Hey...
My friends bought a house a little while ago and were trying to use their wood stove [ a High Valley]. They had a couple of fires in it but the stove was not drafting well and was very smokey while burning (in the stove as well as a strong smoke smell in the house). They asked my wifey if we knew anyone to come take a look at it. We did not but being a nice guy, I said I would come take a look at it. I figured since they bought a couple cord of "seasoned" wood and the house/stove was new to them, that the chimney needed a light sweep, the wood was damp, and they needed a quick lesson in stove use.
Never got to checking their wood...why do you ask?
I checked their chimney first because it was getting dark and I wanted to make use what little light there was.
I hopped on their roof, looked down their chimney and the first words out of my mouth were, "Oh my God, you are clogged!! !" The chimney was open for about 2' down and it was pretty much solid creosote the rest of the way. I brushed out what I could (round brush in a narrow rectangle chimney...I made it work though). As I brushed out the chimney, I saw something silvery at the bottom and figured it was a flex liner of some kind that fell. I got inside and our friends and I pulled out the stove. The shiny thing I saw was a giant piece of creosote...that also was when I discovered it was a slammer install. I looked at them and said that , "You are so lucky you did have a chimney fire..."
They are panicking a bit and checking with a friend of theirs about finding someone to fix it. I told them I would contact some buddies (aka Hearth.com) and help them out as best I could.
I have attached a couple of pictures of the stove.
Questions:
1) It looks to be a Model 2500 Catalytic (before I download stuff for them). They have a binder full of paperwork for the house but nothing on the stove (no home inspection done...I asked...but we can rant about that in another thread).
2) Anyone know of a good chimney place in the Mountains of WNC? It can be like pulling teeth to get someone to come out our way (The place I used for my install no longer does wood installs).
3) If they were to attempt to put in a liner themselves (he is mechanically inclined but has never done something like that before), Best place to purchase a liner? Also...outlet on stove is about 8" around but the chimney looks to be about 8" by 18" maybe? I am getting some measurements later today.
Conversion kit to go from one to the other? Is there enough net area for the stove to properly draft and such?
5) Best chimney cap?
6) Behind the stove is a fair amount of creosote on the brick. Best way to clean that up?
Thanks for the help...appreciate you all so much.
Sent from my VS835 using Tapatalk
My friends bought a house a little while ago and were trying to use their wood stove [ a High Valley]. They had a couple of fires in it but the stove was not drafting well and was very smokey while burning (in the stove as well as a strong smoke smell in the house). They asked my wifey if we knew anyone to come take a look at it. We did not but being a nice guy, I said I would come take a look at it. I figured since they bought a couple cord of "seasoned" wood and the house/stove was new to them, that the chimney needed a light sweep, the wood was damp, and they needed a quick lesson in stove use.
Never got to checking their wood...why do you ask?
I checked their chimney first because it was getting dark and I wanted to make use what little light there was.
I hopped on their roof, looked down their chimney and the first words out of my mouth were, "Oh my God, you are clogged!! !" The chimney was open for about 2' down and it was pretty much solid creosote the rest of the way. I brushed out what I could (round brush in a narrow rectangle chimney...I made it work though). As I brushed out the chimney, I saw something silvery at the bottom and figured it was a flex liner of some kind that fell. I got inside and our friends and I pulled out the stove. The shiny thing I saw was a giant piece of creosote...that also was when I discovered it was a slammer install. I looked at them and said that , "You are so lucky you did have a chimney fire..."
They are panicking a bit and checking with a friend of theirs about finding someone to fix it. I told them I would contact some buddies (aka Hearth.com) and help them out as best I could.
I have attached a couple of pictures of the stove.
Questions:
1) It looks to be a Model 2500 Catalytic (before I download stuff for them). They have a binder full of paperwork for the house but nothing on the stove (no home inspection done...I asked...but we can rant about that in another thread).
2) Anyone know of a good chimney place in the Mountains of WNC? It can be like pulling teeth to get someone to come out our way (The place I used for my install no longer does wood installs).
3) If they were to attempt to put in a liner themselves (he is mechanically inclined but has never done something like that before), Best place to purchase a liner? Also...outlet on stove is about 8" around but the chimney looks to be about 8" by 18" maybe? I am getting some measurements later today.
Conversion kit to go from one to the other? Is there enough net area for the stove to properly draft and such?
5) Best chimney cap?
6) Behind the stove is a fair amount of creosote on the brick. Best way to clean that up?
Thanks for the help...appreciate you all so much.
Sent from my VS835 using Tapatalk
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