Avalon burning too hot - setting off smoke detectors

[rubyjliamf]

Hi All-

Its been a while since I was on these forums, but they were very helpful in the choosing and installation of my woodstove. We've been burning our freestanding Avalon since Nov. of 2008 and loving it. However, we've had some issues with it since December and I am not happy with our local chimney guy's response. He was the one who installed it. We have it installed in a cathedral ceiling (18ft) with a run of several sections of pipe to the ceiling - through attic space - and then out the roof. There are collars and double walled going through the attic so I am not worried about that aspect - but we've had smoke coming out of the joints of the pipe on two occasions. Both times, it was snowing heavily and there was at least a foot of accumulation on the roof and icing around the pipe cap. Admittedly the stove was too hot the first time (began emmiting an aweful smell - like it did when we first burned it) and then the smoke started pouring out of the joints and the smoke alarms go off.

The first time this happened was December and we had just had it cleaned out a month prior. We called the chimney guy and he came out, inspected it and said it needed to be cleaned again because of creosote buildup?! He recommended getting the Creosote burning logs and we have done that once a month since then. Today, it happened again and the stove only had one log in it! I didn't think it was burning that hot (we don't have a thermometer on it) but it is snowing hard (we are in Maryland) and there is ice build up on the cap again. I just burned a creosote sweeping log last Wednesday!

The wood we are burning is all dry hardwoods - cured at least a year. We know that the long run up inside the house is unusual (our chimney guy said it would draft great and would be cost prohibitive to run the pipes up the exterior of the house) but I hope this is not what is causing the problem. I have checked the male-female seams on the pipes to make sure they are going in the right direction and the only one I can tell is the first one from the stove to where it meets the second pipe....

I would love to hear your opinion on this problem and hopefully we can get it resolved. Also, should we have CO detectors too? Thanks in advance...

-Heather

 

[Todd]

Sounds to me like your firewood isn't as cured as you think and your cap is probably getting a lot of build up and reducing your draft? Maybe take the cap off for the rest of the year will help some. Weather will have an effect as well.

 

[DAKSY]

If you're clogging up your cap within a month of cleaning it,
there's no way your wood is dry.
Check it with a moisture meter & make sure it's around 20%
moisture content.

 

[rubyjliamf]

Thanks! The wood we are burning was cut down last winter (jan-Feb) according to our supplier. I did complain to him about having some difficulty in getting fires started and he said that there might be moisture problem in all the firewood in Maryland because we had such a wet spring and summer. Lots of rain and their wood piles sit outside exposed to the weather... while "drying". I was already thinking about getting an extra cord at the end of March to make sure its extra dry by next winter. I can stack and keep it covered at my house over the SPring/Summer and make sure its dry by the time next Dec. rolls around. DO you think the clogged cap is causing the smoke to come out of the seams? We are under 12" of new snow now and I won't get anyone out here to clean it until Friday if I'm lucky!

 

[Todd]

Good idea to get ahead on your wood supply. If you have the room get a couple years out, it will make a huge difference. In the mean time take off the cap for better draft and burn hotter.

 

[nojo]

could the smoke be the pipe coating curing? The inner pipe on a double wall could cure a bit and give off smoke and leak out the joints on the outer pipe. Is this plausible?