What is the best way to test single wall stove pipe for rust & thin spots

[eernest4]

I have been noticing my black 24 gague single wall stove pipe dont look new any more & is starting to get surface rust in spots & may be just starting to thin out a bit , here & there.

I am keeping a real close eye on it & will tear the whole pipe run down in the spring for inspection & swap out of sections.

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW, FROM THOSE EXPERIENCED, WHAT TO LOOK FOR & HOW TO TEST
A QUESTIONABLE SECTION as to weather its about due for replacement or not.

I don't want to wait for pin holes to appear before replacing it or for a section to get so thin I could push a screwdriver through it.

So, how do you pros do it???
What is the secret???

 

[North of 60]

Try and poke a hole in it. Thats a good enoufe test. Replace it if in doubt. Its the cheapest item to do-so. Than you will know for sure. @ the same time
install that new wood stove of yours.

 

[eernest4]

hi north of 60,

I made that post about 10pm & it's 11:30pm now. I had to go down basement & fire up the stove because 19 deg with 25mph wind & house started to get cold. Now my old stove is on secondary burn with 325 deg stack temp & 650 deg stove top temp.& house is roasty toasty. I find pin hole in 8 inch elbow comming out of the back collar of the stove.

Its not dangerous but it do let out smoke from time to time. I been noticing after all day burns that the basement air didn't smell clean , so I guess it was leaking some smoke into room.

For now ,I smeared it with retort cement & basement air smells clean & fresh. If that cement falls off, I look see if I can plug hole with sheet mental screw & flat waher, just temporary.

In spring , I change the whole elbow.

In not sure I want to put the summersheat in yet becuase I'm a bit afraid that it wont give me enough heat as what I already have, especially since I converted my 12 cubic foot firebox
1/4 inch steel plate monster to secondary burn. It don't eat half the wood it used to & give
almost the same heat. The black 8 inch stove pipes don't get hot anymore but the stovetop gets a lot hoter ,so its about the same heat for 1/2 the wood.

I was worried about running out of wood before the end of the season in april & now I will have at least 1 woodshed full .left over for oct & nov burning.

P.S. HEY NORTH--WHAT SHOULD I USE TO TRY TO POKE THE HOLES IN THE SUSPECT STOVE PIPE WITH?? WHAT DO YOU USE TO TEST YOUR STOVE PIPES.???

I have any number of tools of available,screwdrivers ,phillips & slotted,ice picks,dirt picks ,sledge hammers,6,10,12,20,&30;lb models,ball ping hammers in 4 different wieghts,
a large assortment of sae & metric wrenches of different lengths, a large assortment of junk cars to use the wrenches on,surplus rifle bayonetts, old water pumps,needle nose pliers,diagonal pliers,slip joint pliers,waterpump pliers
decorative swords of different lengths, knives & forks.log splitting wedges in 5 flavors.
long sticks with spikes driven thru the ends. steel , wood & cement chisles.baseball bats
& more.

enough to have the world's biggest yard sale, so I dont have to work for 3 years from the proceeds.

I would run out of characters , they only allow 6000 per post ,you know, if i tried to mention even 1/20th of the junk.

My fingers say enough typing,we are hurting.

 

[eernest4]

hey north ,

I was looking at those BLAZE KINGS, thinking about buying one, that is until I asked the salesman the price. If I remember arights ,they start around $2,500.oo to $3,000.oo talk about a big ticket item. They are catalitic combustors arn't they.

That would mean I would have to stop burning all the old furnature that my neighbors throw out every sunday. sunday trash day & i fill my honda hatchback with furnature to burn for free every sunday.Spend the week busting it up with my sledgehammers or cutting it with my table saw until its firewood.

I only use my red celicia GTS to tow my wood trailer when Its full of lumber or logs,
I don't put no wood inside the celi like I do to my honda.

Billy just buy a old ,very used vermont castings encore defiant cat stove for $30.oo
so i had to learn about cat stoves so he could ask me how to rebuild the encore this summer when he gets stuck on troubleshooting & needs my help.

Any ways, I look forward to hearing what you think of all this.

Don't forget to check your local dump for wood, last year I got a whole trailer load of lumber for free, some went into building my third wood shed, & some went into the third woodshed as firewood.

 

[Jimbob]

Just smack that rusty section of pipe with the handle of a screwdriver. If it leaves dents, it is thin enough to be replaced. The best thing about doing it that way is if you do find a thin section, you have just dented it and not put a hole in it, so you could run it a bit longer if you had to.
No need to wait for spring to relplace that elbow, if it is bad enough just let the fire go out and do it now. An elbow replacement (or the whole pipe for that matter) doesn't take that long, maybe an hour at max.

A 12 cu.ft. stove with secondary burn? Now that kicks ass! :coolsmile:
How well did that project work out, anyway?

 

[Redox]

I developed a crack in the elbow on top of the old Fisher and you could see a secondary reaction starting inside. Kind of interesting, but didn't do me any good. Now, I can see the reaction through the glass and it is helping heat the house!
Shouldn't single wass galvanized be replaced after 1-2 years anyway as a precaution? It's cheap enough...

 

[Jimbob]

Shouldn't single wass galvanized be replaced after 1-2 years anyway as a precaution? It's cheap enough...

Single WALL galvanized should be replaced right after it is installed, since it isn't allowed to be used as stovepipe in the first place.

 

[North of 60]

hi north of 60,

I made that post about 10pm & it's 11:30pm now. I had to go down basement & fire up the stove because 19 deg with 25mph wind & house started to get cold. Now my old stove is on secondary burn with 325 deg stack temp & 650 deg stove top temp.& house is roasty toasty. I find pin hole in 8 inch elbow comming out of the back collar of the stove.

Its not dangerous but it do let out smoke from time to time. I been noticing after all day burns that the basement air didn't smell clean , so I guess it was leaking some smoke into room.

For now ,I smeared it with retort cement & basement air smells clean & fresh. If that cement falls off, I look see if I can plug hole with sheet mental screw & flat waher, just temporary.

In spring , I change the whole elbow.

In not sure I want to put the summersheat in yet becuase I'm a bit afraid that it wont give me enough heat as what I already have, especially since I converted my 12 cubic foot firebox
1/4 inch steel plate monster to secondary burn. It don't eat half the wood it used to & give
almost the same heat. The black 8 inch stove pipes don't get hot anymore but the stovetop gets a lot hoter ,so its about the same heat for 1/2 the wood.

I was worried about running out of wood before the end of the season in april & now I will have at least 1 woodshed full .left over for oct & nov burning.

P.S. HEY NORTH--WHAT SHOULD I USE TO TRY TO POKE THE HOLES IN THE SUSPECT STOVE PIPE WITH?? WHAT DO YOU USE TO TEST YOUR STOVE PIPES.???

I have any number of tools of available,screwdrivers ,phillips & slotted,ice picks,dirt picks ,sledge hammers,6,10,12,20,&30;lb models,ball ping hammers in 4 different wieghts,
a large assortment of sae & metric wrenches of different lengths, a large assortment of junk cars to use the wrenches on,surplus rifle bayonetts, old water pumps,needle nose pliers,diagonal pliers,slip joint pliers,waterpump pliers
decorative swords of different lengths, knives & forks.log splitting wedges in 5 flavors.
long sticks with spikes driven thru the ends. steel , wood & cement chisles.baseball bats
& more.

enough to have the world's biggest yard sale, so I dont have to work for 3 years from the proceeds.

I would run out of characters , they only allow 6000 per post ,you know, if i tried to mention even 1/20th of the junk.

My fingers say enough typing,we are hurting.

eernest you crazy character... :lol: Out of that selection listed above, I would use the 30lb sledge. That way you would not have to use a screwdriver to remove the screws - the sledge would take care of that for you. By reading your other thread it sounds like your stovepipe is not that old. I would think with chimney fires and acidic creosote build up would take the life out of the stovepipe which is neither of your conditions. At the elbow that you are talking about is an area that does have a larger heat build up and more seams to collect acidic particles to create the pinholes. Again, when in doubt - change it out! And to answer the other question my stove is a CAT and pretty sure it will help give my stovepipe it's 9 lives. ;-P You should contemplate on double wall next time you replace your stovepipe. Glad you are having fun with your old furniture smelter. Keep it safe N of 60

 

[eernest4]

Hey North, you are one smart fella, for sure.

I was thinking about the problem all nite & I remembered that every 3 days,
when I clean the burnt up furnature remanants out of my stove, there would always be some ashes inside that elbow that I would have to remove. That elbow is a rear exhaust setup,
so it is only offset from the firebox by 2 inches & real easy for ashes to get into. That coupled with the accelerated rust on the bottom of the elbow ,compaired to less rust everywheres else on the same elbow, led me to think of the acid pooling theory. The pin hole is right where water would pool if it were present. So i think acid had something to do with it & the problem won't go away with a new elbow. Two season's from now, if I'm still burning the same stove, I bet i have to replace the elbow again.

I know your laughing at the 30 lb sledgehammer for disassembly, I nearly fell out of my chair when I read that. Is good thing I was not drinking coffee at the time because I might have drowned ROTFLMAO :lol:

But now that I think about it, & i remember the horriable time we had the last time
Linus & I tried to pull them pipes apart!

Linus was holding on to the pipe for all he was worth & I was pulling for all I was worth & I pulled so hard Linus nearly fell on his face & the stupid pipe still wouldn't come apart; despite the best efforts of two grown men.

I think i did finally get them apart with the help of my 4 lb, 18 inch handle sledgehammer and a piece of pallet board that we stuck inside the pipe & rested the edge of the wood against the inside rim of the corrigated end of the pipe.

Linus held the outside of the pipe & I hammered to wood, changed the position of the wood on the pipe rim, hammered some more, changed the position a third time & hammered some more & after all of that, we were finally able to twist it out.

I would have used a bigger hammer, but it was all linus could do just to hold onto the pipe with the 4 lb hammer.

So, the sledgehammer choice was not a bad one after all !!
:lol:

 

[eernest4]

Hi jimbob,

Yep, the secondary burn conversion on that old 1/4 inch plate steel 12 cubic foot
smoking dragon was all i could have hoped for. Kick ass with butt to spair
when she is going good you can't bear to be within 6 feet of her for too long!
Thats why I use a 24 inch box fan on high for a blower. Then you can stay near the stove if you dont mind sweating a lot.

It was easier to do because the stove already had a domestic hot water pipe strung just under the stove top which was the reason that I bought the stove for originally. But much to my suprise, after hooking up the stove, the domestic hot water coil leaked water all over my fire & extinguished my stove. I continued to burn the stove as a hot air stove while i steamed,more that the stove did, over getting ripped off with a leaky domestic hot water coil.

Then I said to myself,if I cant have a domestic hot water coil,why dont i convert the leaky hot water coil to secondary burn instead. And so i did.


On the initial attempt, ,it worked but I could not get secondary burn when I wanted to, but rather only when the stove felt like it.

So, I knew that I had partial sucess & was barking up the right tree, so i decided
to sit down & think about it for a couple of days while I kept running the stove to learn its new ways.

Finally, I took a ride down to home depot with a led flashlight in my pocket & an eye out for a englander 50-30clp stove. It took me all of two minutes with my head up inside that stove to figure out that I needed to drill one size larger holes in my secondary
air pipe & space the holes two inches apart instead of 6 inches apart.

So, when i got back home ,I let the stove start to cool down & shoveled all the burnt furnature ashes out of the stove & then I gave it a thourough vacumming.
I go out every sunday & collect all the perfectly good furnature that my stupid neighbors throw away for dump pick up & i stick it all in the back of my honda civic hatchback & break it up for free fire wood. wont every see me paying $275.oo a cord for wet wood like many Ct residents do. (Wet wood is the only kind that Ct has , because we only have 2 flavors of weather here, either rain or snow, depending on temp) oH , we get 1 or 2 days a week of partly cloudy, but thats about it as far as that red ball in the sky goes.

Next day I crawled inside the stove with an electric drill & a worklight on my chest, & spent 3 hours drilling more secondary air holes, working laying flat on my back
with the pipes I was drilling overhead. i ended up dulling around 12 --1/8 inch drill bits
getting 2 or 3 holes out of each bit before it dulled out.

I used those 2 inch long 1/8th bits that have tips on each end ,so when 1 gets dull,you can just reverse the bit in the chuck 7 have a second sharp bit to ruin.

The come in a packet of 30 for $12.oo from www.harborfrieght.com


As to how it works now, it heats my whole house 2,700 sqft up to 79 deg F on 1/2 of a load of wood for up to 4 to 5 hours, then it is down to embers & while still putting out heat , its not enough to keep all the house warm, so it gets reloaded.

How does 300 deg. stack temp with 650 deg stove top sound?
Or 400 deg stack with 750 deg stove top.
or 450 deg stack with a 850 deg stove top-----well thatas getting a bit hot, even for me,
but that stove has been there & done that, in fact,it likes to, every chance it gets but I snarfle it down a little, just to keep temps on the safe side.

With a 500 deg stack temp ,it puts out a 925 deg stove top & can go more if I push it
but whenever I see that,its snarflling time, real quick like.

I would rather be safe than sorry & I'm not a heat hog. enough heat is all I need.

I'm happy with 75 deg in the house but mom wants 79 deg because she is 96 years cold.

Old & cold, I call it. so 79 deg it is for mom.

I like the stove so much that I have a brand new englander(summersheat) 50-30ncp that I wont install because it might not put out as much heat as what I already got.

But i am holding on to the summersheat because if wood gets to be a high priced commodity
the summersheat will do almost the same job with even less wood.

The conversion has cut my wood usage in half of what i was using back in nov 07.
I was worried about running out of firewood before april & now I know I will have one full woodshed left over for oct 08. (i have 3 woodsheds) 1 full, & the other two 1/2 full each.

I expect to empty the two 1/2 full sheds by april , without touching the full one.