Smoke chamber condition

[LOTF]

Hello,

I have a wood burning fireplace in a 1947 Cape Cod 1.5 story. Chimney is a straight shoot up from the fireplace. I use a grate and reflective plate from www.gratewalloffire.com (no affiliation just love the combo). I burn only dry, seasoned wood that I split myself. Current stack is at 13% moisture content. I have holtz hausen stacks of red oak, cherry, black locust, sugar maple, and cedar.

Last night I had a nice fire going and went outside to get some fresh air. Had a few pieces of cherry in the fire that had a nice ember bed going that had been burning for a few hours. The cherry was popping and when I went outside I noticed that there were embers kind of stuck at the rain cap at the top of the chimney. I saw a handful of embers going flying out. After about 20 seconds, no more embers at all.

Pretty sure the embers out of the rain cap were from the cherry popping. The rain cap has a mesh like design on it - it's not just open. The damper is right above the firebox and before the smoke chamber.

Concerned about the condition of the smoke chamber. I think it needs to be cleaned then parged as the brick is definitely staggered. It even looks like the smoke chamber kind of blocks the flue on the right side.

As far as I can tell I have a bit of soot in the flue and the chamber but not too crazy. I'm definitely due for a sweep and having a company come out on Monday.

What do you guys think? I only recently started getting into burning a lot. I had the damper replaced 5 years ago or so and I installed the pleasant hearth glass door myself. Haven't had it cleaned but again, just started burning again maybe last year or two mostly during the winter to supplement mitsubishi electric heat pumps.

Here's a video of the chimney:

2020-02-04 10.25.17.mp4

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Here's a typical fire. I clean the ashes and dump them on top of my compost pile.


Here's a pic of 4 of my stacks.

 

[bholler]

From the embers coming out the top and what looks like burnt creosote in the smoke chamber I would say you had a chimney fire.

 

[LOTF]

From the embers coming out the top and what looks like burnt creosote in the smoke chamber I would say you had a chimney fire.

A fire that lasted 20 seconds? As quickly as I noticed it it disappeared and coincided with a new cherry log being added maybe 5 minutes before hand.

I also ran a stiff wire brush to see how thick the build up was in the smoke chamber and it was like 1/16". When I brushed it fell down and looked like soot to me. No visible coal-like large chunks of creosote.

I use fatwood to start my fires along with kindling I make from the firewood that's dry.

On a scale of 1-10 what would you say the condition of the smoke chamber is with 10 being the worst? Do I need to parge it?

And here's a (terrible) snapshot I got of the chimney embers.

 

[bholler]

A fire that lasted 20 seconds? As quickly as I noticed it it disappeared and coincided with a new cherry log being added maybe 5 minutes before hand.

I also ran a stiff wire brush to see how thick the build up was in the smoke chamber and it was like 1/16". When I brushed it fell down and looked like soot to me. No visible coal-like large chunks of creosote.

I use fatwood to start my fires along with kindling I make from the firewood that's dry.

On a scale of 1-10 what would you say the condition of the smoke chamber is with 10 being the worst? Do I need to parge it?

And here's a (terrible) snapshot I got of the chimney embers.

View attachment 256505

Possibly only 20 seconds yes. I don't know. But embers out the top and what appears to be burnt residue in the smoke chamber make me suspect a fire. Probably because the active fire is so high in the firebox.

The buildup in the smoke chamber isn't to bad but the construction is pretty poor

 

[begreen]

If the objective is to provide supplemental heat, the fireplace is a very inefficient way to do so. Typically more heat is lost than created as the fireplace cools down. The glass door help, but an insert would be significantly more efficient, meaning less wood burned for more heat.

 

[LOTF]

Possibly only 20 seconds yes. I don't know. But embers out the top and what appears to be burnt residue in the smoke chamber make me suspect a fire. Probably because the active fire is so high in the firebox.

The buildup in the smoke chamber isn't to bad but the construction is pretty poor

Yes, I think the chimney sweep company will probably recommend parging the smoke chimney.

If the objective is to provide supplemental heat, the fireplace is a very inefficient way to do so. Typically more heat is lost than created as the fireplace cools down. The glass door help, but an insert would be significantly more efficient, meaning less wood burned for more heat.

It gets the dining and living rooms up to 80 degrees if I want it to. There's enough heat blasting out of the fireplace when we need it (during the day and the evevnings). I don't need to burn overnight for safety and for thermal reasons and I also enjoy the ambiance of a traditional fireplace. Like I said, with the gratewalloffire I get a tremendous amount of heat reflected into the home and a tremendous bed of embers. Any more "efficiency" and we would be melting. I know it's not as efficient as an insert but I don't need to spend the extra $$$ for that especially since the fireplace as it is currently is working just fine.

My next door neighbor has a slightly smaller house with an insert and he says it's actually too hot. The difference between with the gratewalloffire and without is very big as well. My other neighbor (who has the exact same house as mine) that I convinced to get it also commented on how amazing it works to bring heat into the home instead of just up the flue.

 

[bholler]

Yes, I think the chimney sweep company will probably recommend parging the smoke chimney.



It gets the dining and living rooms up to 80 degrees if I want it to. There's enough heat blasting out of the fireplace when we need it (during the day and the evevnings). I don't need to burn overnight for safety and for thermal reasons and I also enjoy the ambiance of a traditional fireplace. Like I said, with the gratewalloffire I get a tremendous amount of heat reflected into the home and a tremendous bed of embers. Any more "efficiency" and we would be melting. I know it's not as efficient as an insert but I don't need to spend the extra $$$ for that especially since the fireplace as it is currently is working just fine.

My next door neighbor has a slightly smaller house with an insert and he says it's actually too hot. The difference between with the gratewalloffire and without is very big as well. My other neighbor (who has the exact same house as mine) that I convinced to get it also commented on how amazing it works to bring heat into the home instead of just up the flue.

If their insert makes the house too hot it is either sized to large or they don't know how to run it properly. By efficiency we don't necessarily mean it will pump out more heat. But that out of each price of wood you burn you will get about 3x the amount of heat into your house. So much less wood to process.