Smoke out of my stove pipe

[bjorn773]

I've been burning for about 6 years now, about 4 cords a year. Tonight I had something very strange happen. I had a decent fire going with smaller kindling, that was approaching the nice bed of coals I like to have before putting any big splits on. I opened the door, loaded the stove and closed the door. The wood seemed to be taking a while to get going, so I cracked the door to give it a bit more combustion air. Smoke started billowing out of every connection in my stove pipe. I shut the door, the smoke ceased. I am assuming that my chimney was not warm enough and that the draft was not sufficient. I have burned this stove the same way for years and never run into this. The only change this year is a piece of wire mesh at the chimney cap. The wire spacing is 1/2" squares. I installed it because I have had a few birds go down my chimney and end up in the stove. I have a hard time believing it would cause enough of a restriction to do anything. Did I just plain not have the chimney hot enough? The flue thermometer was reading about 450 at the time.

 

[bjorn773]

The wood was oak seasoned two years. It has been in a bin inside my house for a few days and appears to be dry. I don't have a moisture meter, so I cannot give a specific moisture content.

 

[fbelec]

you might want go up on the roof and check the screen. or get binocs and take a look to see if it's blocked.

 

[ROBERT F]

So the flue pipe is clean? was this a first burn after the modification?or are you a couple of burns in? did the mesh gather up creosote?

 

[bjorn773]

I have been burning for a couple of months this season, since the screen addition. Every thing was cleaned at the beginning of the season. I will go up on the roof tonight and check it out. I got the smoke again this morning and have noticed a very slight smoke smell in the house the last couple of days. It seems like something has got to be restricting the chimney.

 

[bjorn773]

I just got off my roof. The screen was pretty well blocked with creosote. I guess that's another lesson learned, never would have expected such a build up in so short a time. The screen has been removed. As for the birds, well, I guess it's survival of the fittest.

 

[cycloxer]

Good move getting up there. You could try a larger mesh screen. What kind of chimney cap do you have? I am using a very large cap with an open mesh screen. I take it off once a year and clean it with a brush and have had minimal build up.

 

[Pagey]

How did the rest of the flue look? Was it only the cap that was clogged? Good call on you part: check early and check often.

 

[fire_man]

I wish you had a moisture meter, its hard to believe the screen clogged so quickly with 2 year old seasoned oak. Was it split 2 years ago? Can you split one of the splits now and see if it smells really "sweet"? That can indicate its still wet.

 

[savageactor7]

It sounds like the chimney is plugged to me...shoulder season is a tough burn unless you have the right wood.

 

[bjorn773]

Here's a pic of the cap and screen. I would eventually like to find another type of cap that has a screen. My wife freaks out when a bird gets trapped in the stove. I'm 1 for 3 on getting them out alive. The rest of the chimney looked pretty clean, although there was a fire going, so I need to look again when there is not. If necessary, I'll sweep it again. Removing the screen made an instant difference, so I don't think the wood is the issue. The oak was split two summers ago and has been stacked and covered across the top since spring. Once the screen was removed, the oak took off like nobody's business. Thanks for the assistance.

 

[bjorn773]

A pic of the side.

 

[ROBERT F]

That cap seems to have a very small flow area, with the sreens installed, even when they were clean.

 

[fire_man]

That does not look like creosote. Its just the fly ash and well burnt smoke particles that even my Catalytic stove emits. PINEBURNER is right, the cap seems to have a really small surface area, and the solid metal ring around it prevents scouring action from the wind which would have removed that light fluffy stuff. My screen looks exactly like CYCLOXER's and it works great.

 

[bjorn773]

I'll have to look for another cap. This one has worked great until I installed the screen this year.

 

[LLigetfa]

I would use a coarser screen and put it on the outer circumference of the cap, not the smaller inside diameter and certainly not across the top of the flue.

 

[Captain Hornet]

I had a problem with my new stove years ago. We lived in Cody Wyoming and installed a Fisher Papa Bear in our family room. I used a chiminy kit that I bought with all the fittings and class A pipe. After about two weeks of burning dry lodgepole pine, I started to have problems with getting the fire to burn and with lots of smoke in the house, especally when I tried to load the stove. Long story short was the cap was about totally plugged. It had half inch mesh screan and I had to remove it entirely to get any draft going . I couldn't beleave that it would plug up in only two weeks but it did. So ever since I burn without the wire mesh, no problems with birds as far as know.

 

[fonman]

Can you just reinstall the screen for the off season?