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.
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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Hmmmm. Sorry Poindexter. Had to poke fun.
