My neighbor saw flames coming out of my chimney...

[Poindexter]

From the top I pulled into my driveway after work and figured someone most have just reloaded the stove, it was pretty clear from the stack plume that the cat on my Blaze King Ashford 30 was disengaged.

Went on in the house, sure enough one of the kids had reloaded the stove, the cat probe was way down in inactive but the loading door was shut, and the kid was right there by the stove.

I figured it would be 10-15 minutes before the cat was hot enough to engage, went to my office, put down my briefcase, that sort of thing.

After about 20 minutes I wandered back out to the stove, the kid was gone. Cat probe was up to halfway between inactive and overfired. I engaged the cat. I noticed the Tstat air control was on 3.5/3, up past full throttle, so I backed that on down to 3/3.

I glanced at my flue probe. I am running a magnetic thermometer on my double wall flue that connects the stove to the ceiling radiation shield, it's about a foot above the stove collar. Not a "real" reading I know, but generally I start a new load with the door cracked until I see "400dF" indicated on the stack thermometer, then close the door and finish heating the cat with the Tstat on 3/3. This time the flue probe was indicating "550dF".

EDIT: My total stack height, stove collar to rain cap is between 13 and 14 feet total.

I got a beer out of the fridge, wandered back by the stove perhaps 1 minute later and saw the flue probe was already down to 500dF and visibly dropping by staring at it a few seconds.

Headed down stairs, slipped on my boots without lacing them up then through the garage and out to the backyard to check my stack plume. I saw my wife pulling up to the driveway so I went to the front yard instead to greet her and noticed a neighbor on foot following my wife into the driveway.

He lives three doors down the street, and had walked over to tell me he saw yellow/ orange flames coming out of my chimney.

We walked back to the curb together and I saw a perfectly normal stack plume for the cat being engaged. We chatted a little bit. I can't find any soot on the snow around my stack, on the snow on my deck, or on the snow on my boats downwind from my stack, no visible soot on the roof of the house of my down wind neighbor. My flue probe was already down to "200dF" when I got back in the house, and that is pretty much where it has run all winter.

Three pics attached. My ready rack in the garage holds just shy of a face cord of splits, I am calling four racks worth one cord. The "tale of the tape" pic shows I cleaned the flue after one cord, cleaned the flue again after the second cord of the year and I have burnt just over two cords since I swept last. The "J3" notation indicates the number of racks I have burnt since I filled the rack on January third. "Secondcleaning dot jpg" shows about 2 tablespoons of crud I got out of the flue the second time I cleaned it this winter. Very similar to the first cleaning, mostly grey/brown fine ash with a few specks of shiny black in it.

Last picture is the stack running with the cat engaged after my neighbor came over, I got a brown discoloration on the top one foot of stack I never noticed before.

How worried should I be?

 

[bholler]

I would get up there and inspect it to be sure but your neighbor might just be crazy who knows

 

[begreen]

When in doubt, check it out.

 

[Poindexter]

I figure I am going to let it burn out and then sweep it and get busy with a flashlight. What am I looking for?

 

[bholler]

What am I looking for?

Anything out of the ordinary. WHen we see damaged class a from fire it is usually buckled inside or a seam got to hot and the edge curled up a bit

 

[Poindexter]

Anything out of the ordinary. WHen we see damaged class a from fire it is usually buckled inside or a seam got to hot and the edge curled up a bit

So I probably am have to go on the roof to look at the discolored part is what I hear you saying.

 

[BKVP]

I will bet your neighbor saw sparks flying out because the by pass was open. I've seen it on my own stove....

 

[bholler]

Yeah that is what i would do. Well i would run a camera through it to but i doubt you have a chimscan

 

[bholler]

I will bet your neighbor saw sparks flying out because the by pass was open. I've seen it on my own stove...

You see sparks flying out the top of your chimney? What are you burning?

 

[Highbeam]

I would get up there and inspect it to be sure but your neighbor might just be crazy who knows

You'd get up there? Looks like a light dusting of snow up there.

 

[bholler]

You'd get up there? Looks like a light dusting of snow up there.

Yeah i was on 7 roofs today and another 6 or 7 tomorrow

 

[rideau]

I'm a little confused. You talk about your flue probe, but then state you have a magnetic thermometer. Are you just referring to the magnet that goes around the stem of the flue probe to seal the insertion, or are you using a magnetic thermometer that does not have a probe that extends into the flue?

 

[Diabel]

The cap looks perfectly normal to my eye. What was the outside temp?

Maybe your neighbor was just seeing things

 

[bholler]

Maybe your neighbor was just seeing things

That is entirely possible but i think it warrants checking out the chimney

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah I would rush up on that roof. In April.

 

[Diabel]

It never hurts to check the stack, and once you there clean it. The roof looks pretty approachable.

It is such a good feeling to know the stack is clean!

 

[BKVP]

You see sparks flying out the top of your chimney? What are you burning?

NIELS. The build up is slight right under the cap. Then, if I am not paying attention (or my better half) and we get the stove VERY hot, those little embers or sparks break free and fly about 3-4 feet.

It's happened 3-4 times in 13 years....by pass was open and magic.

 

[Poindexter]

I have the factory probe type thermometer in the factory location on my stove. On the flue, about a foot above the stove collar I have a magnetic thermometer stuck on the outside layer of the double wall class A pipe, there is no hole drilled in the flue, it is a magnetic stick on only.

I will double check with my neighbor about sparks versus flames before I climb on the roof, but the word he used was "flames".

I will also contact my local dealer to see how much they would charge to climb up there knowing what to look for.

The last time I really "looked" at my flue I didn't notice any of that brown discoloration on the top section like I see today.

Daytime high today was -25dF to -30dF depending on which thermometer you believe.

I think the plan is going to be to let it burn out, sweep and inspect it even if the neighbor says "sparks" on cross examination. I would a whole lot rather burn oil for a couple days then burn the house down.

I'll ask my dealer if they have a "chimscan", sounds handy.

 

[rideau]

Just me, but snow on the roof and a high of 30 below F, I'd be hiring a pro who does it all the time.

 

[webby3650]

Get up there and take a look when you are able. But, you aren't going to find any damage. It would take a full on flue fire to damage your pipe. It's gonna be fine!
I'm with BKVP, I've also seen sparks make it into and out of my cap with the bypass open.
I've also seen several times where the cap has been on fire but not the flue. Sparks make their way through a relitively clean flue and into the dirty cap, a small fire breaks out for a very short time.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

If you head up there just remember that a foot of snow provides a lot more traction than 1/4" of snow. Looks like a low pitch you should be able to dance a jig up there.

 

[Jags]

. On the flue, about a foot above the stove collar I have a magnetic thermometer stuck on the outside layer of the double wall class A pipe, there is no hole drilled in the flue, it is a magnetic stick on only.

As I think you alluded to earlier - this isn't really indicative of any real world temps inside your stack. It would be just as accurate to duct tape a ferret to your pipe and gauge temp off of how much he wiggles.

 

[Highbeam]

On the flue, about a foot above the stove collar I have a magnetic thermometer stuck on the outside layer of the double wall class A pipe, there is no hole drilled in the flue, it is a magnetic stick on only.

I'm confused. You seem to be saying that you have class A pipe within a foot of your stove and that a magnetic meter sticks to it. You also say that the outside of this class A pipe routinely runs to 400 and this time ran to 550.

I suspect that you don't actually have class A pipe here but double wall stove pipe. Magnets don't stick to stainless (usually) and the insulation inside that class A would make it highly unlikely to ever see such high temps without the stove glowing.

 

[Poindexter]

I'm confused. You seem to be saying that you have class A pipe within a foot of your stove and that a magnetic meter sticks to it. You also say that the outside of this class A pipe routinely runs to 400 and this time ran to 550.

I suspect that you don't actually have class A pipe here but double wall stove pipe. Magnets don't stick to stainless (usually) and the insulation inside that class A would make it highly unlikely to ever see such high temps without the stove glowing.

I must have mis-used a term. The flue pipe in the house is one telescoping piece of double wall stove pipe made by the Excell people in Canada. Total run from stove collar to ceiling connector is a touch under five feet, so just that one piece of telescoping double wall.

Radiation shields through the interior ceiling and roof framing are both also by Excell of Canada. All the chimney pipe above the ceiling connector is double wall stuff by Excell of Canada.

Would it be correct for me to instead have said I have double wall stove pipe flue and class A chimney? I think what I hear you saying is there is no such thing as class A flue.

I know the magnetic thermometer stuck on the outside layer of my DWSP isn't giving me a true temperature reading. On the other hand, I ran the same thermometer on the same telescoping section of DWSP last year with a different stove and have a pretty good idea what I needed to see on the inaccurate thermometer to minimize creosote formation. My stove- my install- my wood - my inaccurate thermometer- running the flue up to 400dF indicated at reload and cruising at 200dF indicated kept my chimney sweepings to a minimum of recovered crud.

Thanks for clarifying that whether or not I have it correct yet.

 

[Highbeam]

Would it be correct for me to instead have said I have double wall stove pipe flue and class A chimney? I think what I hear you saying is there is no such thing as class A flue.

Yes. The black stuff is not Class A and is not insulated with anything except air. Some folks, rarely, have actually run the Class A insulated pipe right down to the flue collar.