pellet stove house fires that you read about and wonder how it can happen.

I found that some stoves like the Enviro EF2 that added an igniter to the old manual design was not as close as it should be to the pellets in the burn pot. It works but sure makes alot of smoke at startup!

How is this one? See pic below.

BTW: I helped remove the stove here.

That does not appear to be 12" away from the structure. I know Steel is not a Combustible material, but it may have been a lot lighter if it protruded a little farther.

Also, I doubt that was just from start-up smoke. Very likely that stove was burning dirty and had a little smoke/soot coming out the vent all the time (much like the unit in the OP).

All my vents are close to 2 ft away from the siding. 2 of them being right at 2 ft, and my Fahrenheits is close to 28" away.

Was that the EF-2 you fixed up?

even coal wouldnt leave a residue like that!

I wonder what the responsibility of the local code official might be here....arent they somewhat beholden to say SOMETHING when this kind of thing occurs? It isnt just the user's home, but who knows? Maybe a neighboring home could "go up" as well?

No not the EF-2 but the heat exchangers in this stove had atleast 1/4" of pellet dust on them!

100% correct. I have the same problem. As reported in my last few posts, that my OAK was clogged, which in turn caused a real dirty burn. Now I am having difficulty cleaning the vinyl siding.

Try a mixture of pool liquid chlorine 60%, detergent (liquid ajax) 5% and water 35%, apply with brush or if you have a pressure washer from bottom to top on the soaping stage let sit for a few minutes and rinse off (preferably with a pressure washer with white tip or low velocity) from top to bottom.