D
downeast
Guest
Gooserider said:Progress report - it's still not looking good...
Had to call a sweep to get the cap cleaned, I just don't have the equipment to get to the top of our chimney safely. The sweep did, barely, but he was NOT a happy camper up there. He said the cap was almost totally plugged, judging by the creosote he knocked back down the chimney I'd agree.... I would say I had at least 5-6 GALLONS of buildup between the cap and chimney.
I got the temperature probe part, and put the stove back together. I did make fairly detailed dimension sketches of the refractory, and it looks like if there are refractory boards out there that can be handled like plywood it might be possible to build a lower cost / higher durability replacement, but I'm not making promises.
I found when I went to put the new replacement cat in, that there really wasn't any sort of ledge for it to sit on - it looks like there used to be, but it seems to have burned / eroded away. Coupled with the front of the refractory wanting to keep falling forwards, it was really tough getting all the peices into place, but I thought I managed OK...
I lit up the stove, and burned 24/7 for 4-5 days, and seemed like I got good heat, and was pretty reasonable on wood consumption - loading about 3x day, with about 6-8 splits each time. I was burning in each load, and generally keeping the stove top reading about 400* and slightly higher on the stovepipe probe thermometer - in the "good burn" zone for each. I had good response to the thermostatic air control, no signs of air leakage at the doors or elsewhere. But I smoked worse than the old smoke dragon ever did... It was embarrassing :red: sort of like driving down the road in a smoke belching car.
Yesterday was pretty warm, and today was forecast the same, so I let the stove go out. I took the innards back apart and did some investigating. One thing I found was that the new cat appeared to have been sitting crooked in the doghouse, so I decided to fix that... I got out my stainless steel safety wire and used 4 peices to wire the doghouse back together again - if I straightened the wire out I could stick it diagonally through the front and side panels, then twist it together. I then smeared the inside and outside joints with refractory cement, hopefully sealing any leaks. I also dug through my collection of stainless bits and found some rods about 1/8" diameter - I cut two to stick into the refractory at the back and sit on the edge of the doghouse opening at the front - again gobbing them w/ refractory cement when putting them in place - this created a support system for the cat. The cover peice that goes over the cat was also pretty ratty and had broken in one place, so I used more refractory cement and safety wire to stick that back together. I also replaced the gasket on the fireback, using a Dremel type tool to clean out all the old cement down to shiny metal.
I had cleaned out all the air passages that I could with a vaccum when I had the stove apart the first time, I wasn't finding any significant crud in them this time, but I did repeat the vaccuming as much as I could.
I'm now waiting for cooler weather to fire the stove back up and see if my repairs will improve it so that it burns clean...
In the event that I still have a smoke monster, does anyone have any suggestions on where I should look next?
Gooserider(Who is getting far less happy with this stove...)
" The chickens have come home to roost" ( your friend J. Wright).
Time for an honest, manly apology for your gang up and flamming of those who told of their experience with CFM Majestic quality :red: .