Water inside my chimney.

[kopeck]

So, just when I think I'm getting ahead...

Last night I was filling up the Tarm and I noticed a small damp spot at the bottom of my new chimney. I opened the clean out and there was 2 1/2" of water sitting in there.

This morning I cleaned it all out and dried it up the best I could. I fried up the Tarm and opened the clean out door to have a look. I could see water running dripping down the liner. I gave it 30 minutes or so and checked again and it looked like it had stopped dripping but there was a small puddle left in the bottom again (nothing like what I just cleaned up, probably just a few table spoons of water).

I'm assuming it condensation, cold chimney and a hot fire. My boiler seems to be running well besides that, starts gasifcation quickly and the stack temp runs at 450 deg f. when everything is up and running. My wood is seasoned well so I don't think I'm introducing any extra moisture.

The X-Factor here is that while the chimney runs through my house (ie not an out side chimney) BUT it's currently running through 2 unheated rooms and we just had a nice cold snap.

Is this common? Maybe I should get some insulation around the chimney?

Thanks,

K

 

[91LMS]

[del][/del]

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

So, just when I think I'm getting ahead...

Last night I was filling up the Tarm and I noticed a small damp spot at the bottom of my new chimney. I opened the clean out and there was 2 1/2" of water sitting in there.

This morning I cleaned it all out and dried it up the best I could. I fried up the Tarm and opened the clean out door to have a look. I could see water running dripping down the liner. I gave it 30 minutes or so and checked again and it looked like it had stopped dripping but there was a small puddle left in the bottom again (nothing like what I just cleaned up, probably just a few table spoons of water).

I'm assuming it condensation, cold chimney and a hot fire. My boiler seems to be running well besides that, starts gasifcation quickly and the stack temp runs at 450 deg f. when everything is up and running. My wood is seasoned well so I don't think I'm introducing any extra moisture.

The X-Factor here is that while the chimney runs through my house (ie not an out side chimney) BUT it's currently running through 2 unheated rooms and we just had a nice cold snap.

Is this common? Maybe I should get some insulation around the chimney?

Thanks,

K

I would start out with your driest wood & get things warmed up. You talk about a liner, do you have a masonry chimney that you put a liner in? Could you tell more about the chimney as the Tarm seems to be doing its job, Randy

 

[Chris Hoskin]

kopeck, are you running with thermal storage or without?

Without thermal storage, the chimney should be staying fairly warm (assuming you are keeping the boiler running 24/7 this time of year), but, if you have a bit of excess draft you could be continuing to pull air through the boiler even when it is in idle. The resulting, very low temp, combustion can result in extra condensation in the chimney. Do you have a barometric damper installed?

If you are running with thermal storage, then you may see excess condensation during start up of a relatively cold boiler.

Stack temps sound good so I would tend to agree with your cold chimney explanation. I assume a masonry liner? If so, I recommend you consider pulling an insulated stainless liner this Summer. Insulating the exterior of a masonry chimney is only going to help when the whole chimney system is up to temperature and it is most likely that the majority of your condensation is happening during start-up/low burn rates.

Give us a call if you want to talk through the options/possibilities.

Chris

 

[kopeck]

It's a brand new masonry chimney with a masonry liner.

It's a Tarm Solo Innova 30 with 820 gallons of thermal storage. You may remember me as I was the one that had the blower motor that didn't start due to the relay being being miss wired. It really runs like a top, I like the unit a lot.

I do not have a barometric damper installed.

It seems like it only happens at start up but I was only able to observe for a little bit this morning. My storage was also fairly warm so I only put a small load in and when I checked it the blower had cycled on and off as things were pretty close to being up to temp. I'll pay closer attention tonight.

So a SS liner in a new chimney? I thought those were to make failing liners safe?

Thanks,

K

 

[Clarkbug]

Kopeck,

You said the chimney was brand new. How long have you been running the boiler? Could there still be some moisture in the blocks that is working its way out? Have you checked your chimney since your first firing? I know when I first fired my boiler to charge up 660 gallons, I had all kinds of condensation running out of the chimney for the first hour or so. Now Im firing often enough that I havent seen it since, but there may still be some.

SS liners are also good if you know you are getting a lot of condensation, or running a very high efficiency unit. It might get better once you are firing on a regular basis.

 

[kopeck]

Kopeck,

You said the chimney was brand new. How long have you been running the boiler? Could there still be some moisture in the blocks that is working its way out? Have you checked your chimney since your first firing? I know when I first fired my boiler to charge up 660 gallons, I had all kinds of condensation running out of the chimney for the first hour or so. Now Im firing often enough that I havent seen it since, but there may still be some.

SS liners are also good if you know you are getting a lot of condensation, or running a very high efficiency unit. It might get better once you are firing on a regular basis.

The chimney went up over the summer, so it's new but not like finished yesterday new. The boiler has been running since December, I didn't notice the water until yesterday. My boiler gets fired twice a day right now, once in the morning and once in the evening, just about 12 hours a part. The chimney does have time to cool down between firings though and since only 8 of it's 32 or so feet is in a heated space that's quite a bit of mass to get warmed back up.

K

 

[Chris Hoskin]

sorry, I thought we were talking about a Solo Plus, so with the Solo Innova of course you have thermal storage. I'm glad you like it. Stainless liners are typically pulled into older chimneys when new equipment is put in, but they do a better job of keeping some heat in the flue gas, which minimizes condensation, and they do not deteriorate over time like a clay tile liner will when subjected to ongoing condensation. If the condensation keeps up, you could pull the turbulators out of the boiler tubes so that a bit more heat is going up the chimney. Randy's suggestion of starting out with your driest wood is a good idea, but with the batch burning you typically are only talking about a few pieces to get the fire going. Couldn't hurt though.

 

[heaterman]

The huge advantage of a metal (stainless) liner over a tile liner is that it heats up far more rapidly and prevents condensation from forming in the first place. It can be up to temp in minutes so the opportunity for condensation to occur is greatly reduced. We put them in a standard equipment on all our 80-85% boilers when vented into a chimney. Doesn't matter if they are new or old.

 

[kopeck]

Well...

My problem was multiplied by 10 yesterday. The power went out for a short time yesterday while I was at work. The boiler was left smoldering with about a third of a load of wood all day. This time the flu gasses condensed in the flu pipe and the blower housing...what a mess.

I spent over an hour trying to clean the back up my boiler, the pump and the floor. Some of it ended up baking on, but not much. After I got it cleaned up I started the blower again to finish of the wood that was in there.

The biggest deal is my basement stinks. I tried to air it out last night, it better but still fairly strong. I'll leave a couple of windows open today.

I pulled off the plate above the tubes and everything looks good, no evidence that stuff leaked in there. I'm running on oil right now, I'm worried that this thing is going to stink for days if I try and fire it back up again. That and I'm not feeling like I can trust it at the moment.

K

 

[laynes69]

We were removing a couple gallons of water from our chimney every couple of days before lining the chimney. If I didn't get it sucked out it would pour into the basement and stink up the home. We ended up putting in a insulated liner and our problems went away. We never had the problem with our old wood furnace, but it sent alot of heat up the chimney.

 

[RobC]

The first year I ran my Solo I had some moisture problems. What I thought was dry wood, really wasn't. To get me through the first year I re-split wood to less than 3X5" this helped with hot fires. If there is any snow, ice etc this could be an issue.
Rob