Having trouble with secondary burn

[mkt1]

I started noticing that my Quadrafire was not getting a good burn on the secondarys,and I was also getting creasote running down the outside of my chimney, not excessive but haven't had that occur in the past, just some build up on the cap. I removed the cap and cleaned the chimney,was about 1/2 of a full seasons worth of powdery creasote.maybe 14-16 ounce cup worth. and removed and cleaned the secondaty burn tubes and the top baffle and ceramic blanket. I noticed a little play-gap in the single wall telescoping chimney at the stove collar adapter on top of the stove, wasn't sure if it was to compensate for expansion or not but I had'nt noticed it before,so one thing at a time 2 more days of single digit temps and still had almost no secondary burn. Usuall this stove when hot will give secondary burns that look like a sideways tornado with good dry pecan. Still no luck. Today I removed the screw from the telescoping chimney pipe and turned it a couple of inches to cover the hole on the inner pipe and seated the pipe tight aganist the collar and reset the screw in the pipe. Now to see what happens if we get another cold snap. The only other air I found was at a rivet in the collar. Just barley could see any light by useing a flashlight around the collar. This collar is an adapter collar of single wall to the stove collar. Any suggestions? or am I giong the right way? The stove is about 14 years old with about 20 feet of chimney. other than the single wall to the cealing adaptor,the rest is double wall insulated to the cap. We went from single digit temps at night to the upper 50's today.

 

[Jfk4th]

Boy that's a lot of data to absorb on your post. I will just try to help on the first couple of lines.
Question: Is this your first cleaning of the season and you got 16 oz of powder...hmmmmm...not too, too much in my opinion but not the best either so I would say your wood is not fully seasoned or dry. Creosote running down the chimney, once again sounds like it is a little wet your wood. I have the 5100 inset and unless my wood is not seasoned I won't get anymore than an 8 oz cup the whole season. But I only burn 20 hours a day and not everyday

Another question: Are you burning 24/7 if so do you get smoke coming out of the chimney when your temp gets to around 450F. That is the magic number for me, once I reach 450F I see nothing but heat waves for the remainder of that burn (of course when I re-load there is a little puffing here and there)

Sorry that's all I have to offer, I am sure somebody will chime in

 

[Jfk4th]

One more thing
Any smoke puffing back out the stove when re-loading? If so check that blanket, man that is a pain in the a.. to make sure that thing is nice and flat so it is not blocking the air to the chimney

Ok that's all I got
As Jim Rome says "I'm Out"

 

[mkt1]

Yes 1st cleaning of the season, some wood wetter than I like but only with a hot fire maybe one every couple of days, the pecan is 1+ years seasoned with the bark falling off.it usually goes down to coals during the night and a couple of splits will catch within 1 or 2 min. and be a blazing fire. I only get visible smoke on start up , then can,t see any smoke, I don,t use a thermoter,and I double checked the blanket (new blanket this year)when I had the chimney off the flue adaptor. the only other change in the house is a new front door, due to some danage to the old one.I was wondering if the air gap at the flue adapter might have been the problem.No smoke problem when opening the door good draft as you can feel it when cleaning the chimney,and pulls smoke out very well when starting up.

 

[Jfk4th]

Hmmmm, you got me stumped
BTW don't know what I was thinking on my previous post, your post was pretty straightforward not too confusing so my bad on that one...

Anyway if you cleaned the tubes and inside the box and up the chimney can't see why you wouldn't have good secondaries if you are burning hot enough and it sounds like you are since you are getting good easy startup and good coals. Hmmmmm again......

Boy the only time I wasn't getting secondaries was when my wood was wet, which was 2 years ago since I didn't get my wood covered soon enough and we had rain just about everyday to "kill" my dry wood....

Are you able to slow down your draft as usual when you pull out the main air adjustment? Maybe some air is getting in, what about gasket around the door, passed the dollar bill test...boy I am reaching here...just shooting some darts I guess

 

[RonB]

Make sure that your ceramic blanket and baffle boards were reinstalled correctly. Check with your manual if you are unsure. With my 5700 the blanket and baffle need to be even with the front secondary tube. This ensures that the baffle and blanket are butted up against the back wall of the stove and the heat/flame won't go right up the flue--therefore inadequate temp to create a secondary burn. I find 2 magnetic temp gauges (one on stove top, one on stovepipe) are very helpful running the stove correctly and even helpful info to share if you have a problem. The cost $7-9 each.

 

[mkt1]

Secondary burn is back ! Apparentely the air gap that developed between the flue collar adapter and the flue was allowing cold air into the system and that was the problem, within about 15 min of lighting the the fire the secondaries with both air controls wide open was lighting off.After adjusting the air it was great, now I may have to open the door and cool it off in the house. The outside temp is in the upper 30s and no wind. THANKs for your help.Burn-dry ,burn-hot,burn often......

 

[RonB]

Glad you found it M. The cold air being sucked into the flue helped create the creosote and also reduced the draft.