Fire smokes/smoulders with door open

[drz1050]

Here's one of the flue's i put it in my house last year - draft seems pretty much perfect - triple skin.

View attachment 156571

Thank you for the visual. OP, this is what I was suggesting in my other post.

 

[Bahyx]

Going to take a bit of time to reply to all this but I really appreciate all the input.

TLDR: 9" flue, Brisbane Australia, I wish I'd gotten a chimney like in Auzzie Gumtree's pic

Perhaps look up a reputable local chimney sweep, and have him give an opinion?

The installer is actually a chimney sweep, he was going to come round once every 1-2 years.

From what I see in the picture you have galvanized single wall pipe that's installed upside down. It's kind of difficult to tell for sure.
Find out from the installer what materials were used on the chimney.

Here's a screenshot of the invoice:

I think the OP would be better off bringing in another installer to look at it at this point.

But i agree that it should be checked out by another pro.

There is another guy here in Brisbane that seems quite experienced, he's good friends with my installer though. Sounds like this is the way to go.

My concern is the height of the flue - it should be at least another 900mm section on top of where it is - see diagram below.

It is hard to tell from those pics if the height is ok

I'll get on the roof this arvo and see if I can take a better pic, I've been up there before and it looks to be pretty high (well over 2 feet).

Also the wood is not dry - it looks like it has been seasoned in the round and then split just before delivery. If it looks wrong it usually is wrong and that wood looks wet very wet.

Which one? There's wood from 3 different guys. Would you mind checking the post again? I suspect you are talking about the last guy, Craig, he was actually the one I was going to use (because of the price and the amount of wood I'll be using). 'Seasoned in the round' means stored in log form and split before delivery right?

Where are you in Australia?

Brisbane

Here's one of the flue's i put it in my house last year - draft seems pretty much perfect - triple skin.

Man, I WISH I had got it done like this, seems it would work much better. We have a window in front of it (hence one of the bends) and the installer didn't want to go through the asbestos roof (hence the other). Yours just looks so much better, drz1050 suggested this too.

That particular fireplace takes a 9" pipe.

From the invoice it looks like Jo was right

 

[Bahyx]

Just had a chat with one of the major retailers here (Noosa BBQ and fireplace) and he definitely agrees with you guys about the chimney after I sent him the photos, he said it's got 6 bends in this one (3 sets) and his maximum when installing is 2 bends (1 set). Suggested redoing it similar to drz1050 suggestion (Auzzie Gumtree's pic) but with it just coming out past the eve of the window and then up through the overhanging roof. I don't really care how it looks as long as it works and can survive cyclone (hurricane) season.

He asked a few questions about the draw which may interest some of you:
Q: If you scrunch up some newspaper and burn it what happens with the door opened and closed?
A: Smoke city, with the door open it comes out into the room, with the door closed it swirls and swirls for about 5 mins.

Q: What happens if you do this with the door open a crack?
A: It creates a turbine affect, otherwise similar to it being fully closed. (He said this means there is some draw so it may not be as bad as he's thinking).

Gonna talk again tomorrow but possible solutions:
- Redo the chimney (said you won't need many new parts), if it still smokes with the door open then we can buy a new fireplace and use the new redone flue. He mentioned a Chazelle dh840 one that has the glass door swing up inside and can definitely be used as an open fireplace, with it open a bit comes down 6-8 inches forcing the air in through the bottom (he also said they sell many other types of brands of open fireplace inc Heatmaster, Jetmaster, Oblica, Aranbe, Chazelle, so at least this is an option and legal in Australia, if we can't find something cheaper that works):

- Another option is to modify the existing glass door somehow. Told him my suggestion of cutting a hand sized hole in the bottom of the glass.


Just went on the roof after it rained on a wobbly ladder, probably not the smartest thing, nevertheless here are the photos, glove for scale:

Feeling a lot more optimistic now.

 

[Auzzie Gumtree]

The clearance above the roof looks fine - it looked a lot closer to the roof line in the original picture it looks like well over a meter clearance as each flue section is 900mm. it looks like the amount of bends around the window is possibly causing the draft issue. 9" flue is a pretty big diameter to get a good draft going especially when your outside temp is going to be pretty high to start with - i wouldn't have thought you would be getting below 50's (10 degrees c) The colder the outside temp the bigger the differential and the better the draft - i think.....

'Seasoned in the round' means stored in log form and split before delivery right?

Yes that's exactly right i have had a couple of wood guys deliver some wood - in the early days pre-hearth, and they both did the same thing they used to leave the wood in round form for years and let the sides split and check and it looks really dry and then they split it just before delivery. To be fair to them they actually thought they were doing right and didn't know what a moisture meter was We do have much more favorable drying conditions here in Australia but also some of the densest woods available these need time to season - and that time doesn't start until its been split.....

You could be lucky with your wood it could have been split a year ago - you will know more when you get your MM unfortunately the majority of problems with wood heating is the dryness of the wood - until you season your own wood you have to rely on someone else definition of Seasoned..... although your problem could be the draft issue.

Good luck with heater