Questions about SEQUOIA Catalytic EWF36-A fireplace

[Beno]

Hi there,

We plan to install a SEQUOIA Catalytic EWF36-A fireplace in our future house, located near Ottawa, Canada, 2 story total 3500 sq.ft.
After reading the manual from http://www.vermontcastings.com/content/products/productdetails.cfm?id=98, I have few questions:
1. Can anyone recommend this fireplace?
2. The fireplace is equiped with 2 openings for air intake. The manual says: "Slide the two (2) air duct assemblies provided with the unit into the openings on each side of the unit.". In the drawing though is shown only one duct. My educated guess is that indeed I need to use the both 2 air intake ducts, to have enough air and to assure that the air is comming simmetrically, from both sides of the fireplace. Am I right? Or maybe the 2 openings are for convenience, to choose to use only the one closer to outside wall?
3. This one is about checking the chimney for creosote buildup: "You should inspect the system every two weeks during the heating season as part of a regular maintenance schedule. To inspect the chimney, let the fireplace cool completely. Remove the termination top. Then, using a strong light, sight down into the chimney flue." Does that mean that, in the middle of the winter, I need to climb on the roof every 2 weeks, remove the top and look into the chimney? Again, my educated guess is that VC tries to protect itself. What is a realistic inspection schedule, assuming I burn dry wood?

Thanks,
Beno

 

[Gooserider]

<snip>
3. This one is about checking the chimney for creosote buildup: "You should inspect the system every two weeks during the heating season as part of a regular maintenance schedule. To inspect the chimney, let the fireplace cool completely. Remove the termination top. Then, using a strong light, sight down into the chimney flue." Does that mean that, in the middle of the winter, I need to climb on the roof every 2 weeks, remove the top and look into the chimney? Again, my educated guess is that VC tries to protect itself. What is a realistic inspection schedule, assuming I burn dry wood?

Thanks,
Beno

You're right, the two week schedule is mostly lawyeres CYA language, however there are many different variables involved, and as such it is difficult to predict just how often you need to inspect and / or clean the chimney. Certainly the absolute minimum should be once per season, preferably do a cleaning soon after you finish burning in the spring, and then do a quick inspection in the fall just before starting to burn. (Of course in Canada is there a non-burning season?)

Many folks around the forums do a monthly inspection, others go for just a mid-season as well as the end of season cleaning.

Bottom line is you have to develop some experience with your stove and learn how fast it builds up crud, then base your schedule on that and your comfort level with the amount of buildup you expect to deal with. I'd probably figure on once a month to start, then cut back as you learn you can.

I would also say that it is probably a good idea to think about what you would need to do to get to the chimney in the wintertime, and consider designing / building that in. For instance I have heard of people permanently mounting "chicken ladders" to their roofs to make it easier to get to the chimney. (Something I wish I had...)

Gooserider

 

[Beno]

Thanks for the tip with “chicken ladders”, never heard about it before. Once a month sounds reasonable. If I buy the brush from the HW store, can I do this cleanning myslef or you need special tools/skills? I'd rather hire a professional to sweep the chimney once a year, and in between I'll do the maintanance with a 8" round brush.
Thanks,
Beno

 

[Gooserider]

Thanks for the tip with “chicken ladders”, never heard about it before. Once a month sounds reasonable. If I buy the brush from the HW store, can I do this cleanning myslef or you need special tools/skills? I'd rather hire a professional to sweep the chimney once a year, and in between I'll do the maintanance with a 8" round brush.
Thanks,
Beno

What you want to get is the brush size and shape that matches your flue, don't get bigger or you'll have trouble reversing the brush direction, don't get smaller or you won't get the required scrubbing action. For basic cleaning there are no special skills involved, it's basically just a case of shoving the brush back and forth through the pipe a couple times. Sort of like cleaning a gun barrel but on a much bigger scale :lol: . Also it's a bit less fussy, you don't have to get everything, just the worst 95% or so.

Techniques vary as to how to get the brush through the pipe, a lot of this is personal taste and the details of what works best in the specific setup. The only thing that I don't often see mentioned but think is a VERY good idea is to put a "backup rope" on the brush, so that if a rod breaks or something gets disconnected you have a way to get the brush out of the chimney w/o having to call the sweep. The backup rope is just an extra peice of rope tied to the pull loop on the brush, which you don't use for normal cleaning but just gets carried along. If the main tool fails, you can use the rope to pull the brush out...

There are two main approaches, either pushing the brush through with a rod, or pulling it with a rope, which ever is easier. The rope approach pretty much requires working from both ends, but deals better with bends, while the rod method works from one end. I use the rod method.

The brush will probably have a pipe thread on one end, and a pull loop on the other, the exact size varies with the brand of brush. You can buy "chimney rods" at about $8-10 each for a 3 or 4 foot section, but what I got that I feel is as good or better is 1/2" grey PVC electrical conduit - comes in 10' lengths, for about $2 each. I then ran over to the plumbing section and got a couple of regular PVC adapter fittings to glue onto the end of one conduit section and give me a way to attach the brush to it. (Mixing fitting types like that is NOT OK per code, but this isn't a code application, and it works so...) I then attached the conduit sections together by fitting the bell ends like I normally wood, but instead of gluing them, I drilled a hole across the bell, through both sections, and put a #10 nut and bolt through the hole, thus pinning the sections togther in a way that was easy to take apart. (Important note, number or color code the ends of the conduit if using more than two sections, and draw a "keying line" so as to make it easy to get the holes lined up!)

Once all that is set up, the process is very easy - put the brush on the first section, attach the backup rope to the brush, and start pushing it down (or up - I clean from the bottom!) the flue until you get to a good point to attach the next section. Put the next section on, pin it, and keep pushing, repeat until your brush comes out the other end of the flue. (I mark this point for future reference) When it does, start pulling the brush back removing conduit sections as needed. If you hit an area with lots of creosote, (You can tell because you'll hear it rattling down the flue) I think it's worth pumping the brush back and forth for a bit of scrubbing action... That's it, put everything away and clean up.

Note - this raises a fair amount of dust and crud, it is a good idea to try to do containment or vaccuming as you go to try and minimize it. Some folks put a garbage bag over the bottom end of the flue to catch the crud as it comes down. Also this isn't real good stuff to breath or get on your skin, I STRONGLY reccomend wearing a dust mask or respirator, the usual eye protection, and wash up when done.

Hope this helps,

Gooserider

 

[Beno]

Great! Many thanks.
Beno

 

[Highbeam]

Do folks recommend brushing from cap to stove even if the chimney switches from connector pipe to class A pipe. Basicly sweeping the crud into the stove from above? Or do you typically remove the connector pipe and clean it seperately? Seems handier to go from top to bottom without ever removing pipe.

 

[Gooserider]

Depends on the exact setup. If the ID's of both pipes are the same then you shouldn't really notice the transition. If the ID's are different, then you will need to take things apart so that each size gets cleaned with the appropriate size brush...

The other factor is what you need to do to get the sweepings out. Some stoves (I'm not sure about fireplaces) have baffles and other stuff in them which makes it difficult to get the sweepings out of the stove, so it's best to disconnect and put a can or something under the end of the pipe. Others are fine with sweeping right into the stove (This is actually a nice way to contain the crud...) Given that fireplaces are more likely to be enclosed and difficult to take apart, one would HOPE that they would be easy to get the crud out of, but engineers don't always think of such things (remember those cars where you had to pull the engine to change the sparkplugs?)

Gooserider

 

[yurij]

Hi - were your other questions answered? I am interested in the answers to these questions also. thx

 

[Beno]

At the end we decided to go with Caddy - EPA wood furnace with oil backup, w/o fireplace.

 

[yurij]

that is quite a change (i think). how come? and did you get any more about the sequoia? and i can't figure out if there is a problem with this unit, seeing as there was a recal awhile back and how is it fixed. any insight?

 

[Beno]

We will have a large house, not much open space. I wanted also to have ducts for A/C. With one unit I can have whole house heating with wood and oil backup. And I don't need anymore to install the ducts for the HRV/ERV. I have a different thread on this forum about the Caddy (there is a similar version in US) and the feedback from the forum was positive.