Is There an Explanation For This?

[jadm]

Ok - I understand the smoke during reloading better now so on to next thing that is confusing me.

Outside temps. in the low 30*

Stove, mid-day, burning between 450*-550*.

Secondary flames rolling along the top of the wood.

Inside room temp. mid 70*s.

Air shut down 3/4ths of the way.

Shut down of air having taken about 1/2 an hour.

Now my question --- Why am I getting a thin stream of smoke out of my chimney when burning at this temp. and the secondaries are obviously doing their thing?

If I open air back up to 1/2 open the smoke stops, which is fine, but I feel like I loose a lot of heat up the chimney and the wood burns down much more quickly...

 

[fossil]

What are you burning? Rick

 

[jadm]

What are you burning? Rick

Ooops - knew I would forget something!

Start up with pine kindling and once that has taken hold and I have a hot coal bed I add well seasoned (<20% moisture) hard woods - a mix of species I get from my wood guy. No red oak burning yet - not cold enough for it yet.

 

[fossil]

You sure it's smoke and not condensing moisture? In any case, if it's just a "thin stream", I really don't think it's anything to get too concerned about. My chimneys will do that from time to time, depending on the load, stage of the burn cycle, whatever. Rick

 

[LLigetfa]

What do you have for a chimney? If you reduce the amount of air (and heat) going up the chimney, what is in the cimney cools as it travels up and then gets too heavy to continue rising resulting in a stalled (reduced) draft. The chimney is addicted to heat. You have to feed the addiction.

 

[jadm]

You sure it's smoke and not condensing moisture? In any case, if it's just a "thin stream", I really don't think it's anything to get too concerned about. My chimneys will do that from time to time, depending on the load, stage of the burn cycle, whatever. Rick

So the answer gets filed in with all the other 'mysteries' about wood burning. ;-P

I browse around here on occasion and I can't help noticing that some of those back East people give you a hard time about burning pine.

I grew up in the Sierras and we were surrounded with pine and burned it all the time.
I live in the Rockies now and am again surrounded with pine - a lot of it dead due to the hungry beetles-and love how it catches and burns hot. Had to learn how to burn hard wood because the pine was getting too expensive and we were roaring right through it because it burns so quickly. Cost as much as hard wood THe hard woods just last longer and are more economical....I still do love that pine though.

 

[jadm]

What do you have for a chimney? If you reduce the amount of air (and heat) going up the chimney, what is in the cimney cools as it travels up and then gets too heavy to continue rising resulting in a stalled (reduced) draft. The chimney is addicted to heat. You have to feed the addiction.

12 feet topped off with one of the Master's 4' '' Extend-A-Flues."

 

[fossil]

...I grew up in the Sierras and we were surrounded with pine and burned it all the time. I live in the Rockies now and am again surrounded with pine - a lot of it dead due to the hungry beetles-and love how it catches and burns hot. Had to learn how to burn hard wood because the pine was getting too expensive and we were roaring right through it because it burns so quickly. Cost as much as hard wood THe hard woods just last longer and are more economical....I still do love that pine though.

California born & raised, as was my father (he was born in Auburn in 1915). Where does your hardwood come from? I'd surely burn it if I could get it, but it's simply not available here in central Oregon. Even our softwoods that we burn come from some distance away. All that thrives around here is Juniper, which actually burns pretty well, but is a PITA to process, and sagebrush. I'd love to get my hands on some Oak or Madrone, but it's way over on the coast, a couple hundred miles and two mountain ranges away to the west. So, I just keep Pining away. %-P Rick

 

[LLigetfa]

12 feet topped off with one of the Master's 4' '' Extend-A-Flues."

12 feet of what? What diameter? Inside or outside? Tees, or elbows?

 

[jadm]

...I grew up in the Sierras and we were surrounded with pine and burned it all the time. I live in the Rockies now and am again surrounded with pine - a lot of it dead due to the hungry beetles-and love how it catches and burns hot. Had to learn how to burn hard wood because the pine was getting too expensive and we were roaring right through it because it burns so quickly. Cost as much as hard wood THe hard woods just last longer and are more economical....I still do love that pine though.

California born & raised, as was my father (he was born in Auburn in 1915). Where does your hardwood come from? I'd surely burn it if I could get it, but it's simply not available here in central Oregon. Even our softwoods that we burn come from some distance away. All that thrives around here is Juniper, which actually burns pretty well, but is a PITA to process, and sagebrush. I'd love to get my hands on some Oak or Madrone, but it's way over on the coast, a couple hundred miles and two mountain ranges away to the west. So, I just keep Pining away. %-P Rick

I grew up in San Francisco and we drove through Auburn on our way to Tahoe - which is where we burned firewood. Always stopped there for gas - at the same station for years when they were 'service' stations...

My wood comes from a local arborist who sells the wood he is hired to clear off of park land or homeowner's property. It's local trees - I know I get ash, maple and locust but can't remember the names of the other species.

 

[jadm]

12 feet topped off with one of the Master's 4' '' Extend-A-Flues."

12 feet of what? What diameter? Inside or outside? Tees, or elbows?

Interior, masonary chimney fully lined with a 6" liner.

I think the 'addiction' theory makes sense as I live in the mile hi city and air is thinner here and this is a huge insert. Needs more air than my other unit that was quite a bit smaller.

 

[RedRanger]

As a general rule--if your glass is staying clean-then so is your chimney.

Once a month is all I have to clean my glass. Even then, it`s not brown, just some white powder that I like to get rid of. From time-to-time I will notice traces of faint smoke rising from the chimney. This is when I have the primary air at 10% or less. And it does seem to depend on many factors-humidity,temperature,or perhaps a piece of wood not quite as dry as the other pieces.

So--is your glass staying nice and clean??

 

[jadm]

As a general rule--if your glass is staying clean-then so is your chimney.

So--is your glass staying nice and clean??

Sometimes glass gets dirty around lower corner edges but it generally burns off clean as fire progresses.