I think I had a Chimney Fire?

[robalp]

This morning, after starting up the fire from hot coals, I noticed the sound of falling creosote, a lot of it. It concerned me as I had just loaded up and the fire was really cooking. The stove temp at that point was not very high, maybe 250, and then smoke started pouring out from who knows where... I shut down the air and the smoke quickly subsided. I let the fire burn down and then removed the wood and hot coals, and let the stove cool off. I went up the roof and swept the chimney with a brush. It had last been done in the early spring. After sweeping the stove pipe, which is about 23 feet in a strait line, I removed the flew connector from the stove, it was pretty full. I cleaned it out and put everything back together. I could not see any creosote on top of the insulation blanket, so I decided not to remove the stove's top plate. Everything seems to be ok now, although I notice that the stove temp does not seem to be getting as high as it should and I have seen no secondary burn from the tubes on top. I have had a fire going for 3 or 4 hours now, with the air open all the way, and some of my oldest, driest red oak and locust (3 years). Could I have damaged something? I am also concerned that I had so much creosote build up in such a short period of time. My wood is dry, moisture meter showed around 15% a few months ago, in the pile I have been burning since installing this new stove a couple of months ago.

I would sure love to hear some thoughts on what could be going on...

Thanks

Rob

 

[cmonSTART]

I'm a bit confused by your installation. Do you have a stove/insert installed as a direct connect to your fireplace flue?

Creosote tends to expand like popcorn when it burns, making the flue appear very full after a chimney fire sometimes.

 

[robalp]

It's a freestanding stove, the 6 inch single wall stove pipe connects to the stove at the back of the stove and goes strait up, there are no bends or turns. The 6 inch pipe runs to the ceiling about 16 feet, and then adapts to 8 inch pipe which runs the rest of the way, about another 7 feet to the cap.

 

[cmonSTART]

Single wall connector pipe which is that long can produce a fair amount of creosote. You might have caught it on fire during start-up. That's how it happens a lot of the time.

Did you get a good look at the interior of the chimney pipe? Any buckling of the walls? Any stains on the exterior of the pipe?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

This morning, after starting up the fire from hot coals, I noticed the sound of falling creosote, a lot of it. It concerned me as I had just loaded up and the fire was really cooking. The stove temp at that point was not very high, maybe 250, and then smoke started pouring out from who knows where... I shut down the air and the smoke quickly subsided. I let the fire burn down and then removed the wood and hot coals, and let the stove cool off. I went up the roof and swept the chimney with a brush. It had last been done in the early spring. After sweeping the stove pipe, which is about 23 feet in a strait line, I removed the flew connector from the stove, it was pretty full. I cleaned it out and put everything back together. I could not see any creosote on top of the insulation blanket, so I decided not to remove the stove's top plate. Everything seems to be ok now, although I notice that the stove temp does not seem to be getting as high as it should and I have seen no secondary burn from the tubes on top. I have had a fire going for 3 or 4 hours now, with the air open all the way, and some of my oldest, driest red oak and locust (3 years). Could I have damaged something? I am also concerned that I had so much creosote build up in such a short period of time. My wood is dry, moisture meter showed around 15% a few months ago, in the pile I have been burning since installing this new stove a couple of months ago.

I would sure love to hear some thoughts on what could be going on...

Thanks

Rob

Another thought here. You should not leave the draft full open for that long. If it doesn't get the flue too hot it is okay but you will send most of the heat straight up the chimney. You should find that once the fire is established that you can start to close the draft, maybe to half or thereabouts. When you do this, the stove will begin to heat up faster.

 

[robalp]

What you say about single wall pipe makes sense. I suppose the gas must cool much faster as it rises up the pipe. I have ceiling fan that is maybe 3 feet from the pipe. The fan may be helping to cool the pipe as well... I did not see any signs of buckling in the pipe, there is a bit of discoloration in a spot around a joint, sort of looks like it got wet... Do you think I should change out that section of pipe?
Before yesterday's incident, I had been getting the fire going, and then shutting the air down to about 1/4 open, that seemed to keep stove top temp around 450. I would typically close the air down all the way before leaving for the day, or before going to sleep at night, to get long burn times. I suppose I might need to not close it so much, and just live with shorter burn times...

Thanks for the insight.

Merry X-Mas!