Meeco FireEx - Fireman's friend

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Poindexter

Minister of Fire
Jun 28, 2014
3,181
Fairbanks, Alaska
Did using a package hurt my catalytic converter?

EDIT: I finally had a cancellation while Meeco was open. The little girl in the phone was probably younger than my youngest daughter but assured me the product is not corosive to my stove.

She did suggest i get my chimney cleaned and inspected by a pro, as expected.

EDIT 2: I emailed my stove mfr, Blaze King. They got back to me within one business day. They felt I should clean the fire suppressant residue from the inside of the stove fairly aggressively but were of the opinion that I won't need to replace the bricks. It would be an overstatement to say they were nonchalant, that's not right; more like an ounce of prevention would be worth a pound of cure.

I reached my chimney mfr, ICC, by phone, left a voice mail in the morning, they called back same business day and were concerned. I think I talked to customer service rep Carol. She only mentioned water soluble ions like Sodium and Chlorine, but she felt I should go ahead and brush out the pipe as best I can while waiting for the roof to be safe for a pro/certified sweep to get up there and do it correctly.

I don't think the ICC rep believed a single word I said. I was doing wound care on a veteran who left some body parts on a foreign shore during the phone call (Plantronics 5200 FTW), and ol' Sarge observed I might be as good a wood stove operator as I am a wound care nurse that makes house calls.

I can't really blame Canadians for being somewhat circumspect in their dealings with Yanks these days.

So I brushed out my pipe and found about four cords worth of crud in there after only burning one cord, but in aggregate, less than one measuring cup (less than 250mL). It's way blacker than I like and doesn't look like it caught on fire, just deposited as black. I changed catch bags twice, so I have one bag with the bottom six feet of pipe crud collected, another bag with the next six feet of pipe crud collected, and the last bag with the top three feet of pipe crud in it. Not enough crud in there to affect draft, my stove has run fine with triple that much crud in the pipe previously.

At no time did I have to punch through anything to keep pushing the brush up the pipe, felt pretty darn normal. I am keeping all three bags of chimney sweepings for the pro eval.

Another 10-14 days, if the weather holds, i should be able to get up on the roof without killing myself to look for ash (and animal tracks) in the snow around the chimney.

My firebox looks like Ghouta, Syria, just plain covered in grey/white dust. I had a good base of clean wood ash in the belly of the stove, so the floor is probably fine. I saved the vacuum cleaner bag I used when vacuuming the stove belly, though nothing really to see there. I am going to wait until after the pro cleaning to see whats left to do in the firebox. It isn't a global humanitarian crisis, but it is the filthiest thing I own.

The combustor took a hard hit. If i do this again I will flip the lever to bypass before I throw the fire suppressant into the stove box. I vac'd and vac'd and vac'd and can now get a strong light to shine through the cells, but this combustor might be retiring a few cords early. A bunch of deposits on the flame shield in front of the cat too, I will likely do some kind of wet wash on that this summer before I reinstall the combustor.

Also, when the FD unloaded my firebox it appears they maybe set a burning split on top of my stove, then grabbed the Britta from the kitchen and dumped the water in that onto the burning split. I have quite a water stain on the hearth, and the combustor probe indicator was knocked about 1/2" around the dial from ordinary room temperature reading. Not enough to file a homeowner's claim for sure, and I have been looking for an excuse to buy a new combustor probe for about 16 months now.
 
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Do you mean burning packaging? Worried about the glue in corrugated cardboard or something similar?
 
Unleaded or regular?
 
Time of post 2:48.......A.M. ;lol Hmmmm. Sorry Poindexter. Had to poke fun.
 
Posted at 2:48 am. OP, please give your approximate blood alcohol level at the time of posting.
For me personally, and this is just for me, I NEVER mess with the wood stove if the blood alcohol is above .10
 
Its a retail product from my local woodstove purveyor.

In event of a chimney fire "do not open package, place package in stove, close loading door, close air intake, evacuate building."

I was posting from my driveway without gloves while burly young men with lots of equipment were tracking all over my wife's white carpet in their boots.

We had a ladder truck, a pump truck, 2 SUVs and an ambulance clogging up the neighborhood for about an hour.

The battalion commander thinks i had a sheet of black slimy creosote peel off the inside wall of my chimney, reducing air flow, causing wood smoke into the living space through the slip joint in the telescope.

No physical loss, we get to keep all of our stuff, and no water damage, i just gotta clean the carpet and maybe replace the combustor.

I also called my local BK dealer in the middle of the night, left a message of course, for them to come clean and inspect my chimney.

FWIW I last brushed out the pipe in mid Dec, a cord, cord and a half ago.
 
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FireEx Chimney Fire Suppressant, "the fireman's friend"

Just got a new bag from my BK dealer.
 
Just got a new bag from my BK dealer.
That doesn't sound like fun at all. I'm glad you are able to report back that you are all ok. Is this a bad spell correct? Did the BK dealer provide a new cat or a bag of what?

What alerted the family, smoke detectors going off?
 
Glad all turned out ok
 
Is there anything you plan on doing now that you weren't doing before, now that you've had a chimney fire?

Honestly a cord and a half isn't really a ton of wood. I'm sure you burn hot, but do you feel you were burning hot enough?
 
That doesn't sound like fun at all. I'm glad you are able to report back that you are all ok. Is this a bad spell correct? Did the BK dealer provide a new cat or a bag of what?

I got a new bag, a new package of the Chimney Fire Suppressant.

Dunno about the combustor, didn't ask while I was at the dealer. My dealer is coming out next week some time, my verbal to them was. "Whatever you have to do for my wife to feel safe, do that."


What alerted the family, smoke detectors going off?

I carried wood up around 9PM, my wife reloaded on hot coals as I was falling asleep. Everything sounded normal enough about the reload that I kinda woke back up a little when she re-engaged the combustor -I worked 16 hours Wednesday and then 8.5 Thursday just catching up on paper work, all on the clock, not counting stacking wood after work.

A few hours later I woke up to one of the smoke detectors going off. I could see a layer of smoke against the ceiling of the stove room, looked like it was coming out of either the ceiling connector or the slip joint in the telescoping pipe.

The the CO detector started beeping and the wife said "Should I call 911?" I was looking at the flue gas temp probe, it was right around 400dF.

I asked if she had run on high for 30 minutes before she turned the tstat down to medium and she said yes, I just turned it down.

Then the CO detector starting beeping really really fast and the programmed voice said "evacuate immediately, evacuate immediately"

So the flue gas temp was appropriate for having been running on high a while. Didn't check the cat probe.

I told her to go ahead and call 911, then more smoke detectors started going off so we just got dressed and got out.
 
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Is there anything you plan on doing now that you weren't doing before, now that you've had a chimney fire?

Honestly a cord and a half isn't really a ton of wood. I'm sure you burn hot, but do you feel you were burning hot enough?

That's why I didn't sleep so good the rest of the night. I have only been able to think of two or three things I could maybe do different.

1. My chimney brush is on it's fourth season, probably been up and down the pipe 2 dozen times. It was still a really tight fit last time I brushed in Dec 16. Maybe the tips of the bristles aren't sharp enough any more? Dunno. All I have ever gotten out with the brush is grey brown fluff with a few scattered specks of shiny black.

2. We consistently run on high for at least 30 minutes with every reload, often more than 30 minutes. My best guess is the stove was running on high last night for 90-120 minutes before turn down. That process is, unless I misunderstood, supposed to bake most or all of the free water out of my fuel load, and get that free water pumped out of the flue before turn down, so I should have only dry fluffy ash and no sheets of shiny black stuff when I brush.

I am wondering about a 30 minute timer on the hearth to make sure we are hitting that benchmark every time. I think we are hitting it, but if my dealer finds shiny black in there, with me running fuel at 14%MC, then I gotta do something differently than I have been doing.

3. The last one is we have had a particularly mild winter. I went in to burn season with my usual 8 cords and haven't finished burning 3 yet. I have truly only burnt something like 2.3 to 2.5 seasoned cords so far this year, I literally have more than half of my third cord left to burn. So no, we haven't been burning as hot as usual.

Since the last brushing in mid Dec I started fooling with burn times trying to keep the house cooler while we had kids home for Christmas. Unusually for me, but not uncommonly in the BK world, we have been doing multiple sequential 24 hour burns with continuously active combustor, hot reloads on good beds of coals and regular 30 minute burn ins with the tstat on high.

Having learned to do it with finicky kids home, and the Polar Vortex going to to the lower 48 to spend the winter months with you guys...
 
So is the guess that the flue somehow became plugged solid enough to cause a backup of the smoke?
 
So is the guess that the flue somehow became plugged solid enough to cause a backup of the smoke?
That was the opinion of the battalion commander on site.

I didnt smell any scorching drywall or blistering paint, just wood smoke. I was concerned about maybe the blown in cellulose in the attic. They put a SCBA on the skinniest firefighter and lifted him part way up through the trapdoor into the attic. I could see all that from the street through a window. More boot tracks in the carpet. No burning insulation in the attic.
 
Good your all ok! Real nail biter for sure I think I would like to know if it was a blockage from creo -ice -fur so could you run a rod down with out the brush poking around then sweep it or a least be home if a chimney sweep does it.
 
I am leaving the chimney undisturbed for a pro.
 
Possible draft reversal? Seen that happen on short stack a couple times. Do you have a cap on your chimney? Animal jump down there?
 
Are you not burning in the interim?
Correct. Well, i am burning oil and using the hot water baseboard system. Not burning wood.

The chimney was a new install now on its fourth trouble free season. The A30 has been trouble free for almost three seasons.

Something is fundamentally wrong and i want to have everything straight with a reasonable, believable smoking gun corrected before i relight the stove.

Critter is possible, but unlikely. I have an intact cap, no screen, i cant think of a single animal that could both fit under the cap and block the flue. A family of chickadees maybe, but it would take a bunch of them all at once, and the stove has been running continuously for werks.

The FD did deploy the ladder on the truck and swung it from the street up over my roof. The kid that came back down the ladder said no soot or ash in the snow on the roof near the chimney, so more likely a blockage than a chimney fire.

Until proven otherwise i am thinking i must have my manly SSS morning routine under 30 minutes and been turning down too soon.

You know that perenial question, what would you grab on your way out of the house if it was in fire? No fun. While the wife was dressing i loaded up my hospital owned work computer with a bunch of patient data on it. Once she was out i pulled on some boots, grabbed my truck keys, my single most valuable handgun, my single most valuable pipe (a 1967 Dunhill billiard) and went out into the cold with no gloves. I did have both my cell phones with me, but idont even getnout of bed to pee without taking those with me.

In short, my life and my wifes life are too valuable to risk relighting the stove without an answer and a plan.
 
Could be the moving snow on the roof shifted the pipe off the connector assembly at the roof framing. My exit is way up near the ridgepole and this seems unlikely.