help with a newbie

[ugotit22]

Hello everyone. My name is Keith and I just purchased a home with my wife in CT. I have been reading many topics in the forums and I thought I'd ask a few questions as I am new to burning.
My home came with a look Yankee bay pellets stove so I have quickly gotten used to running and maintaining that. My basement has a chimney that usedto be hooked up to a wood stove . I recently picked up a n old cast iron stove from a buddy in the hopes of buring wood in the basement and pellets upstairs.
The stove is an old hickory long fire box stove from I believe 1970s. I hooked it up with my buddy and sealed all the cracks with furnace cement where the older sealent was cracked.
When I burned for the first time tonightI could not get the stove hot enough into the safe burn zone on the thermostat. I tried closing the door and adjusting the damper and all it did was reduce what little fire I did have into a smoldering Smokey mess. If anyone has any info on what I'm doing wrong I'd really appreciate it .
Thanks

Keith

 

[begreen]

Welcome Keith. The first thing to do is to make sure the chimney is clear and safe for burning. It should be inspected and cleaned if necessary. Then also find out what are the inside dimensions of the chimney. If the chimney throat is too large it may draft poorly for the stove. Next, how well seasoned is the wood you were trying to burn and approximately what diameter were the logs or splits?

Be sure to respect the heating potential of this stove once everything is right. It needs 36" clearance from combustibles in all directions. And it should be on a completely non-combustible surface extending 16" in front of the stove.

 

[ugotit22]

Thank you for the reply
The chimney was not inspected. My friend who helped me with the installation checked it out before the install and said it seems like it had good draft. The old home owners left some wood which I used however as it began to burn I heard how wet it was so I went out and got a bundle of wood from the store just to try it out for the first time, and cure the cement I put in the cracks

The stove is on the cement floor of my basement and is away from all combustibles.

 

[begreen]

It's really important to know the condition of the chimney you are burning in. Does it at least have a tile liner in it?

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I must say, it's pretty ballsy for you to want to burn in that stove, I'd be reluctant to do it, keep us updated on now it's going.....

 

[ugotit22]

The chimney from what I saw when we where installing the stove is made of cinder blocks and I think clay... If that makes sense. There is not tile in it.
Why do you say it's risky to burn in that stove?
Please let me know as if it is a problem or dangerous I am not willing to put my family in harm's way just to get this up and running

 

[kennyp2339]

When referring to tile, it means clay lined. You need to have your chimney inspected by a professional to make sure all mortar joints between the clay tiles are in good condition and that the actual tiles are not cracked. If you have poor mortar joints or cracked tiles it can let the heat through from the stove and you can burn your house down. The furnace cement around the cast iron parts of the stove just a band-aide, (I highly don't recommend using that stove if you have to seal joints with cement) I really think you need a professional to come out and look at this system, for you and your families safety.

 

[ugotit22]

So this is the set up I'm running with. My main reasoning for assuming the chimney is fine is because the old owners had a stove attached to it.
When I do shut the door as I did last night, I feel theair from the chimney Is blowing down at the fire, even though the smoke is going up and out. Isn't it supposedto be pulling the air in from the front damper

 

[ugotit22]

When referring to tile, it means clay lined. You need to have your chimney inspected by a professional to make sure all mortar joints between the clay tiles are in good condition and that the actual tiles are not cracked. If you have poor mortar joints or cracked tiles it can let the heat through from the stove and you can burn your house down. The furnace cement around the cast iron parts of the stove just a band-aide, (I highly don't recommend using that stove if you have to seal joints with cement) I really think you need a professional to come out and look at this system, for you and your families safety.

I'm confused, I would assume if it's an older stove and the seals are older and cracking, why wouldn't I want to seal them up so that they won't be leaking?

 

[Squirrel]

Been there, done that. A long time ago I did a very similar set up.
A small bit of cement fell out of a joint - stove got hotter- more cement fell out - stove got hotter - I smelled something strange upstairs and went down to find a glowing stove and a crackling chimney.
If you like your house, put that stove outside to burn it!

 

[coaly]

You're probably not getting the chimney flue hot enough. If it's a 8 inch flue or larger, you may not have enough stove to keep it hot enough. Keep the pipe damper open. The lighter more buoyant gasses rising up chimney makes a lower pressure area in chimney than outside of the stove. Atmospheric air pressure actually pushes in, feeding oxygen to the fire. Any cracks or leaks allow air in and can create an overfire condition. That is the reason for concern.

The chimney is what makes the stove work. Is it inside or outside chimney? Inside diameter should be the same as stove outlet all the way up, if larger you need much more heat to make it work. Smaller stoves can loose so much up the chimney they don't have that much BTU capacity left to heat the house. And what is the chimney height? The pipe damper is to slow a chimney that is too strong.
If you hear any sizzle inside, the wood is wet and not seasoned properly. Otherwise the smokey mess is due to not enough draft bringing air into the stove. Crumple up newspaper towards the rear of the stove and light to start the draft and get the smoke out. That should start it drafting. Shaking out a match in front of air intake should show smoke from match rushing into intake.

Make sure the pipe or elbow going into flue isn't stuck inside the chimney farther than the inside wall of flue closing it off. Each pipe joint should have 3 screws.

 

[ugotit22]

You're probably not getting the chimney flue hot enough. If it's a 8 inch flue or larger, you may not have enough stove to keep it hot enough. Keep the pipe damper open. The lighter more buoyant gasses rising up chimney makes a lower pressure area in chimney than outside of the stove. Atmospheric air pressure actually pushes in, feeding oxygen to the fire. Any cracks or leaks allow air in and can create an overfire condition. That is the reason for concern.

The chimney is what makes the stove work. Is it inside or outside chimney? Inside diameter should be the same as stove outlet all the way up, if larger you need much more heat to make it work. Smaller stoves can loose so much up the chimney they don't have that much BTU capacity left to heat the house. And what is the chimney height? The pipe damper is to slow a chimney that is too strong.
If you hear any sizzle inside, the wood is wet and not seasoned properly. Otherwise the smokey mess is due to not enough draft bringing air into the stove. Crumple up newspaper towards the rear of the stove and light to start the draft and get the smoke out. That should start it drafting. Shaking out a match in front of air intake should show smoke from match rushing into intake.

Make sure the pipe or elbow going into flue isn't stuck inside the chimney farther than the inside wall of flue closing it off. Each pipe joint should have 3 screws.

Thank you for the information.
I did screw in each connecting pipe with three small screw.
The chimney is an outside one on the rear of my house. The straight pipe coming from the elbow runs straight into the chimney which is outside. It goes up the rear of the house so I'd say it's roughly 14-16 feet high. It is a small stove in comparrison to the size of the chimney. I feel the chimney has a much bigger diameter then the 8 inch pipe I have running out of the stove.
I will take some more pictures of the chimney when I get home so you guys can have a better idea what I'm talking about

 

[begreen]

Not sure but that looks more like 6" stove pipe connecting to the chimney. Pull the pipe out and try to examine the inside of the chimney looking through the thimble hole with a flashlight and a mirror. Look to see if there is a clay tile liner visible in there. If possible, measure the chimney inside dimensions. When reinstalling the stove pipe, heed coaly's advice:

Make sure the pipe or elbow going into flue isn't stuck inside the chimney farther than the inside wall of flue...

Also, look for a cleanout door at the base of the chimney. If this is leaky it can spoil draft. For a test one can seal it with duct tape.

Most importantly, if there is no clay tile liner, don't burn for now. The chimney should have a stainless steel liner installed.

 

[ugotit22]

Here is a chimney. Hoping it will give you guys a better idea if what I got here.

 

[bholler]

ok it is clay lined but we have no idea about the condition of the liners. Is the chimney square or rectangular? And as far as sealing the cracks in order for it to work at all you need to disassemble the entire stove clean all of the joints and then reassemble with furnace cement in all of the seams. Smearing it on the surface will do very little if anything to seal it up. Get the chimney inspected before you go any farther though it could be very dangerous. I can tell just from those pics you don't have proper clearance to combustibles from the outside of the chimney that by itself could be dangerous but if you add id the possible cracked tiles or bad mortar joints with a leaky stove it could be very dangerous.