HELP!! MY BOILER PIPES RUN THROUGH OUR WOOD STOVE, CAN STOP SMELL!!

[mcr2006]

OUR BOILER HAS PIPING RUNNING THROUGH OUR WOOD STOVE AS A SECONDARY HEATING SOURCE. WE LIVE IN OLD HOUSE (1800'S) THE STOVE WAS INSTALLED BEFORE WE MOVED IN, LAST WINTER WE DECIDED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT, HOWEVER AFTER IT WAS LIT IT WORKED FINE UNTIL WE LET THE FIRE GO OUT. THE SMELL OF SOOT WILL NOT GO AWAY. ONCE I STARTED LOOKING INTO IT THERE WAS AN EX\ESSIVE AMOUNT OF BLACK CREOSOTE BUILT UP IN THE STOVE BETWEEN THE PIPING AND THE WALLS OF THE STOVE. I WAS ABLE TO CLEAN(CHIP) AWAY MOST OF THE BUILDUP, BUT WITH NO AVAIL. WE DID GET RELIEVE WHEN THE WEATHER WARMED UP AND THE BOILER WAS TURNED OFF. IT SEEMS THAT ONCE WE LIT THE STOVE AND HEATED UP THE PIPES IT STARTED THE MELTING PROCESS AND THE SMELL.

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY IDEAS? I THOUGHT PERHAPS IF WE REPLACE THE FIREBRICK IT WOULD HELP?

OH, EVEN THIS PAST SUMMER IF THE WIND WAS RIGHT THE SMELL WOULD BE FAINT, BUT STILL THERE.

PLEASE HELP BEFORE WINTER SETS IN!!

 

[sdrobertson]

The black stuff is allot of creosote. Sounds like the pipe when filled with water cooled the smoke and it condensed around the pipe. I would get rid of all of it you can and then build the hottest fire you can and try to burn the rest of it out of the stove. Changing the brick might help some, but the creosote is already loaded in the stove. Make sure that you check your chimney before you do this because if the smoke cooled this much, you don't want a chimney filled with creosote fired hot at all or else you'll have a chimney fire and the smell will be the least of your problems! Clean everything really well and then start burning without the pipe filled with water.

 

[deerefanatic]

Well, the problem is that the water is cold (compared to a fire, even 200 degree water is cold) and causes the creosote to condense on the pipes. there's not a whole lot you can do about that. As for this summer, with the boiler off it allowed the water to get much hotter and burn the creosote off. I'd be careful though that you don't cause a steam explosion by heating water that's not going somewhere to get cooled off.

Scraping the creosote off the coil on a regular basis should keep it from building up too bad. You might try one of those chimney sweeping logs too as they supposedly remove creosote.