Chimney/ draft anecdotes here please

[Poindexter]

I have completed a preliminary review of the literature. Looking for your stories, no scientific data need be included. Did you have an uncle with a cabin tucked up against a cliff? Got a enormous tree 8' away from your stack?

We have a pretty good rule of thumb about chimney stacks, 15 feet of stack plus one foot for every elbow; it works good for most people most of the time. I am thinking the 85-15 rule applies, just looking a little deeper.

 

[Poindexter]

If you "like" this post it means to me that you have a 15 foot stack, plus one foot for every elbow, that meets the federal 3-2-10 fire code and gives you no trouble at all. No smoke smell in the stove room when it is cold enough to light the stove, no runaway metal melting blazes, maybe once every couple years a strange wind will give cause a down draft in your chimney, but you are otherwise trouble free with your install.

I don't think I can like my own post, but I have an install like that.

 

[Will_f]

I had a Lopi 1750i installed last week. First woodstove I’ve operated since high school at the family cabin. Quite different to operate compared to the cabin stove but it does an excellent job of heating my 2000 sf home in Alaska.

Anyway, the Lopi has 24 feet of straight single wall 6” flue pipe run through an existing masonry chimney. Sixteen feet smooth pipe and 8 feet of flexible to make the stove connection. The chimney itself is inside the thermal envelope of the house so it drafts even when the stove is cold.

Light off is pretty straight forward- build a small fire, leave the door open a bit and the secondaries bypassed until the wood is burning hot and strong (depends on the quality of wood how long that takes). Once hot it works really well and no smoke escapes when loading. I don’t think I would want a shorter chimney. I could make it work but light off would be more challenging and controlling it with poorly seasoned wood or at high turndown would be a pain. 24 feet puts the flue height right in the middle of the manufacurers recommended range.