Kuuma stove pipe keeps lighting on fire

[brenndatomu]

That sounds like soot/flyash...nothing to worry about. Is it tan or brown? (not black) Have a pic?

 

[MN~Nice]

That sounds like soot/flyash...nothing to worry about. Is it tan or brown? (not black) Have a pic?

I will post pics tonight. It's mainly tan/brown and gray

 

[brenndatomu]

That definitely sounds like soot/flyash...no risk of a chimney fire at all from that. Even the modern Kuumas still have some of this buildup in the stovepipe/chimney...it tends to be more white and gray (maybe tan or brown further away from the furnace) but it is dry and fluffy and falls off with any disturbance at all...and has zero flammability.
Somewheres around here I think @JRHAWK9 has a good pic of his stovepipe showing this...

 

[BoiledOver]

Sorry for the delay in posting updates.
So I went through and cleaned my whole system again. My wood is dry, I burned a "hot" fire for approximately 6 hours and inspected my chimney again. My liner is clean as a whistle but my black stove pipe has a thin puffy/fuzzy coating on the walls that falls off if touched.

The only variable I can think of is I do not have a T-cap on the bottom of my liner as I cannot access this through the masonry chimney cleanout hatch for cleaning.

Would this condition possibly be causing my stove pipe fire issue?

So, have you read and will you respond to post #40 of this thread. Just in case you cannot navigate to that post, I will rewrite it for you. The following conditions can occur with any model wood burning appliance.

These temp spikes are to be expected. When the firebox door is opened in the Eko 25 and there is still some sticks remaining, flue temps can quickly jump to over 1000F. This is caused by the added oxygen to an active fire that has a good exhaust draft. It sounds like you have a very good draft in your chimney, which is good.

Is this about what you are trying to convey? When first using the heater you experienced a chimney fire. You then addressed that issue with a new liner. Now you see the exhaust temps skyrocket while you are reloading.

As stated, this "to me" is expected. I see that often and the temps quickly return to the proper flue temps once the door is closed and blower is restarted. I say quickly even though the gauge is a bit slow at reacting to a temp drop, my manual gauge looks much like yours. It is a kiln thermometer.

For years with an old style wood stove, I held to a daily procedure of a hot and fast fire first thing in the morning. This was to clean the chimney of any creosote. I have never in many, many years experienced a chimney or flue fire.

Best of luck in getting to the bottom of this concern.

 

[JRHAWK9]

That definitely sounds like soot/flyash...no risk of a chimney fire at all from that. Even the modern Kuumas still have some of this buildup in the stovepipe/chimney...it tends to be more white and gray (maybe tan or brown further away from the furnace) but it is dry and fluffy and falls off with any disturbance at all...and has zero flammability.
Somewheres around here I think @JRHAWK9 has a good pic of his stovepipe showing this...

This is of my chimney after a winters worth of burning. My stove pipe looks similar, but the flyash is definitely more brown/black and more fuzzy than what's found in the chimney. Like bren said above, this is non-combustible and NOT an issue.

If you are indeed seeing temps higher than you should be (which the jury is still out on), I'm wondering if you are not adding to the stack effect by not having the bottom of your flue liner capped...? Like maybe it's pulling in air from in between the liner and inside walls of the chimney which is feeding everything. I don't think you have a manometer on your stovepipe, but you really need to get one. A manometer and temp PROBE will go a long way in getting to the bottom of what may not even be an issue.

 

[Bad LP]

....... A manometer and temp PROBE will go a long way in getting to the bottom of what may not even be an issue.

This. The information obtained by installing both of these items totally removed any doubts and proved I didn't have a problem but it did allow me to burn more effectively.
I learned here within the forum that stove pipe magnetic temperature gauges are next to useless. A 16 dollar probe type thermometer and a 30 dollar manometer saved me from spending 2000 plus on lining a perfectly good chimney.

 

[BoiledOver]

The OP posted an image that shows they are using a probe thermometer in the flue. @lampmfg reached out to this person by posting in this thread. Did they follow-up? How can we know by the communication skills shown?

The OP is too busy trying to be a "victim" that they are ignoring experienced opinion. The truth is, they may have spent all that money on a chimney liner to fix an issue that never existed. Come into a forum, ask for help of an issue with vague information and doesn't have the decency to respond to communications. The experience of many of the members here did not always come cheap to them, but the OP wants it for free or ignores it.

Just today, I opened the bypass and firebox door before leaving for town. The flue temp exceeded 1150 until the firewood was shaken and the door closed tight.

 

[maple1]

Sorry for the delay in posting updates.
So I went through and cleaned my whole system again. My wood is dry, I burned a "hot" fire for approximately 6 hours and inspected my chimney again. My liner is clean as a whistle but my black stove pipe has a thin puffy/fuzzy coating on the walls that falls off if touched.

The only variable I can think of is I do not have a T-cap on the bottom of my liner as I cannot access this through the masonry chimney cleanout hatch for cleaning.

Would this condition possibly be causing my stove pipe fire issue?

That coating could be creosote or it could be ash. What color is it? Really fine? Or something else?

If you mean that there is no cap on the bottom of your chimney that is a no-no. But I am not sure of your setup there, I might be misunderstanding. Pics of that might help. A cleanout hatch should be air tight. Or else it will kill your draft because the chimney will instead pull cold air from the bottom of the chimney. Which could also increase creosote production - but that creosote production should be in the chimney and not the stove pipe. Or maybe right at the T connection.

Still don't have a clear picture of this fire issue. Where does the fire start & stop at? If it is coming out of the furnace how far in the pipe does it go? I still think it might just be an over draft pulling excess fire out of the firebox, that excess fire the result of your very dry & easily lit pine.

Sometimes it is hard to tell things over the internet, without being there & seeing.

 

[Bad LP]

I obviously missed the picture of the probe type thermometer but the balance of my post stands.