Newbie with chimney smoke question

[woodsprite]

Hi all...just kind of concerned about something. Had a good roaring fire to start up the stove today...let it burn down, pulled all the coals to the front of the stove and started up a couple of splits of dry cedar (one large, the other medium). Let it char, shut down the damper to half and went about my business. Stack thermometer was reading about 450. I just went outside to do something and was shocked to see smoke coming out the chimney! So my question is, is it normal to still get some smoke even if you've done things by the book?

 

[webbie]

usually only steam.........although sooner or later some smoke is unavoidable.
If it is pure white, it is usually mostly water - even seasoned wood is 20% water.
If it is brown or gray, etc....then it is dirtier.

One good indication is that you should always have a nice flame on the fire - if you don't have a decent flame in the firebox, then you are sending unburnt gases up the flue.

 

[fossil]

You didn't say how much time elapsed between your reload and your observation of the smoke. It's pretty typical to get some smoking upon initial startup and for a little while after a reload, until the fire really takes off and the secondary combustion becomes effective. And, as Craig said, what you saw may have been a bunch of steam. What was the outside temp at the time? The colder the outside temp, the quicker (and more vividly) the unavoidable moisture contained in the exhaust gases becomes visible upon hitting daylight as it condenses. Rick

 

[woodsprite]

Well, the smoke was white, so I am relieved that it is probably just steam. Whew! To answer your question about how long, I think I noticed the smoke about 45 mins after I started the fire.

 

[woodsprite]

Oh, and the outside temp was around 7 Celsius...sorry, I'm not sure what that is in farenheit.

 

[firefighterjake]

No big deal . . . especially if the smoke is on the lighter, whiter side.

I notice some smoke at start up and on reloads.