customer: "Fireplace smoking, need help"
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![[Hearth.com] customer: "Fireplace smoking, need help"](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/233/233790-741293f6323196be7ffd885931be6880.jpg?hash=-HtjfR0cmM "[Hearth.com] customer: \"Fireplace smoking, need help\"")
darktower007
Feeling the Heat
Wow! It looks like cousin Eddie helped on that one.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I dont have a pic but I was watching one of those build in Alaska shows, a guy built a small off grid cabin, maybe 16 x 20. His interior walls were wood and he installed a barrel stove in the corner maybe 12 inches from the wall on the side and 3 or 4 inches from the wall in the back with no hearth, just sitting on a wood floor.
jetsam
Minister of Fire
Holy shite. At first I thought it was a wood chute until I saw the smoke.
Jan Pijpelink
Minister of Fire
So what are the potential failure modes here?
Low draft? I'm not sure how far down in the basement the stove is, but off the cuff, that doesn't look like a lot of lift.
It might roast and light that wooden stand?
If he wasn't going to fix that open end of the outer diameter pipe and water got in, that might 1) cool the pipe back down a bit, and 2) run all the way back into his house?
Low draft? I'm not sure how far down in the basement the stove is, but off the cuff, that doesn't look like a lot of lift.
It might roast and light that wooden stand?
If he wasn't going to fix that open end of the outer diameter pipe and water got in, that might 1) cool the pipe back down a bit, and 2) run all the way back into his house?
jetsam
Minister of Fire
Off the top of my head, the top failure mode is house fire. Either the sheathing eventually catches due to pyrolysis, or a chimney fire speeds things along. If he's lucky, he'll get some melted siding as a warning sign first, so he can jam a big rock in there. 
Other stuff:
The ''insulation" is pink fiberglass, which decays into gravel under heat and has an outright melting point of much less than a chimney fire.
Vinyl siding and plywood sheathing within 2-3" of the flue. No insulation on this part, not that pink fiberglass would do anything for long.
Soaking wet insulation all summer causes rust-through on the black flue pipe below; water runs downhill so the worst holes develop right at the bottom.... by the combustible house.
Galvanized cover emits toxic fumes when heated.
~12' of rise, ~10' of horizontal, 2 90s, and another slight elbow. Draft is gonna stink on a good day.
From the audio, it was previously uninsulated and at a much lower angle.
Also from the audio, he just built the house so recently that he scavenged the insulation off the floor. In the middle of new construction, when it would have been easy to do anything, THIS is the venting solution that he chose. This understanding leads us to another likely failure mode, which is that this guy decides that it would be better to just vent the stove upstairs through the HVAC ducts so all the heat stays in the house.
Other stuff:
The ''insulation" is pink fiberglass, which decays into gravel under heat and has an outright melting point of much less than a chimney fire.
Vinyl siding and plywood sheathing within 2-3" of the flue. No insulation on this part, not that pink fiberglass would do anything for long.
Soaking wet insulation all summer causes rust-through on the black flue pipe below; water runs downhill so the worst holes develop right at the bottom.... by the combustible house.
Galvanized cover emits toxic fumes when heated.
~12' of rise, ~10' of horizontal, 2 90s, and another slight elbow. Draft is gonna stink on a good day.
From the audio, it was previously uninsulated and at a much lower angle.
Also from the audio, he just built the house so recently that he scavenged the insulation off the floor. In the middle of new construction, when it would have been easy to do anything, THIS is the venting solution that he chose. This understanding leads us to another likely failure mode, which is that this guy decides that it would be better to just vent the stove upstairs through the HVAC ducts so all the heat stays in the house.
If you look at really old masonry chimney designs on log cabins, many chimneys were built leaning away from the building propped up with wooden pole from the outside. If there was a chimney fire, the wooden pole would be cut or knocked away and the chimney would fall away from the cabin hopefully saving the cabin. Maybe that insulated pipe with the wooden tower is modern variation 
Or the "Building off grid" shows. Lots of spooky installs. And they are on television? People are "learning"from these programs
I used to stay in a cabin that was crazy dangerous. For years. How that didn't burn down is completely beyond me. Live and learn!
It was the last of my worries as a young man spending time with my significant other
Chas0218
Minister of Fire
Everyone needs to read the comments there are actually people taking his advice. Some are making their own insulated stove pipes like in the video. I really hope people aren't serious what they are posting about.
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jetsam
Minister of Fire
For the sake of my personal mental health, I have a policy against reading any comments of any kind on YouTube.
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