First year heating with a Jotul 602CB v2 - a newbie experience

[djlew]

Just a bit of an update. Hoping that documenting a bit here will maybe help some others in similar situations. Had the new chimney company come back out to go over some next steps to address that bit of a leak that I posted above. They recommended a bit of troubleshooting on their end that they perform often so I'm told... a water test. Spray the heck out of the chimney area and see if they can identify a leak.

The guy who came out (really nice and knowledgeable guy) raised a good point I didn't really think of and I was kicking myself for at least not taking it into consideration or mentioning it here. Leaking skylights. According to him, which makes sense to me, it's possible water is getting through the skylight somehow and traveling down and making its way into the roof connecting box there. The chimney isn't exactly right next to the skylight, but it is between two skylights, so could be a possibility.

Trying to spare potentially having to take the chimney apart. I appreciate them that much for trying to rule some stuff out prior. Seems like I could possibly have more than one issue here which is a bummer but at least I have help identifying the issue.

Thanks again all!

 

[daoledaole]

Been a bit since my last post - apologies if I should actually start splitting into different posts, but didn't want to flood the forums and wanted to give a bit of an update here.

Well, I got super comfortable with the stove since and really have been making some great progress. Really drying out some wood, built a bit of a kiln rig that works to really get my "semi-seasoned" stuff to drop to really nice and burnable percentages.

Then BOOM, we get hit with a heck of a storm and a huge ole' pine comes and just about misses the house (photo attached). Thank goodness for the trees it leaned on. Some of the large branches leaned up on the chimney there and forced some water through the stack. Originally, I thought I had a bigger problem, but the father in law had a good point (I love my FIL but still hate to admit it!)... I originally thought the tree dislodged some of the pipe and caused a leak. Everything looked okay, except for those branches just hanging into the stack. We're thinking it forced some moisture in and it got through and caused a bit of a mess on the top of the stove. Had some folks come out today to get that tree taken care of and they had to take down an oak with it to get the pine down. It's pine, so not amazing, but I had the guys leave the stuff for me to season up and maybe use for next year beyond to supplement.

Overall, a bit of an adventure, but when there's some wood at the end of it, I can't say I can be too angry when all said and done especially since nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged. Hope everyone has been well and everybody has a fantastic holiday!

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By the way, have you ever dealt with cases later on where trees being too close to a house posed risks?

 

[bigealta]

Did the leak ever stop?

 

[djlew]

By the way, have you ever dealt with cases later on where trees being too close to a house posed risks?

Definitely, luckily nothing dire but my workaround originally was to have the tree company trim up the branches just for clearances from the top of the stack. Nothing mentioned about the health of the surrounding trees. I had a couple of what some folks would consider "higher risk" trees that I ended up bringing down mainly for a solar project that fell through. I'm in a heavily wooded area, and I am sure there are trees that if they fall the right (well, wrong) way, could pose risks, but that's part of the area I suppose. Insurance was unhelpful in the forementioned case about the pine. Best to have an independent assessment from a reputable tree company instead of waiting for an issue.

Although, as far as the subsequent issues with the leaks, they were resolved by a reputable stove company coming out and double checking sealants and installing a water diverter which may or may not have been necessary but was a pretty cheap fix (I think around $200 USD). No more leaks since. I also got a new roof last year, another plus I would say. I don't think I will ever know the true cause due to how many factors I had at the time, but safe to assume some crappy sealant and a bad roof were not helping.