smoke coming out of the flue pipe as it goes into the ceiling box

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steveh2112

New Member
Jan 14, 2024
35
ithaca ny
hi, i have a lot of smoke coming out of the connection between the flue pipe and the ceiling box, pls see pics

it doesn't seem that there is a good airtight connection from the top pipe to the part that comes out of the ceiling box, i guess i did it wrong.

any advice please? am i missing a part or something? thanks

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When's the last time you chimney was cleaned? How tall is the chimney? Did this just start since it got warmer out and draft is significantly reduced?
 
Warm temps and a short chimney are leading to a very weak draft. Can you see if the chimney cap is clogged? Did you have the chimney inspected before you started using it? The cap could be clogged as well.
 
Your connection appears good. The inner pipe does look dirty. Flue connections are not air tight. You may end up helping the system to get a good draft going. Lots of options, put a heat lamp in the burner box, a half hour before starting a fire, or a hand held air dryer ( but they can be messy blowing soot around ). The old "burn a newspaper to get the draft going", has never worked for me.

I stopped cutting off the stove combustion intake air at night , in order to go into the slow burn mode. I get more air, a cleaner burn and it solved my creosote build up problem. You won't want the stove raging while you sleep. So, you don't want to overload it with wood. So ya, when I do a bathroom stop in the middle of the night, I toss another log in.
 
Being that you have only been burning a month and have that kind of buildup in your pipe I suspect you are also burning quite wet wood.
 
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it started recently. i've only been using the stove for about a month. chimney is about 12' tall
Check the cap screen for plugging. If the wood is not fully seasoned it doesn't take long to accumulate.

Another remote possibility is someone is building a nest at the top of the chimney.
 
You have the pipe off look up through the chimney and see what it looks like up there. Can you see out of the top of the chimney? It sounds like you have a blockage up there.
 
So, get cherry, pine, fir now for next year to have drier wood...
 
so i finally got on the roof and the cap thing was totally gummed up. a quick clean and its good as new now, thanks for all the advice.
Thanks for the update. It's a common problem if the wood is not fully seasoned.
 
I could be mistaken but the collar snap ring looks like the one for single wall, the double wall snap ring on mine seems a bit longer, I also had a specific piece that was like a mini dvl section with a flange that would screw into the ceiling support box then the dvl to that, the simple ceiling support box to a snap ring was only used for single wall pipe application on my dura-vent setup
 
I could be mistaken but the collar snap ring looks like the one for single wall, the double wall snap ring on mine seems a bit longer, I also had a specific piece that was like a mini dvl section with a flange that would screw into the ceiling support box then the dvl to that, the simple ceiling support box to a snap ring was only used for single wall pipe application on my dura-vent setup
They made 2 different snap rings. The old style was simple like this.