Damp-rid box in stove.

[Tonyray]

I took the advice from many here and along with spraying the inside of the stove with Pam spray last june,
I put a box of damp-rid in the ash pan.
yesterday I took it out and looked at it... The white crytstals we're pretty much all gone and just the black charcoal were there [as the box sez the black crystals will never dissolve.]
I had about 1 inch of water in the bottom of the box.... is that normal?
I covered my OAK Inlet over the winter with a rag but did NOT cover the outside pipe at the top..
Is this how the moisture got in or would it be due to just picking up moisture in the air in the house although
we run a AC most of summer.. was surprised to see an inch of water..

 

[TimfromMA]

That's about what mine did too.

 

[Tonyray]

That's about what mine did too.

still like to know how the moisture got into the stove..
I can just imagine if I had not done a full cleaning before hand the crud I would have had in the stove/exhaust pipe with ash absorbing lot of the moisture.

 

[TimfromMA]

Your stove is not airtight so it will find it's way in.

 

[Justin M]

I covered my OAK Inlet over the winter with a rag but did NOT cover the outside pipe at the top..
Is this how the moisture got in or would it be due to just picking up moisture in the air in the house although
we run a AC most of summer.. was surprised to see an inch of water..

You need to block the OAK in the summer not the winter, but I'm sure that's what you meant. A rag is not going to stop water vapor, and you have to seal off the exhaust too if you really wanted to keep the moisture out. I just do damp rid and cooking spray and the stove is fine. I do end up with at least an inch of water in the damp rid cup as well.

 

[Tonyray]

You need to block the OAK in the summer not the winter, but I'm sure that's what you meant. A rag is not going to stop water vapor, and you have to seal off the exhaust too if you really wanted to keep the moisture out. I just do damp rid and cooking spray and the stove is fine. I do end up with at least an inch of water in the damp rid cup as well.

your right..
I meant to say summer not winter..

 

[Ashful]

I put a goldenrod or dri-rod heater under each of my stoves, and then close the doors to the fireplace. The heating element warms the space in the fireplace maybe 5 degrees above the room ambient, driving out any present humidity. Seems to work very well.

 

[PJPellet]

I block the exhaust AND the OAK in summer. I then use TWO damp-rid containers. They both usually have two or more inches when I remove them in the fall. I have no problems with rust and I don't even spray an oil film on the inside. I just do a thorough end of season cleaning and set the damp rid containers in there. I was surprised too when I first did this several years ago. Thank God for damp-rid.