Inside of my stove is all wet. Help!

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Jaugust124

Feeling the Heat
Feb 14, 2010
375
Mid-Hudson Valley, NY
Just got home a bit ago and decided to get a fire going. Opened the door to the insert and noticed the ashes were soaked. We had a good bit of rain here and I left the air open about 1/4 from last evening, but I don't think this should be happening.
I went outside and looked up at the the chimney, but its dark and I can't see much. I thought maybe the pipe or cap fell off with the wind.
Stove was installed in May by a local company, so I will definitely be calling them tomorrow.

Has anyone else experienced this with heavy rain? I can't imagine this could be anywhere close to normal.

Honestly, I'm quite worried. Any advice or help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Just cleaned the ash out and it was literally like sticking my hand in a fresh batch of wet cement!
 
It ain't normal. Now how it happened is something that would be hard to tell ya from this far away from the insert. You should at least be able to see if the cap is still on with a flashlight. Pipe falling off does not sound realistic with a fireplace insert.
 
From what I can see the cap looks like its still on. Because of my configuration the installers had to bring 4 feet of pipe out of the chimney. Its not reinforced with bracing at all. I'm wondering if the liner wasn't sealed properly or if the wind today moved the portion sticking out of the chimney enough to cause a crack in the sealant around the top of the bricks.

When I originally posted I guess I was in a bit of a state of panic/shock that my new toy was broken - sorry if it came off a bit frazzled.

Any idea what the overall effects of this could be? Is it possible the insert was destroyed in some way? I mean obviously I can't run it until this problem is taken care of, I was thinking about long term effects.
 
A little or a bunch of water isn't gonna hurt that hunk of steel.
 
That's weird. I see chimneys all the time with no caps on them and just assumed that water entering was never really an issue because of the small area of the flue pipe.
 
Notice anything about the weather today??. I hear NY city had 60 mile an hour gusts. Top that off with heavy sideways blowing rain I can see water blowing in and down to your stove. In daylight check to make sure everything is still in it's place.

I had to fight to keep my truck on a stretch of road up here due to the wind. Was in the rain most of the day with up to 40 mile an hour gusts. Rain was going sideways so i can see how it can get in the cap.
 
A little rain surely might get in, but the inside of my stove was like a bucket of mud. Before I had the insert there was no cap whatsoever on the chimney and we never had that much wetness. I have a feeling something might have gotten out of whack with the high winds today. Like I mentioned earlier, the liner sticks up 4 ft. out of the chimney and it has no bracing. I would bet that it came loose in the wind.
Hopefully they can come out tomorrow and take a look. Its going to get chilly here again and I really want to burn.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Just wanted to give a quick fill in on what finally transpired. The dealer called me back last night and told me that numerous people had similar problems because of the weather situation. He asked if I had any wetness around the outside of the stove and since I didn't he said just to clean out the wet ashes and fire it up. That would help dry everything out. He also said that things would be a bit sluggish because of the moisture, which it was. Anyway, thanks for the quick responses. I was kind of nervous about the whole situation, but things seem to be working well now.

Thanks again.
 
glad to hear it was nothing.... we now return you to your originally scheduelled burning now in progress
 
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