Spark arrestor?

[coldMN17]

I finally got around to installing my chimney and the cap that I got has the built in spark arrestor. I am wondering what everyone's take on them or if I should remove it. I am leaning more towards removing it as it will not be very accessible to clean and I am not worried about sparks. I plan on cleaning from the bottom up as my cap will be around 9 feet off the roof. As of right now I only have 3 feet of pipe sticking out of my roof (attached picture) as my extended roof bracket was missing the brackets that attach to the roof. To meet the minimum chimney height for the Englander 30 I will be putting up two more 3 foot sections of duraplus. Do the spark arrestors often get clogged up? I have read a few posts about having to take them off and clean them because of build up. I would rather not have to get up on the roof in the winter and take sections of pipe down just the clean the cap.

 

[begreen]

Some people remove them, others cut out every other mesh intersection to double the screen hole size. Be sure to properly brace the pipe at every 5 ft above the roof. This is especially important when there are high winds or a heavy snow load on the roof.

 

[Charles2]

So under what circumstances is a spark arrestor a necessity, and under what circumstances is it merely an annoyance?

 

[R'Lee]

The spark arrestor also keeps the birds and other wildlife out of your chimney during the off'season...
Btw, I've never have had a cap clog up on me and, if you're cleaning from the bottom up; I suspect you will be fine. It's your setup and situations vary (*caveat)

 

[maverick06]

i would leave it on, keeps animals out, might arrest sparks.

and if you clog it up, you ought to go and clean the chimney! it might also help you know if you have to go sweep if you look at it and its getting really messy.

Also, i have never come close to clogging it. for me, i could probably burn about 8 cords before it was getting close to being clogged (i sweep every 2 cords, burn 4 per winter so sweep half way through).

 

[DAKSY]

The MAIN reason your chimney spark screen will clog is due to excess moisture in the wood you burn. Keep the moisture down to around 18%, & you may be OK. Still should clean at least once a year, but your stove's performance will tell you when and if the chimney needs attention. Clean it more often if you have to.

 

[coldMN17]

My main concern is that the cap being so high off the roof is that if I do need to clean it its going to be a pain to have to take down the pipe to get to the cap. I do worry a little about some of my wood may not be up to par on moisture as this will be my first year burning. I do have quite a bit of ash that was standing dead that was cut and split early this spring.

 

[begreen]

You might be ok with the ash if it wasn't split too large and has been stacked, top-covered, in an area that the wind can easily blow through it. Have you resplit some of the thicker splits to check moisture inside on a freshly split face of the wood?

 

[BobUrban]

those holes are pretty big - if you clog that you have bigger issues than your spark arrestor and it very well may save your house or life. Can you clean from the bottom with the roto-rooter thing on a cordless drill(forgot the name) or if it is a straight shot - just a brush and rods? If so - no big deal. Just clean it from inside - problem solved and safety retained.

I get birds in my stove from time to time and wish my screen was a little smaller.

 

[R'Lee]

Once upon a time, a loooooong time ago; we had the ritual basement woodburner with a masonry chimney and no top cap for either the spark arrester or for downdraft. Wife'y opens up the cold stove to clean out the ash and start a fresh fire and a squirrel jumped out... @v@ funny now! Ovo

 

[DAKSY]

Once upon a time, a loooooong time ago; we had the ritual basement woodburner with a masonry chimney and no top cap for either the spark arrester or for downdraft. Wife'y opens up the cold stove to clean out the ash and start a fresh fire and a squirrel jumped out... @v@ funny now! Ovo

I was called in to service an old Vermont Castings Defiant that had squirrels in it while the owner was away. He had NO cap on the terra cotta flue tile, & after he got the squirrels out, he taped & plastic wrapped the chimney top to keep them out. I had to sweep the chimney as part of the service call, & when I pulled the plastic off, about a BAZILLION yellow-jackets came screaming out. The were mad & I was the object of their anger. I took about 3 GIANT steps & launched myself off the roof. Fortunately it was a rancher, so I didn't have a whole lot of "air time!" I hit the lawn & did a roll & beat feet to my service van. Managed to escape virtually unscathed, except for the grass stain on the shoulder of my uniform shirt.

 

[Highbeam]

I tried the simpson spark arrestor screen which is about a half inch mesh. It clogged on me more than once. It's not about wet wood or about bad burning practices, though those can clog the screen too, it just happens. It's a filter for crying out loud. When I cleaned the screen each time, the rest of the chimney was nearly spotless. This was a hearthstone non-cat that dumps tons of heat up the flue. All wood is very well seasoned and moisture meter checked.

The screen plugged up with light brown crunchy stuff that a sooteater would probably clear out just fine.

So I now have no screens in either flue. I have never had a bird or bug come down either.

 

[R'Lee]

Apparently the screens work for some and not others thus my prior caveat. Here in MI, we get a lot of microbursts too so the downdraft was another eventual consideration (*for us). Never have had a bug (bee) problem either but "Murphys Law" will always prevail. To each our own (opinion)... ☆

 

[coldMN17]

Thanks you everyone for your comments and suggestions. I ended up leaving the spark arrestor in place. There are some barn swallows and other birds that like the make nests around my house and figured it will be best to have it on for that reason. I will be cleaning from the bottom up with a soot eater so if the screen does get some creosote build up I am hoping when the soot eater reaches the top it will be able to clean the screen also. If I do have problems then i will have to take the top two sections down and take off the cap and either make the screen bigger or remove it. I finished it up all last night with my extended roof bracket. Bad picture of it but it gets the point across.

 

[Highbeam]

That's a very open chimney cap. Of all cap designs likely to attract birds, that looks like one that would be attractive for roosting.

 

[WES999]

I have a Simson cap, 1/2 " mesh screen, I clean 2X/yr from the top, never had a problem with clogging.

 

[begreen]

Our cap screen clogged for the first time in 5 yrs a couple seasons ago. It was not the screen's fault, I was burning partially seasoned maple, that wasn't drying out well. The cap clogging was a good thing. It alerted me to clean the flue. It takes a lot to gunk up a 1/2" screen.

 

[Charles2]

Maybe they should call these things bird arrestors rather than spark arrestors.

So does nobody make a screen to exclude nesting insects like wasps?

 

[R'Lee]

Dunno, trade one evil for another. I once had a nasty nest inside the siding soffit... Then a bird made a nest on my TV antenna tower nearby. The bird ate well all summer and the nest that plagued me was no-more. Irony

 

[Ski-Patroller]

A couple of years ago, when we still had our old Garrison stove, we started getting smoke and no draft. Got out the binoculars and checked the cap. Sure enough the spark arrestor was completely plugged. I think we had not done our annual cleaning at the time. The wire arrestor had about 5/8" mesh. I had to clean the flue and arrestor before we could have heat.

I would worry about an arrestor if I could not remove it each year when I cleaned the flue. I clean from the top, so it isn't a problem, but I don't know what I would do if I cleaned from the bottom. We don't have much of a spark hazard during most of the burn season, since there is snow on the ground all Winter and the woods are wet in the Spring and late Fall. Early Fall can be a concern though.

 

[bholler]

Most screens are not spark arresters just screens spark arresters are usually 1/2" or less mesh most screens are larger than that. And charles2 if the screen was fine enough to keep out wasps it would clog in no time at all even with good wood

 

[R'Lee]

Downdraft had been more of a concern for ME (us) than an actual spark inhibitor... that and the birds *or squirrels during the off season. My wire mesh is fairly large on my cap.

 

[Highbeam]

In the old days stoves and fireplaces did not have any kind of baffle between the firebox and the flue so if you were burning paper or cardboard, those big chunks could float up the flue and out to land on the dry cedar shake roof and cause a fire. Not so much sparks as floating trash. It's maybe more PC to call them spark arrestors which is very much like what they put on chainsaws and motorcycles to actually stop sparks of carbon from flying out the tail pipe. Those engine sparks have caused many forest fires. It is amazing how many sparks spew from the tailpipe of a motorcycle engine without a spark arrestor.

 

[begreen]

I've heard them called ember guards as well.