Anyone ever get their OAK plugged with snow?

[bbfarm]

We are having a monster of a blizzard right now. Our power went out for undetermined amount of time while I was at work

I noticed this because when our stove restarts it drops to level 1 and we had it on 3 when we left.

I moved the level back to 3 and had a weak small flame. I thought what the heck? It's like the stove isn't getting air.

I went out to shovel the snow off the back porch and from around the venting.

We have a straight out Selkirk vent with the oak built in. Sure enough, there was snow smooshed in there. I stuck my fingers in to clear the snow and got a nice big live flame again.

 

[Lake Girl]

Must be a pile of snow

 

[Jigger]

Mine would be hard pressed to get plugged with snow. My OAK is 4 feet off the ground and has a shield around it. It might pull some snow in. But not enough to plug it.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

You are supposed to make sure that the OAK is above the average snow line. Then you only have to worry about exceptional snow drifts.
Mine are at 3 feet above ground.

 

[chken]

We are having a monster of a blizzard right now. Our power went out for undetermined amount of time while I was at work

I noticed this because when our stove restarts it drops to level 1 and we had it on 3 when we left.

I moved the level back to 3 and had a weak small flame. I thought what the heck? It's like the stove isn't getting air.

I went out to shovel the snow off the back porch and from around the venting.

We have a straight out Selkirk vent with the oak built in. Sure enough, there was snow smooshed in there. I stuck my fingers in to clear the snow and got a nice big live flame again.

One Christmas, the family gathered at my brother's Mammoth Mtn ski house. He has a gas furnace. The OAK is almost 10 feet above the ground, but got covered by a huge snowfall that even buried his SUV. If I didn't know where it was, we might have had to wait for the Spring thaw! Anyhow, the outside air vent got covered with snow, 10 feet above the ground! The furnace went out, and it took me hours to finally figure out what had happened, and to clear the vent, and get the furnace running and producing heat again.

 

[Harvey Schneider]

One Christmas, the family gathered at my brother's Mammoth Mtn ski house. He has a gas furnace. The OAK is almost 10 feet above the ground, but got covered by a huge snowfall that even buried his SUV. If I didn't know where it was, we might have had to wait for the Spring thaw! Anyhow, the outside air vent got covered with snow, 10 feet above the ground! The furnace went out, and it took me hours to finally figure out what had happened, and to clear the vent, and get the furnace running and producing heat again.

Makes me wonder if it wouldn't be wise to add a Tee with a back-draft preventer on the branch, so that the stove can pull house air if the OAK is blocked. That would bring the need to verify that it is closed under normal conditions, but it would prevent the snow problem.

 

[bbfarm]

wow, 10 feet!

we got 11"

The vent wasn't covered with snow, it had just blown in there and since the pipe doesn't get hot, it won't melt out.

 

[lbcynya]

Went sledding and hit a big jump...on the landing...you know...

 

[Tonyray]

Went sledding and hit a big jump...on the landing...you know...

If I ever get snow this high, I'm screwed...

 

[chken]

Makes me wonder if it wouldn't be wise to add a Tee with a back-draft preventer on the branch, so that the stove can pull house air if the OAK is blocked. That would bring the need to verify that it is closed under normal conditions, but it would prevent the snow problem.

Hahaha, it's my bro's house, so I'll mention it to him. They haven't had any snow this year, but they do get massive dumps from time-to-time. It was interesting that he didn't park his SUV in the garage, but left it in the driveway, just a foot away from the road. They have this giant snowblower truck that will augur the snow, right up to these tall poles that they use to line the roads. After the storm, we swam/crawled out to the plowed road, and dug about a foot horizontally, and hit the hatch of his SUV, opened it, crawled in, turned it on, and backed right out of the snow pile! I guess he'd done it before.

 

[Jason Knapp]

Mine would get plugged up if the wind gets going. I solved the issue by getting a dryer vent from Home depot, taking the metal tube and flap off, and use the cover. Fasten it to the OAK plate and BOOM! No more clogging!