Concered with furnace flashing back...

[DeanBrown3D]

Could someone assure me this is normal: I just filled up my charmaster with wood (put in some dry sticks, a couple of chunks of pine, and then about 5 or 6 6" rounds. There was a thin bed of hot coals, but I started it off with a little kerosene anyway.)

After about 5 minutes when it was all a hot (still smokey) inferno inside, the gases inside must have caught fire fast as it flashed back and sent a fast jet of firey flames and smoke out the front damper door, about 2-3", quite fiercely - it made quite a noise. I was glad NOT to be peering through the hole in it! After a couple more minutes a larger burst and smoke came out the back as well as the front this time, I'm guessing some got out of the flue pipes.

Anyone seen this before? I don't feel like looking through the viewing hole any more!

 

[DeanBrown3D]

ps I cleaned out the chimney last week, no blockages or anything.

 

[Hogwildz]

Just a guess, but I don't think the kerosene is a good idea. Not too mention now your mixing gases from it, with gases from the wood. Might be the problem. I dunno, hopefully another with a furnace can weigh in.
Be careful with that kero.

 

[BrotherBart]

Kerosene vaporizes into combustible gases (flash point) at 110 degrees. It ignites at 410 degrees. So, it had time to fill the firebox with combustible gases before it got to the ignition point and exloded.

Quit doing that.

 

[elkimmeg]

watch out there Dean: Promise us to never use Kero in that stove again. Man what were you thinking about?

You got a warning shot don't ever use kero in there again. get some cedar starters or learn how to build a fire

 

[DeanBrown3D]

watch out there Dean: Promise us to never use Kero in that stove again. Man what were you thinking about?

You got a warning shot don't ever use kero in there again. get some cedar starters or learn how to build a fire

Thanks guys. I have to add though that Im not just pouring in a cup of kerosene and closing the door, I was squirting in a little, lighting it, and then squirting more in (with a dropper), leaving it to fire up and (I thought anyway) to ignite completley. It was a minute or so after I did this. Seems strange. Maybe some of it was not combusted yet. Very worrying though. I will desist from using kerosene again! (Lamp oil, actually).

ps Hogz are you feeling ok? You look a bit off-color!

 

[elkimmeg]

Im not just pouring in a cup of kerosene and closing the door, I was squirting in a little, lighting it, and then squirting more

Don't take this the wrong way but man you are squirting kero into a fire box with hot coals?

You gota cut this chit out. Do you have a death wish..
I got a buddy that used to squirt his g outdoor grill till one day the flam followed the stream back into the can and exploded the can.
the sergueons did a good job with all the skin grafts, but it is quite evident, even 50' feet away. He was lucky he only lost sight in one eye..

Are you trying to get a hearth.com darwin nomination?

 

[DeanBrown3D]

Im not just pouring in a cup of kerosene and closing the door, I was squirting in a little, lighting it, and then squirting more

Don't take this the wrong way but man you are squirting kero into a fire box with hot coals?

You gota cut this chit out. Do you have a death wish..
I got a buddy that used to squirt his g outdoor grill till one day the flam followed the stream back into the can and exploded the can.
the sergueons did a good job with all the skin grafts, but it is quite evident, even 50' feet away. He was lucky he only lost sight in one eye..

Are you trying to get a hearth.com darwin nomination?

As I said, I was using a dropper, not pooring out of a can! No containers to blow up. I was pooring about 30 cc into a cup and then putting the container out of the way.

 

[pistonslap]

When I first got married, my next door neighbor was about 5'8 and 350 lbs. He had one of those brick barbeques in his back yard. He loaded it up with wood and poured gasoline on it and lit it. He blew the lid at least 30 ft. in the air. Tony Dorsett couldn't have caught him running down the street. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

 

[Eric Johnson]

Yeah, don't do that anymore. It'll void your warranty and possibly your life.

At first I thought you were referring to typical stove/furnace/boiler "whoosh" which occurs when you open the door on a smoldering, oxygen-starved fire and the gasses ignite when the fresh air hits them. I've lost a few eyebrows, chin hairs and arm fur doing that over the years.

 

[laynes69]

Ball some single sheets of newspaper to get a good hot fire fast. I will do that and place a few pieces of bark on top, then add some kindling to that. Takes no time at all to have a roaring fire with my furnace. I do know dad used to soak corn cobs in kerosene, then let them dry for a week or 2 then use 1 or 2 for a firestarter. Me im to cheap to do that so I use newspaper and bark. Liquid flammables is a damn good way to get hurt.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

kind of on topic, we have a corn unit that is a manual light stove, while in design our techs were working in some short burns then shutting down and relighting, using the gel firestarter, alcohol based, pretty stable stuff right? as long as the stove is cold, once our tech shut the unit down and then decided to relight it while the unit was still warm (firepot was really warm), squirted some gel in on top of some pellets , then went to light with long lighter, the alcohol vaporized from the heat and when it lit up , WHOOSH, just a few arm hairs lost. this stuff is WAY more stable than kero, and it still wooshes when heated, bottom line, be very careful using any non solid starter medium on a warm stove, gel or kero, lamp oil deisel, whatever , it vaporizes rapidly and will ignite a lot faster than you would expect

 

[BrotherBart]

kind of on topic, we have a corn unit that is a manual light stove, while in design our techs were working in some short burns then shutting down and relighting, using the gel firestarter, alcohol based, pretty stable stuff right? as long as the stove is cold, once our tech shut the unit down and then decided to relight it while the unit was still warm (firepot was really warm), squirted some gel in on top of some pellets , then went to light with long lighter, the alcohol vaporized from the heat and when it lit up , WHOOSH, just a few arm hairs lost. this stuff is WAY more stable than kero, and it still wooshes when heated, bottom line, be very careful using any non solid starter medium on a warm stove, gel or kero, lamp oil deisel, whatever , it vaporizes rapidly and will ignite a lot faster than you would expect

I was just thinkin about this. If I remember correctly the point where cord wood starts gasification is around 400 degrees and the auto combustion point of kerosene is about 410. Firebox full of kero vapor and wood vapor light off together and it should make for quite a show. If the pipe doesn't blow apart.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

actually ,W.D. still demo's it when he is training techs, pretty kool to watch, you met him bart , the younger guy that was in the lab with bob. saving grace for the pipes in his case is the door is open when he lights it using a wand type lighter. personally i think the little firebug is a borderline pyromaniac, he certainly has the best job for one. one of these days im gonna have to video him doing it , just gotta get him to say "hey yall, watch this..."

 

[BrotherBart]

actually ,W.D. still demo's it when he is training techs, pretty kool to watch, you met him bart , the younger guy that was in the lab with bob. saving grace for the pipes in his case is the door is open when he lights it using a wand type lighter. personally i think the little firebug is a borderline pyromaniac, he certainly has the best job for one. one of these days im gonna have to video him doing it , just gotta get him to say "hey yall, watch this..."

Yep I remember him. He had that "I just wanna burn something." look in his eye. BTW: Was that Bob Dillard? He was just introduced as Bob.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

yep that was bob dillard, good guy , he really got a kick out of the feedback you gave him on the 30 , its his baby. shame you caught us when we didnt have an active test going, its pretty kool to watch and see how they dial these things in.we burn tested one of them the following week (checking standards against the test data from origional one)

 

[restorer]

kind of on topic, we have a corn unit that is a manual light stove, while in design our techs were working in some short burns then shutting down and relighting, using the gel firestarter, alcohol based, pretty stable stuff right? as long as the stove is cold, once our tech shut the unit down and then decided to relight it while the unit was still warm (firepot was really warm), squirted some gel in on top of some pellets , then went to light with long lighter, the alcohol vaporized from the heat and when it lit up , WHOOSH, just a few arm hairs lost. this stuff is WAY more stable than kero, and it still wooshes when heated, bottom line, be very careful using any non solid starter medium on a warm stove, gel or kero, lamp oil deisel, whatever , it vaporizes rapidly and will ignite a lot faster than you would expect

Mike:
Been there done this. A few restarts that needed coxing taught me to listen. If I could hear the gel hissing, I'd close the door and get a cup of coffee. Singed hair was a good teacher. I now wait 'til the stove is cold, or rely on embers to restart, won't do the shoot and flash again.