Smoke from the chimney post secondaries - thoughts?

[Osburning]

I never would have thought that there would be smoke after the secondaries were out. I'll have to keep an eye during the day since I run it all the way down too. The splits I load usually burn evenly on all of them though and are glowing after the tubes are out.

Maybe a small amount of space between the walls of the stove and the splits on the East and West sides would help those keep up with the middle area that is reaching coals faster.

 

[Hogwildz]

Perhaps that large chimney that your stove goes into is not drafting strong enough when the burn goes into later stages and that is why you are lacking air?

As BB mentioned, I'd give it a touch more air.

My stove did this a lot before I lined the chimney.

Now, very seldom and usually only when I turn the air down just a bit too far after having a very large load of wood.

pen

Do you think the stove would draft less a few hours into the burn? I figured the draft would be as good as it gets at that point - let me know why the draft might be low at this point in the burn. I will try a touch more air and see if there is a difference. All in all, the stove runs like a champ - just wasn't sure if it was normal to see smoke at this stage in the burn (as BB said, I always looked at the stack as the secondaries were kicking in to see if I was burning clean - I guess I just wasn't looking at the right time to see the smoke. Cheers!

Pen said it well, the diminishing stove temp, means diminishing stack temp. I have had this happen once in a while myself. With 27' of rigid insulated double wall, this thing has no problem drafting.
In most of my cases, it was the side pcs, and they were not as dry as I would hope or thought. Even old stuff at times. I been trying to leave a little space between the splits and the side walls, not much, just enough to let some air get along the sides. In the end, at night on cols nights, I pack it full, and let her do here thing. As long as I am getting about a mason jar full of brown dust at next years cleaning, I know I am in good shape and what smoke that does come out at these weird times and at start up, ain't amounting to nothing worth worrying about.
If this is your first year with the stove, just check the cap and top of the stack once a month or 2 to give you an idea of how well or not your burning, and that right there will tell you if it is going good or not.

 

[NH_Wood]

Got it - makes sense. Pen - it's an interior (central) chimney running 2 floors and through attic. Thanks and Cheers!

 

[pen]

Got it - makes sense. Pen - it's an interior (central) chimney running 2 floors and through attic. Thanks and Cheers!

As hogz mentioned too, sometimes playing around w/ the way you load the stove can help make differences as well.

pen

 

[NH_Wood]

Perhaps that large chimney that your stove goes into is not drafting strong enough when the burn goes into later stages and that is why you are lacking air?

As BB mentioned, I'd give it a touch more air.

My stove did this a lot before I lined the chimney.

Now, very seldom and usually only when I turn the air down just a bit too far after having a very large load of wood.

pen

Do you think the stove would draft less a few hours into the burn? I figured the draft would be as good as it gets at that point - let me know why the draft might be low at this point in the burn. I will try a touch more air and see if there is a difference. All in all, the stove runs like a champ - just wasn't sure if it was normal to see smoke at this stage in the burn (as BB said, I always looked at the stack as the secondaries were kicking in to see if I was burning clean - I guess I just wasn't looking at the right time to see the smoke. Cheers!

Pen said it well, the diminishing stove temp, means diminishing stack temp. I have had this happen once in a while myself. With 27' of rigid insulated double wall, this thing has no problem drafting.
In most of my cases, it was the side pcs, and they were not as dry as I would hope or thought. Even old stuff at times. I been trying to leave a little space between the splits and the side walls, not much, just enough to let some air get along the sides. In the end, at night on cols nights, I pack it full, and let her do here thing. As long as I am getting about a mason jar full of brown dust at next years cleaning, I know I am in good shape and what smoke that does come out at these weird times and at start up, ain't amounting to nothing worth worrying about.
If this is your first year with the stove, just check the cap and top of the stack once a month or 2 to give you an idea of how well or not your burning, and that right there will tell you if it is going good or not.

Hogwildz - second full year with the stove and this year wood is primo - last year had mainly ~ 8 month seasoned white ash, which burned well, but not perfect. Didn't have a bad looking stacked after 5 cord passed through the stove, so I think you're right - the small amounts of smoke probably don't add to much of an issue. Cheers!

 

[NH_Wood]

Got it - makes sense. Pen - it's an interior (central) chimney running 2 floors and through attic. Thanks and Cheers!

As hogz mentioned too, sometimes playing around w/ the way you load the stove can help make differences as well.

pen

Yes - I do tend, especially at night, to load big rounds/splits in the stove along the outside and likely adds to the smoking issue - by morning they are just beautiful coals, but I'm sure they smoked at night. Cheers!

 

[leeave96]

Hi guys and Happy New Year (almost)!

I'm burning dry wood (3 years in the stack). Get great burns with no smoke exiting the chimney during the first 3 or so hours of the burn, when the secondaries are active. As the load begins to coal, I notice that bluish smoke is exiting the chimney. At this point, the wood on either side of the fire box (I load N/S) is mainly intact, just well-charred, and if I move them to the center, they catch flame - the center area of the fire box is hot coals. I assume the smoke is coming from the wood on the edge which is not combusting as well as the center wood.

As some of you know, I don't have the optimal venting scenario - I vent from the stovepipe into a ~ 11" square masonry tile flue that is used for the fireplace (I don't use the fireplace when the stove is running, so essentially, I never use it in cold weather - stove is located on the opposite side of the fireplace, not a fireplace install).

So, thoughts on why I see smoke only when I enter the coaling phase? Stove temp and flue temps still high at the point when I see the smoke. I'm guessing it is an issue related to my setup, and if that's true, I'm not overly concerned - creosote build-up was minimal last year.

Lastly - does this smoke likely lead to minimal creosote in the flue at this point (flue is obviously nice and hot by this point, etc.), or am I likely still getting creosote?

Cheers!

Firstly - I really like the the Mansfield. It looks like my Englander 30 dressed up to go out for a night on the town...

I have had the same symptoms as you in my learning curve with the 30. I load N/S too. There are some exceptions, but generally when my stove top temps fall below 500 degrees, I got smoke - unless it's all charcoal in there.

What I've done is to burn the stove at 550ish. This gives me a hot clean burn, but moreover, it allows enough air into the stove such that when the center pieces go to charcoal - yet there are still non-charcoal pieces of wood burning to the left and right, the stove remains hot enough to sustain the secondaries from those pieces. So what I am saying is that I start the stove off high, letting it fall in temp to/through 500 degrees to get a complete smoke free burn.

FWIW, I had a lot of smoke when I first started using the stove and I thought I'd have some creosote build-up too. I sweeped a few days ago and got a quart of very fine/powdery creosote - nothing really to worry about and I've been burning since mid-September. I think the hotter temperatures I burn yield better secondaries and higher flue gas temps so creosote cannot condensate out on the chimney as much as it otherwise may.

Great stove you got!

Happy burning,
Bill

 

[oldspark]

Well I guess I am going to have to look for it cause you guys have me interested now but have never seen it before.

 

[oldspark]

"There are some exceptions, but generally when my stove top temps fall below 500 degrees, I got smoke - unless it’s all charcoal in there."
That blows my mind, just dont think it should be that way at all.