Low fan speed = condensation

[Tree farmer]

I was running my Eko at 50 and 60% fan speed with the shutter less than 50 (during cold weather) when I noticed the junction of the outside chimney and the cement floor had a giant black spot of ooze(it soaked the bottom blocks of the chimney and came through onto the floor). Coming to the quick conclusion I was getting a lot of condensation and didn't realized until now I cranked the shutter open and ran the fan back up to 80%. Because I don't have storage I have a lot of idle time and I have an outside chimney which is harder to keep warm. I think all those factors were contributing to the condensation (maybe a little damp wood too) but I wont know until I run it some more opened up. So the question is am I going to increase the flue gas temps enough by increasing the fan speed and shutter to eliminate the condensation. Right now it has stunk my whole basement up again with the rancid smell of creosote and I can even smell it upstairs when I come home. I haven't dared tell the wife and she hasn't said a thing yet about noticeable smell. Anyone have any good suggestions to get rid of that smell? I tried cat litter with charcoal in it to help absorb everything it seems to have helped a little.

 

[Nofossil]

That's condensation, all right. My brother has the same thing. He's rigged up drip baffles to channel it into a bucket that he empties. I'd go with solvent and kitty litter, but I have no first-hand experience.

Condensation is supposed to be bad for mortar, so I'd avoid it as a habit.

 

[Piker]

White vinegar/water mix (50/50) will help, and the vinegar smell will dissappear quickly. I use straight white vinegar to remove any drops of creosote that may fall from the door of the firebox and land on the blower enclosure. You have to scrub for a while, but it does eventually take the stain out. The skins on the Econoburn are powder coated... great bullet proof coating but requires a little more elbow grease to remove crud.

cheers

 

[Fred61]

I was running my Eko at 50 and 60% fan speed with the shutter less than 50 (during cold weather) when I noticed the junction of the outside chimney and the cement floor had a giant black spot of ooze(it soaked the bottom blocks of the chimney and came through onto the floor). Coming to the quick conclusion I was getting a lot of condensation and didn't realized until now I cranked the shutter open and ran the fan back up to 80%. Because I don't have storage I have a lot of idle time and I have an outside chimney which is harder to keep warm. I think all those factors were contributing to the condensation (maybe a little damp wood too) but I wont know until I run it some more opened up. So the question is am I going to increase the flue gas temps enough by increasing the fan speed and shutter to eliminate the condensation. Right now it has stunk my whole basement up again with the rancid smell of creosote and I can even smell it upstairs when I come home. I haven't dared tell the wife and she hasn't said a thing yet about noticeable smell. Anyone have any good suggestions to get rid of that smell? I tried cat litter with charcoal in it to help absorb everything it seems to have helped a little.

I was having the same problem but I'm positive that the condensation was occurring during idle. I presently have a 105 gallon storage tank which is not much better than no storage, but it allows me to get a little longer burn since I have a very low heat load. When I am not available to load only a few sticks at a time (such as overnight) I load it up at the beginning of the burn which bakes some of the moisture out of the wood that will be sitting in the firebox overnight. This is with 18 month old hard maple that has been stacked undercover. Reducing the fan speed and shutter opening did not appear to give me a lower temp burn, if you can go by visual observation of the flame. It just seemed to change it from a torch appearance to a rolling flame, after adjusting the secondaries of course. My stack temp. did not seem to change after dropping my air flow and I don't get any more or less condensation. My conclusion is that it's the idling and can't wait to get my storage up and running.

 

[Fred61]

Whoops, Forgot something!!

Many people forget that this condensation is water soluble when cleaning up. Many are using solvents and oils. I buy that cheap cleaner "Mean Green" by the gallon from those Dollar Stores because I use it as a degreaser for just about everything. Seems to work pretty well on creosote puddles. In fact after reading about the adventures of the EKO owner's door gasket woes, I decided that when I need to clean my door gasket, it will be soaked in a solution of it.

 

[fishman]

maybe your flue pipe has some soot and ask build up especially if you have a section of vertical pipe