Chimney fire with my fairly new Blaze King / Ventis install

[MissMac]

Two nights ago, about 20 minutes after loading up my stove for the night I had a chimney fire.

I installed the stove and chimney in January of 2018 so a little less then 1 year ago. It is a Blaze King Chinook 30 and Ventis Class A pipe. So far I burned about 1 cord or so last winter and maybe 1 1/2 cord this winter. Last years wood was seasoned for about 3 years and this year I have been burning oak that has been seasoned about 1 year but was a standing dead tree that came down last year. Moisture meter reads about 20% for what has been burned this year.

I had just filled up the stove with wood which had cooled to just below the active range on the thermometer. I was running the stove in bypass waiting for it to warm back up when after about 20 minutes for this I started heard loud popping noises coming from the chimney. I came downstairs where the stove is and the room was filing with smoke. I shut down the stove and went outside to look at the chimney and I could hear the popping and creaking noises and I could see embers coming out the of the chimney. I could also see red glowing at the top of the chimney cap. I called the fire department and go my family out of the house. When they arrived about 5 minutes later and fire in the pipe had going out.

Over the course of the next hour I had most of the fire department in my house and they took the smoldering wood out of the stove and checked the pipe inside and outside the house. Oddly, they said everything looked pretty clean with very little buildup. They did find about 1 cup of what looked like black and glowing embers in the bottom of the clean out.

This spring after burning about 1 cord of seasoned wood, I took the clean out off the chimney and inspected the vertical pipe and it looked very clean. I haven't inspected it this year since I haven't really burned that much wood. This is my second wood stove and in my previous house I burned wood for about 7 years. There I never had very much creosote in the chimney.

As far as I can tell I'm running the stove correctly, following all the procedures outlined in the owners manual. I generally only see smoke / water vapor coming from the chimney for a little while after reloading and the cat seems t be functioning well, with the entire block glowing red at times.

Now I'm very nervous about using the stove again. I wounder what would have happened if I wasn't home and wasn't here to shut down the stove. I really can't think of anything else I could do run the stove cleaner as I'm always very mindful of doing everything by the book in terms of making sure it's running very cleanly.

Any insight / advise would be very much appreciated!

This is only my second season running my BK, but one thing that caught my attention in your post was that you said that you had some coals, the needle was just below active, and yet you had your bypass open for 20 minutes roughly to get it up in the active range? It doesn't take me more than 20 minutes from a cold start to get my stove active. 20 minutes rarely happens. So I wonder why if you were so close to active you had to keep the bypass open this long? Is your needle on your cat probe calibrated? Is your wood taking awhile to catch (ie. too wet)? Something about your recounting doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

I burn a tube stove so take my opinion for what it is. If people are getting chimney fires that start within feet of the stove simply by having the cat bypass open it feels as though there's something majorly wrong with the stove operation/setup/wood moisture.

 

[VirginiaIron]

Have you visually inspected those two areas in the Tee that I mentioned looking odd?

 

[webby3650]

Interesting.
I see you have a through-the-wall setup.
I have a Blaze King in a similar situation have problems with
chimney fires to the point I cannot run it at all with the bypass
open except when loading wood into it, and then I have to
shut it as fast as I can to extinguish the flames in the pipe.
My opinion is that these stoves are inherently
dangerous in a through-the wall situation.
I'll be replacing my stove soon.
More details on my situation here:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/weird-stove-situation-suggestions-welcome.172592/

Sorry dude, the stove isn’t to blame. Many many people run a BK on a Tee with no problems, same with non-cats. If You are getting enough creosote between reloads to have a flue fire a non cat will do the same. BKs have a reputation to have more build up than some other stoves, but nothing like you are describing if it’s being ran properly.

 

[ratsrepus]

I get less buildup or creosote with either of my BK stoves than any other stove Ive had.

 

[ChipDouglas95]

This is only my second season running my BK, but one thing that caught my attention in your post was that you said that you had some coals, the needle was just below active, and yet you had your bypass open for 20 minutes roughly to get it up in the active range? It doesn't take me more than 20 minutes from a cold start to get my stove active. 20 minutes rarely happens. So I wonder why if you were so close to active you had to keep the bypass open this long? Is your needle on your cat probe calibrated? Is your wood taking awhile to catch (ie. too wet)? Something about your recounting doesn't make sense to me.

I usually try to reload it when the stove is still hot and in the active range. This time it was just below the active zone and since I had filled it up for an overnight burn, it took longer then usual to get back up to the active zone. I would say it usually only takes 10 - 15 minutes in bypass before I can flip the lever. I was always worried about taking good care of the cat so I would wait until I was well into the active zone before engaging the cat. Not super hot but maybe 1/4" past. Maybe I should instead engage it as soon as the needle hits the active zone.

I feel like my draft is good, not too strong but plenty to keep the stove working well. The wood I'm burning I test with a moisture meter and I'm right around 20% - I never had a problem getting the wood to catch and no steam or hissing from the wood as it's burning.

Perhaps going forward I need to do the following:

Clean the chimney frequently
Keep a close eye on it when in bypass
Keep the fires smaller when it falls below the active zone

 

[ChipDouglas95]

Have you visually inspected those two areas in the Tee that I mentioned looking odd?

I haven't yet - when I do I'll post some more pictures.

 

[Ashful]

This is only my second season running my BK, but one thing that caught my attention in your post was that you said that you had some coals, the needle was just below active, and yet you had your bypass open for 20 minutes roughly to get it up in the active range? It doesn't take me more than 20 minutes from a cold start to get my stove active. 20 minutes rarely happens. So I wonder why if you were so close to active you had to keep the bypass open this long? Is your needle on your cat probe calibrated? Is your wood taking awhile to catch (ie. too wet)? Something about your recounting doesn't make sense to me.

Although the oak I’m burning this year has been split and stacked for more than 3 years, I’m burning a lot of wet wood this year, due to the biblical levels of rain we have had this year (and yes... it rained all weekend this week, again). Whereas I normally leave my stacks uncovered through our summer droughts, and then cover them in late August or early September, it just never stopped raining this summer. I ended up putting the covers over wet stacks, mid-September.

So, you can find past posts of me bragging that I can have my BK’s from cold start to active cat in 10 - 15 minutes on full loads of oak, but not this year! Now it’s taking more like 20 - 25 minutes, with wet bark and punky sapwood clinging to my beautiful oak splits.

This is a long way of saying, I agree with your wet wood supposition.

 

[MissMac]

I usually try to reload it when the stove is still hot and in the active range. This time it was just below the active zone and since I had filled it up for an overnight burn, it took longer then usual to get back up to the active zone. I would say it usually only takes 10 - 15 minutes in bypass before I can flip the lever. I was always worried about taking good care of the cat so I would wait until I was well into the active zone before engaging the cat. Not super hot but maybe 1/4" past. Maybe I should instead engage it as soon as the needle hits the active zone.

I feel like my draft is good, not too strong but plenty to keep the stove working well. The wood I'm burning I test with a moisture meter and I'm right around 20% - I never had a problem getting the wood to catch and no steam or hissing from the wood as it's burning.

Perhaps going forward I need to do the following:

Clean the chimney frequently
Keep a close eye on it when in bypass
Keep the fires smaller when it falls below the active zone

It sounds like perhaps you have a few factors at play here - possibly your set-up, and also how you bring your cat to temp.

I am certainly not the person to give you advice on the set-up piece, but I know other fellas on here are very knowledgeable and I encourage you to consider their feedback.

In terms of how you're operating your stove when it is inactive though, here are my thoughts:

I have found that if I miss the reload opportunity in the active zone, and need to run the stove with the bypass open to get the cat into the active range off of a few coals, I have the greatest success by using some kindling, and packing it in a manner that puts flames directly under the cat. You want to focus on getting the cat back up to temp as soon as possible, and this accomplishes that. By using some kindling, it will also help your whole load catch better. In addition, remember that there is a bit of a lag in terms of how hot your cat is vs. what the reading on the cat probe is. By the time the needle is pointed at the active zone, the cat is more than active. I've done some experimenting and have found that I can easily engage my cat a few ticks down in the inactive zone and it will instantly glow. However, if you run your stove as per your manual, which is the fool-proof way, you should engage your cat as soon as the needle hits the active zone. There is certainly no need to wait for the needle to be up 1/4" into active before engaging.

I think that perhaps part of your issue could be that you are leaving the bypass plate open for an unnecessarily long time, and therefore exposing your chimney system to undue amounts of heat and flame. I also suspect that your wood isn't quite as dry as you think it is, if it's taking that long for a load to catch when the needle is just below active. However, even if you remedy how you operate your stove, it still sounds like you're having some build-up issues with your current set-up that need to be addressed.

Good luck!

 

[lsucet]

It sounds like perhaps you have a few factors at play here - possibly your set-up, and also how you bring your cat to temp.

I am certainly not the person to give you advice on the set-up piece, but I know other fellas on here are very knowledgeable and I encourage you to consider their feedback.

In terms of how you're operating your stove when it is inactive though, here are my thoughts:

I have found that if I miss the reload opportunity in the active zone, and need to run the stove with the bypass open to get the cat into the active range off of a few coals, I have the greatest success by using some kindling, and packing it in a manner that puts flames directly under the cat. You want to focus on getting the cat back up to temp as soon as possible, and this accomplishes that. By using some kindling, it will also help your whole load catch better. In addition, remember that there is a bit of a lag in terms of how hot your cat is vs. what the reading on the cat probe is. By the time the needle is pointed at the active zone, the cat is more than active. I've done some experimenting and have found that I can easily engage my cat a few ticks down in the inactive zone and it will instantly glow. However, if you run your stove as per your manual, which is the fool-proof way, you should engage your cat as soon as the needle hits the active zone. There is certainly no need to wait for the needle to be up 1/4" into active before engaging. I think that perhaps part of your issue could be that you are leaving the bypass plate open for an unnecessarily long time, and therefore exposing your chimney system to undue amounts of heat and flame. However, even if you remedy how you operate your stove, it still sounds like you're having some build-up issues with your current set-up that need to be addressed.

Good luck!

Yeah, i think the best way is get the cat to temp burning at front and on top as possible. that is the way i do it. On reloads i like to rake coal to the front and as much/many as i can. Always try to reload with cat in the active zone but if for some reason is inactive i close the air enough that the flames stays more at front and not all over the load. Once the cat is back in active i closed bypass and open the air and let it ride.