Greenhouse Double barrel wood stove has issues and need ideas

[drumwerx]

I have a double barrel wood stove in my greenhouse with 6' of pipe straight up and 6' of pipe to an outside wall. It has only one 90 degree elbow. This is the new stove with 2 doors, one is for wood and the other is for ash removal with the 2 air vents in it. I had to put it in this location and had no other choice.

When I first fired it up it got really hot but I noticed a lot of wet black tar or creosote tar. It smells like I was smoking a beef briquet or chicken. I had black drips all over the connections so I heat tapped all the joints and do not have the dripping anymore. I have been trying to burn it as hot as I can and then the last time I fill it for the night I close the bottom air door but leave the 2 vents wide open.

It has been about 2 weeks now of burning and it is getting harder and harder to light a fire and when it is lit anytime I open the big door I get a ton of smoke billowing out and it is just not working right.

Today is really warm so I went on the roof and took off the cap. I have a wall mount triple wall connector so I can open the bottom but the roof below it is too close to be able to do anything but I can clean it from the top down. Here is what I found. It is all a sticky mess like resin all the way to the cap and down. I bet all the pipes in the greenhouse are all the same a sticky resin through out. Usually when I clean my home fireplace the creosote is dry to the touch and easy to clean and drops down with the brush but this stove pipe looks like I need to do something else to it to get the resin out.

Any ideas on how to clean this mess up? I was thinking of having a real hot fire in the stove to help it but do not know if that is safe or not. I have a wood stove thermometer and I have seen the stove burning at 400 to 600 and sometimes hotter but who knows what it is after you close the bottom door and go to bed.

Also once it is clean I do not want to have this happen all over again so I need to redo how I am burning wood in it. Need ideas on this as well.

My thoughts are to have a fire and never close the bottom door so it burns hot until it goes out. Or add a air intake van system in one of the air vents so it always gets a lot of air so it burns hot.

The design of the double barrel stove is great with the top barrel giving you that extra heat but may not be that great with the cooling of the pipes and the mess I am getting.

HELP!!

 

[pen]

If you have dripping out of the pipes you might have your single wall connections upside down. It should be that the male end points down towards the ground. That way any dripping creosote can stay within the system.

To dry out what you have I'd try a chimney sweeping log or similar product, then attempt to sweep. Maybe use 2.

Are you burning the same wood in this that you are in your home? Is it well seasoned? Wet / underseasoned wood would certainly not help this out.

Does the door on this stove have an air intake in it? The double barrel stove I have run never gets the air adjusted and it gets lots. Sounds like you need to work on smaller hotter fires which will be a pain for what you are trying to do unfortunately.

pen

 

[drumwerx]

I checked all the arrows when I installed them and they are all correct.

I will get a couple of chimney sweep logs and try that.

The wood is the same except in the house it is split and in the barrel stove it has been whole rounds and a little split but not much so that could be the issue for sure.

The smaller door on the bottom of the big door has 2 air intakes.

I will try smaller fires as well.

 

[pen]

I think the rounds you have been using in there may be part of the problem. They don't season as quickly as splits do.

When I say a smaller fire, that will only help if it is hotter. If there isn't enough air to support either, you'll still have the problem. You wouldn't want to load the thing up and turn the air down to try and make it last as long as possible. But by the sounds, there might not be enough air there to start with for some reason.

pen

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Definitely it sounds like you are burning wood that has not had time to dry. Wood, no matter the species, needs time to dry before burning it. If not, you get that sticky smelly tarry mess. In addition, for wood to dry quickly it needs to be split because in the round the only why it can dry is out the ends of the logs. Consequently you'll see some cracking in the ends of the logs and think they are dry but only the very end is dry. Split the wood and stack it out in the wind for a year minimum and then burn. You won't have problems getting the fire to burn right and you won't have that try in the chimney.

 

[drumwerx]

I went and took a look at my stack of wood and I have some dry stuff but mostly dry rot. I do not have any split wood at all so it looks like I could split some of the dry rot rounds and try that. I will split the other stuff when I get a chance and leave it out in the wind for next year.

Do you think the dry rot wood will be okay to use or should I forget about this for this year. I am experimenting with burning wood in the greenhouse right now and do not really need the heat. And from the test I have made so far the heat I get from the stove does a little for the greenhouse but not that much. It might add about 10 degrees to the heat in the beginning but it goes to the same temperature after 3 to 4 hours anyway.

What I have been using the wood heat for the most is running a non-pressurized open tank of water through a stainless steel heat exchanger in the stove, and that is working really well. It has a battery operated power supply and because it has no pressure it will not burst. It also has 2 pressure relief valves on it. In one day I gained 40 degrees on a 500 gallon tank. I use this with a pressurized heat exchanger in the tank feeding a boiler to supplement the fuel so I do not use propane. This is all experimental right now so I am just working out the details. So one side is no presssure and the boiler side has pressure but does not use the water going to the wood stove.

With the wood creosote problem I may go to a solar panel on the roof to get my heat instead of using the wood boiler/stove but I will see.

 

[Highbeam]

Rather than make due with wet wood can you source some lumber waste? any mills have cut offs? WOuld love it if you posted a photo of the whole system.

 

[drumwerx]

It is realy dry wood but old dry rot so it should not be wet it is more of a powdery dry wood. I have some cut offs that I will use. I bought a sweeping log today and ordered some creosote cleaner in a powder form and will use this first. Then I will see how a small fire burns again. If I have a hot heat and no smoke I will continue but this time I will not close it down I will let it burn hot till it goes out and see how that does.

As far as photos I do not have anything except a few construction shots but when I get things working better I can post what it looks like better then. I am still in the building process and figuring things out so it is not looking that good yet. Highbeam are you thinking of doing some greenhouse stuff?

 

[SKIN052]

I am not the expert here, by any means. But if you already have a creosote build up, do not attempt to burn a hot fire right now with dry pallets or lumber. You are just going to ignite the creosote and have much bigger issues. Clean first.

 

[drumwerx]

That is what I said in the post above that I am using a sweeping cleanin log and the creosote cleaner then I will use my brush to clean it all. If after that I see the sticky tar dry and easily cleaned then I will go ahead and try a small fire to see how that goes. I know that I do not want a hot fire and ignite the creosote and have a biiger problem thats for sure.

 

[Highbeam]

Highbeam are you thinking of doing some greenhouse stuff?

Sort of. I installed 2000 feet of radiant heating tubes into a slab inside my new 30x60x14' tall garage. I have not decided how to heat the water or the space so methods of heating large spaces are of interest.

 

[drumwerx]

I built a 500 gallon storage tank and want to see how the stove does and I will build a few solar panels and get them on my Greenhouse Utility room roof to see how they do. I am in Colorado and we have about 300 days of sun a year and that is pretty good for solar. The wood stove is for when I do not have the sun in the winter during the storms.