Chimney Fire

[Tony H]

Went to reload the EKO in mid burn because I was going to be gone for 12 hours and wanted to keep it going and the flames roared up and were drawn up the chimney where they started a fire. I just let it burn out and it took just a few minutes.
I was not too concerned as the boiler is in a metal shed and the chimney is only 12 feet tall.
After I got to thinking should I be concerned could this damage the chimney ? It's double wall insulated stainless or cause any other problem.

 

[stee6043]

Hmmmm....I've never heard of anyone with an EKO having enough creosote in their chimney to actually burn. Are you burning green wood???

 

[Tony H]

it does not have much but with no storage I have been running at idle a fair amount this fall. The wood is pretty dry 20-22% when I tested and it's mostly maple and some box-elder cut last fall and split early spring.

 

[Duetech]

Not all stainless steel is created equally. There are spec's the mfg's have to conform to in order to get a "class" rating. Even so metal heated to its max temp frequently can become brittle or corrode or warp. I have a ss chimney liner in the sections of pipe I use and the biggest probelm I found with it is creosote and water (=acid) and actually had to replace the chimney T and lower sections that were near horizontal. I had a wood furnace that the company recomended a daily open draft to reduce creosote. Somethimes the black pipe going to the stainless combo would get a dull glow going. None of the Class A chimney I had warped so I don't think it got that hot. The few minutes you are talking about should not have hurt the chimney and is well within spec's for rated chimney but a visual inspection would not hurt.