Ash clogging flue?

[begreen]

It will be worth looking at regardless. An inspection will tell you if there is a stainless liner or not. It will also show how much sote has accumulated as the smoke makes that 90º turn up the chimney. And if there is no stainless liner, be sure there is at least a clay liner in there and measure its ID.

 

[Eman85]

Looking at your pic I'd say looking in the top of the chimney isn't possible. Does the masonry chimney have a cleanout door at the bottom?

 

[kennyp2339]

@KG19 time to ask a neighbor or few to see if anyone has a drone and if they can help you out for 5min, in the meantime 9on a cold stove) I'd take the black pipe off bring it outside and give it a good shake, visually check the inside liner w/ flashlight to see if there's any build up and also check the stoves upper baffle for buildup (since the black pipe is off you can look through the stove collar)

 

[Kevin Weis]

First thing maybe as mentioned is to pull the stove pipe off and see what's going on there. Looks like a 20's four square house with 35' or so of chimney height. Clay liners not in widespread use till post war. Hopefully a insulated SS liner was put in. With that chimney height draft should be screaming if it warmed up. That chimney probably saw duty for a coal furnace in its day. Clay liner wasn't deemed really necessary for that back then. Just my two cents.

 

[DonTee]

Or maybe a neighbor with a 2 story house can see the top of your chimney from their place. If you’re close enough with any of your neighbors to ask. At least you would know if it has a cap or not.

 

[KG19]

The house was built in 1910, lots of renovations done in 2018ish I believe. I believe the stove was put in then, and I’m assuming a liner was put in then as well. I should have a chance this weekend to get the pipe off and take a look (I’m a stay at home dad with a 1 year old… don’t have much time on weekdays to try to attempt that haha). Also, not sure if this provides any insight but here’s what I see in the basement at the base of the chimney. I don’t know which of those pipes is the one used by the wood stove, if any

 

[begreen]

That's an interesting arrangement of cleanouts. I'm glad you posted the picture. One nagging question I was leading up to was whether there is a leaky cleanout door. These ports look reasonably sealed. Something you will be looking for with the stovepipe removed is whether there is a cap on the bottom of the stainless liner tee.

 

[KG19]

Hey guys, so I got some resolution on this. Decided to try my luck and call the chimney sweep company this morning since it had been less than a month since they were here. They sent some guys out here this afternoon (can’t say enough about that, awesome customer service). They took off the stove pipe and took a look up the chimney, and apparently the screen at the top of the chimney (also found out that this is the arrangement up there) was pretty much completely frosted over). They said they’ll come back next week with ladders and cut the screen off for me, suggested adding a cap but said I could wait until they come at the end of the season to sweep again to add that.

I never would have imagined it would frost over… we did have a bit of a cold snap here (-20ish F at night for about a week and highs in the single digits below zero) and I stopped running the stove for a few days during that time since we had a lot of guests over for Christmas, little kids running around and didn’t want the hot stove to worry about.

Hopefully this resolves the issue. Thanks to all of you for all the help and support!

Oh and one other thing - if this ever were to happen again where the stove is leaking smoke from the pipe seams, what would you all suggest doing? I think the fire extinguisher was probably not the right choice

 

[Kevin Weis]

Glad to hear it was a simple fix!

 

[mdocod]

If you're just trying to extinguish a barely started fire that is smoking out the wrong way, a little spray bottle of water, like the type the barber uses to moisten your head when getting a haircut, would probably do the trick. It doesn't take much water to put the brakes on an unestablished fire.

Are you sure it was "frost" they found up there and not ash caked on the screen?

 

[KG19]

Are you sure it was "frost" they found up there and not ash caked on the screen?

That’s a good question, I guess I’ll find out when they come back to cut it off. It would make more sense to me that it would be ash, but I don’t know

 

[Eman85]

Using a small kindling fire to start with and creating and watching the draft would be the first place to start. If the fire isn't being drawn up the chimney from the kindling fire it's time to find out why. That kindling fore would be easy to put out with a spray bottle as suggested and then shoveled into a pail and put outside.

 

[begreen]

That’s a good question, I guess I’ll find out when they come back to cut it off. It would make more sense to me that it would be ash, but I don’t know

I'm glad you got this figured out. The symptoms sounded like a plugged screen.
Is there a top stone or concrete cap above the termination of the liner? If not, I don't like the idea of rain having a straight shot into the liner. It needs a cap. You also might consider putting on a coarse screen to keep birds and squirrels out over the summer, but maybe not if the chimney is normally cleaned in the fall.

 

[moresnow]

Ask the people performing the work to take detailed pictures of the liner termination and the problem prior to fixing etc. Post the pics here.
Nice to hear you're getting timely service this time of year.

 

[Woody Stover]

Go Pack Sorry, I had to say it, its my team!!

Yep, I'm a transplanted Cheezer. Always pulling for the Pack. At least they're still in it (I hope they won today,) unlike the lowly Colts. 😖
Don't spoiler me, I recorded today's game but haven't watched it yet. 😏

first year building up my wood stash. I’m burning ash and a bit of soft maple that was split and stacked in April, most is in the low 20s moisture content.

The stove is a Woodpro 2000, which I believe is a cheap big box store wood stove, it was in the house when we moved in last November. I never would have imagined it would frost over… we did have a bit of a cold snap here (-20ish F at night for about a week and highs in the single digits below zero) and I stopped running the stove for a few days during that time since we had a lot of guests over for Christmas,

Were both the Ash and the soft Maple in the low 20% range when stacked in April, or just was that reading when tested recently? Get several big splits of both species up to room temp for a couple days, then split again and test in the center of the fresh face. If you only test one or two splits, they can be outliers. Even if the soft Maple was from a live tree, in my experience it can get pretty dry over a summer, if stacked and top-covered only so that the wind can blow through. Get more of it if you can, since it'll dry faster than the Ash. Once you get a couple years ahead, you can get slower-drying species like Oak burnable in two or three years. It's three years here since my stacks are in the woods and don't get as much wind..

Your stove is made by Hearth and Home Technologies, a reputable company that also makes higher-end stoves, so I'd imagine what you have is a decent value stove.

I can see how the screen may have gotten frosted over. With a lot of people there, and cooking going on, the air inside might have held a lot of moisture, then got drawn up the chimney by draft and froze on the screen in that cold snap we had.

So I guess there's no liner in the chimney, then? If not, when the chimney is cold it may be hard to establish initial draft. Use the suggestions given earlier to preheat the chimney, and do a search here for more ideas on how to do it.

 

[mdocod]

If the frost was indeed caused by in-home warm/moist air being pulled up the pipe and then condensing/freezing on the cap, that might be a good excuse to get an outside air kit installed if it's an option.

 

[Woody Stover]

If the frost was indeed caused by in-home warm/moist air being pulled up the pipe and then condensing/freezing on the cap, that might be a good excuse to get an outside air kit installed if it's an option.

It's pretty warm there right now. I might put a hair dryer or a heat gun to it for a while. If it's frost it should melt and the chimney should draw again, until the chimney guys can come back.

 

[KG19]

So after a week of freezing rain / snow, they got back to me and are able to come Thursday to remove the screen and install a cap. However, they quoted me at around $500 to do this… we aren’t sure we want to pay this much right now after just paying $275 for a sweep and only getting 2 weeks out of it, and that it’s more costly than just paying for the gas heat. So I might be done with the stove for the year. Super depressing

 

[begreen]

I don't see the need for a new cap. Just remove the screen, at least to finish the season. I took the screen out of our DuraTech chimney cap. It took all of 15 minutes. This was done in situ with a pair of pliers.

 

[KG19]

I don't see the need for a new cap. Just remove the screen, at least to finish the season. I took the screen out of our DuraTech chimney cap. It took all of 15 minutes. This was done in situ with a pair of pliers.

Even if that means there’s no cap whatsoever? From my understanding of how they described my chimney, there’s only a screen at the top and no cap currently.

 

[BillBurns]

You are getting it narrowed down slowly. Dont give up, its always fixable.

 

[bholler]

If you're just trying to extinguish a barely started fire that is smoking out the wrong way, a little spray bottle of water, like the type the barber uses to moisten your head when getting a haircut, would probably do the trick. It doesn't take much water to put the brakes on an unestablished fire.

Are you sure it was "frost" they found up there and not ash caked on the screen?

Putting any water in a burning stove is a bad idea. It can damage the stove the chimney and can be dangerous. The way you described it would be pretty low risk but I still don't like the suggestion of water in general

 

[mdocod]

Putting any water in a burning stove is a bad idea. It can damage the stove the chimney and can be dangerous. The way you described it would be pretty low risk but I still don't like the suggestion of water in general

You're injecting context into something that isn't there. This is a just-started fire in a cold stove. A few squirts of water to kill the startup isn't going to hurt anything.

 

[bholler]

You're injecting context into something that isn't there. This is a just-started fire in a cold stove. A few squirts of water to kill the startup isn't going to hurt anything.

No I am injecting many years of experience seeing all kinds abuse inflicted upon stoves and chimneys. Introducing water to an active fire in a woodstove simply isn't a good idea. Adding ash or sand is just as effective without the risks of water

 

[bholler]

As I said the first time the way you described it isn't a big deal at all. But I have worked with enough customers to know if you tell them it's ok to use water in this situation they will push it further and further.