Amish oak lumber waste-can I burn this?? and other questions from a human chicken

[Andolyn11]

Thank you everyone! I have found a lot of comforting info on this forum-but now the questions…
I have a year-old Vermont Castings stove that has periodically given me a scare since the installers placed it in my manufactured home. It still smells like plastic when it gets hot and the glass is really getting dirty every day. Last year I burned trees that where down in my wood lot for unknown years but this year I got some oak lumber waste left over from a barn building, is that ok to burn split down fine?? Also old cedar fence rails-I split these down to matchstick size to start the fires with and they go up like paper-is this ok?? I am really afraid of chimney fires at this point after reading all the posts and my glass is staying dirty with black soot that is hard to remove-do I need to call a sweep? Once or twice this puppy has made a roaring sound like a plane taking off-that really scares the pajamas off me and I keep telling myself it is wind coming down the chimney-true??



Sorry to ask such silly questions, but I am a single girl chicken heart and would really appreciate any help I can get.

 

[Corey]

Welcome to the forums - nice to see a fellow heartlander - I'm only a couple hundred miles west in Lawrence, KS. As for your questions -

Have you been burning the stove for a year, or are you just saying it is a year old and you have just started burning? It's not uncommon to get a burning plastic / paint / chemical smell for the first several firings of a new stove. But it should start to clear up, especially after a year.

The roaring sound can happen if feeding too much air with too big of a fire. This seems to be the most common for me when burning pallet scraps or other pieces of wood where I have quite a few little sticks in the firebox all burning at once. Burning dimensional lumber is OK for quick hot fires, but you don't want to fill the firebox full of small wood scraps. I generally stick with 2-3 pieces of 2x4 at a time.

The biggest way to stop chimney fires is simply to keep the chimney clean. It's not uncommon to get some build up of flaky dry creosote which can be easily brushed away in annual (or even semiannual) cleanings. If you get thick tar like creosote - that is usually an indication that something is wrong with the burn or the wood.

If you are getting a lot of soot on the windows, that seems to indicate that something isn't right. Again, I seem to get some soot while burning pallet scraps, but this usually goes away when I get into bigger chunks of wood and hotter/longer duration fires. I don't know about your specifics, but over here, it hasn't hardly been cold enough to get some of the real 'cranking' fires going yet.

Anyway, let us know what model your stove is, there are quite a few VC burners on here, they can probably give more specific advice for your particular model.

 

[Andolyn11]

Thank you Cozy Heat!
We have had a couple of hard freezes already this year in MO, and as I heat the house (by choice) with the wood stove I have had a fire almost every night for nearly a month. My stove is a RESOLUTE ACCLAIM and was installed around this time last year. As you more than likely remember last year was a doozy in the cold department and the stove saved me from freezing when the power went out for the ice storms. I was building bigger fires last year and did not worry as much about chimney fires (being ignorant) and I did not call a sweep in this spring. I am also wondering if I need to call a sweep or someone who installs the stoves to insure that it was properly installed-I did have to call the dealer to come out last year because after reading the parts manual I noticed that they forgot to install all the parts to the mobile home kit.
I do not want to sound paranoid, but I also do not want to burn down the house around the dogs heads. Thank you again

 

[WILDSOURDOUGH]

Protect the dogs heads- and yours.
I would reccomend that you have your chimmey cleaned by a professional- that person should be able to look over the installation, to make sure that everything is installed correctly and functioning properly. This second set of eyes- beyond yours and the installers, might (or might not) see something, but you will have a clean and properly running system- you will feel warm and sleep better.

Be there and watch how they clean the chimney, the pipes, the cleanout- all of it. You will learn alot- ask questions and become more informed and maybe next year you can clean your own chimney- if your not too 'chicken'. ;-)

 

[BrotherBart]

I am still trying to think of a response to "really scares the pajamas off me" that won't get me banned.

 

[Jimbob]

:lol: ^^^:lol:
I guess it would be inappropriate to ask for pics???