Problem with wood/coal stove

[Plaidtrump]

Last year I moved into a house with a woodstove in the basement. When winter time came, I had problems keeping the stove lit. After installing a chimney cap, getting some dryer wood, and plugging up some holes in the stove, everything seemed to be working well. This year I have been burning, and generating pretty good heat, however I have had the following problem occur twice now and it scares the crap out of me!

I light the stove and get the fire going. After a couple of hours of burning, I load a few logs in the stove and it seems like I added gasoline. The stove pipe leading to the chimney starts to turn yellow and you can smell, what I am assuming is, the cement from the pipe burning. You open the door on the stove and there is usually black smoke and the flames are filling the firebox. You can here the stove sucking air like crazy! I end up turning the damper on the pipe down all of the way and the damper on the firebox down all of the way to get it somewhat under control. Of course this makes me stop burning for the night and become paranoid in checking the chimney every 10 minutes to see if there are flames coming out.

I want to know if you know what the problem is and what I could possibly do to prevent this. The stove is a wood/coal burner that is from the late 70’s early 80’s. There is no baffle in the stove and no catalytic combustor. The damper (or it might be called the flue) on pipe is about halfway between the stove and the chimney shoe. Any information you could give me would be appreciated.

 

[Highbeam]

You can see the black smoke which then flashes to yellow flame and the pipe glows with heat. It sounds like the wood may be soaked with pitch or some other hydrocarbon. What kind of wood? If the burning logs were white flames rapidly being blown into the exhaust then I would suspect overdraft.

 

[babalu87]

When was the chimney last cleaned?

 

[Plaidtrump]

The chimney was cleaned last year. The wood is oak, ash, etc. purchased from our local firewood retailer.

 

[berlin]

sounds to me like you have good, dry wood, but have a combination of excellent draft, and relitively poor air controll of the fire; this allows with creosote in the stovepipe to ignite even after the stove is loaded and the doors shut. burn a hot fire every morning (and fairly hot fires all the time if possible) seal the stove better and this should help with your problem. if the stove pipe is getting yellow hot that fast, there is only one thing it can be; a small chimney fire.

 

[laynes69]

With no baffle and a reload when shes hot, sounds to me like a mini chimney fire. Things shouldn't get that hot that fast. Is the stove missing its baffle, there should be something between the fire and the flue. Like mentioned I would clean the flue and chimney and for now on burn smaller hotter fires. When the door is opened, this can cause flames to lick the flue and if that flue is dirty, whoosh it will catch fire which will burn hot and fast. What type of stove is it? Any pics?

 

[Plaidtrump]

When I get home I will post a pic. It's an atlanta homesteader wood/coal circulator. It is designed with no baffle according to the instruction book.