It is finished!

[FOBOS]

Hello fellas. It's been a while since I was on the site talking about our stove pipe, bad installation, green wood odyssey. Well the local installer came by last Saturday and spent all day reinstalling the whole thing. He installed a liner that protected the stove pipe from ceiling to roof. He installed double wall pipe from the ceiling down to the stove (in order to comply with local regulations) and he properly installed the roof pipe with the flange under the metal roof material, rather than on top of it as it was before (along with some type of rubber gasket material that was noticeably deformed , melted in some spots and ill fitting.) He also had to retrofit portions of the truss that the other guy cut off.

All in all I feel real good about firing up our stove, starting this evening when the cold front is due to come in here in central Montana. It will be in sub-freezing temperatures for a few days so I will really get to put this baby through its paces!

As for the wood I was burning before this debocale started, according to this fella the wood is fine to burn. He said to just get the stove temp hot (around 500) until the moisture burns out and it will be fine.

That's it for now, thanks to everyone that helped with your responses and have a great rest of the winter.

 

[edthedawg]

Sounds great - glad to hear you got this all fixed up. You will continue to experience difficulty getting up to "hot" w/ your wood initially, and you will go thru it fast, since you'll likely be burning lots of little pieces, and reloading more frequently.

I'm sure you will get some dissenting comments today on the words of "this fella" but I personally am right there with you dealing w/ marginal wood. I strongly endorse the use of a supplementary product - I couldn't nearly get the stovetop temps I do without my EcoFirelogs - 1 per cold load or low-coal reload. If I have a really hot coal bed or need to reload early, i can usually get away with just 1/2 or none...

 

[begreen]

I'm glad that the job got corrected to your satisfaction and that clearances are now being honored. However, the opinion of this fella already has a dubious distinction based on previous work he was willing to walk away from. His instructions are ironic because it's pretty hard to get a fire to 500 when the wood is green. It might be better to scout out a good quality compressed wood product in your area and burn that for the season. Can you get Northern Idaho Energy Logs locally? If you do find some, pay attention to directions and don't burn too many at once. These things pack a wallop.

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/wiki/Northern_Idaho_Energy_Logs/

 

[FOBOS]

Hi guys. I apologize for the confusion. The work was fixed by a different man than the one that installed the origianl mess. I wouldn't take advice from the first guy. He pretty much ripped us off, did a lousy job, cut our truss (when he didn't have to) and left us with a fire hazard by not reading the directions on the stove and manual that came with it. The new installer is licensed and professional, he is the one that said the wood is good to go, not the other guy. I hope I'm not being confusing again. Have a great day.

 

[edthedawg]

I understood you. I still question the assessment.

In your very first post ever, you said: "our [chimney] pipe ... has brown streaks running down the sides. I am afraid that this is creosote build-up caused by: Not burning the fire hot enough and using green wood. The fella that sold us the wood said that it was seasoned, but the bark does not come off the sides and there really is no cracking at the ends."

Then your next thread: "I stopped burning ... due to having semi-green wood and building up creosote"

The reworks that were done were all for clearances and fire hazards really - not related to the way that stove is gonna burn. You need to get hotter and cleaner - burn smokeless from the chimney, and hot on the stove w/out overfiring. You're still not likely to get there if you still have the same wood that got you into the above predicaments.

Having a legal system doesn't mean it won't get polluted, blocked up, start a chimney fire, etc. Just means you're marginally less likely to burn your house down now.

I wish you the best - but you gotta find a way to make that green, wet wood burn hotter. BG and I have made sound recommendations...

 

[FOBOS]

Thanks for the reply Edthedawg. I was not burning the stove hot enough (for dry or green wood.) I showed the wood to the certified installer and also to the stove shop owner in town. Both said that the wood was OK to burn, but I had to get the fire hotter. My assessment on the wood was made by me and I really do not have any experience as to what is seasoned, what is not, or what is OK to burn. That is why I asked the two individuals that could actually look at the samples I have.

Thanks again for all your help. BTW, the guy that retrofitted the system said that there really wasn't much in the way of creosote build-up in the pipes that he removed, the streaks apparently were caused by me burning to cold along with sub-freezing temperatures.