Hello all and thanks in advance!
We have an older model VC Encore Defiant at out upstate NY house and this is the first Winter season that we have used the stove pretty much round the clock. Previously, it was used perhaps two or three times each winter since the house was seldom visited during Winter.
We have a masonry chimney with a tile lined 8” flu. I replaced the gasket gaskets a couple of years ago and we never burned green or wet wood. Since the stove was used only a couple of times a year it had been about five years since the last chimney sweep. About two weeks ago, after constant use since October or so we had a chimney fire. The ash pan door was not fully closed and it got extremely hot causing the fire. Very scary. The fire lasted about 4 minutes with a lot of smoke out the chimney and simply burned out on its own.
We called a chimney sweep who cleaned the flu from below, through the little trap door outside at the base of the chimney. He removed all the metal pipes going from the stove into the wall and cleaned those as well. He informed us that he could see no obvious damage to the flu or stove parts and he mentioned the option of lining of the flu with a ss liner as a possibility. We want to do everything possible to prevent this from happening again and would appreciate any tips/advice would be appreciated. Questions:
- Since we have not had the catalytic converter checked, is it ok to run the stove without having it engaged?
- If it turns out that the cat converter is not working optimally or correctly for any reason, is it ok to still use the converter?
- We are handy, is cleaning and/replacing the converter something that a non-professional can do?
Thank you very much for your help!
We have an older model VC Encore Defiant at out upstate NY house and this is the first Winter season that we have used the stove pretty much round the clock. Previously, it was used perhaps two or three times each winter since the house was seldom visited during Winter.
We have a masonry chimney with a tile lined 8” flu. I replaced the gasket gaskets a couple of years ago and we never burned green or wet wood. Since the stove was used only a couple of times a year it had been about five years since the last chimney sweep. About two weeks ago, after constant use since October or so we had a chimney fire. The ash pan door was not fully closed and it got extremely hot causing the fire. Very scary. The fire lasted about 4 minutes with a lot of smoke out the chimney and simply burned out on its own.
We called a chimney sweep who cleaned the flu from below, through the little trap door outside at the base of the chimney. He removed all the metal pipes going from the stove into the wall and cleaned those as well. He informed us that he could see no obvious damage to the flu or stove parts and he mentioned the option of lining of the flu with a ss liner as a possibility. We want to do everything possible to prevent this from happening again and would appreciate any tips/advice would be appreciated. Questions:
- Since we have not had the catalytic converter checked, is it ok to run the stove without having it engaged?
- If it turns out that the cat converter is not working optimally or correctly for any reason, is it ok to still use the converter?
- We are handy, is cleaning and/replacing the converter something that a non-professional can do?
Thank you very much for your help!
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