White flakey stuff on tee behind stove

[phatdonkey]

My guess is moisture. Figured someone here would know for sure. Not happy to see it at all. We just had a whole day of heavy rain the other day. Didnt notice it during last fire on Monday.

Any ideas?

 

[CenterTree]

You say "white flakey", but it looks wet, like it ran down (or out of) the pipe.

Was it ever fluid at all that you noticed?

What is the pipe made of? SS? 304L? 316ti? etc,

 

[phatdonkey]

316ti flex king pro 6 inch by 22 foot insulated in a masonry outside chimney. It is now white and flakey, but was at one point a fluid. The streaking drips give that away. Its also flakey around the snout tightening band. Didnt look like it flowed at any point there.

 

[blades]

Galvanized stuff turns white and flakey when subjected to high heat.

 

[kennyp2339]

How new is the pipe? I could be some kind of contact cement from the factory to hold that band in place before they popped in the rivets, just a guess though. If it was a leak I would think that it would be coming from the bottom cap first, open the bottom cap and shine a flash light up with a mirror and see if there's going on inside the pipe.

 

[Smoked]

Did you put the snout/tee together and use stove gasket cement? If it is cemented, I bet you did have a little rain run down the liner and wet the cement. That would be my best guess.

 

[phatdonkey]

No cement when i put it together. My brother and I installed the liner Jan 16th 2015. I have read with oil burners, that they develope this at the seams and its ash from oil burning. Obviously with wood burning ash is produced. I never had smoke leaking anywhere so I never concerned myself with cementing the seams. I use paper and kindling to start fires and my guess is that ash is going up the flue and rain water may be causing it to run down. The chimney has a cap, but has about 6 inches of mesh at the top. Plenty of room for rain water to get in with some wind.

I will pull the bottom cap off tomorrow and check to see what it looks like up in the tee to the flue.

Thanks for the ideas on how to investigate it so far. When i check the tee ill send pics.

 

[Smoked]

We had epic rain about a month ago an I heard some dripping in mine. Rain hitting the top plate and splashing in through the mesh is my bet. If windy, blowing directly in is an issue too.

 

[quotejso]

How new is the pipe? I could be some kind of contact cement from the factory to hold that band in place before they popped in the rivets, just a guess though. If it was a leak I would think that it would be coming from the bottom cap first, open the bottom cap and shine a flash light up with a mirror and see if there's going on inside the pipe.

There is no way the tee could be leaking at that point it's just a band of metal. It has to be glue.

 

[phatdonkey]

There is no way the tee could be leaking at that point it's just a band of metal. It has to be glue.

I didnt even think of that! It is just a clamp going around the solid back of the tee pipe. Maybe it got hotter during a fire this week. Weird that it didnt do it all last season.

 

[quotejso]

I didnt even think of that! It is just a clamp going around the solid back of the tee pipe. Maybe it got hotter during a fire this week. Weird that it didnt do it all last season.

Oh I thought it was a new install. THAT IS weird. Can you look up from clean out cap?

 

[phatdonkey]

Planned on taking the bottom cap off after work and came home to a fure the wife made. Not happening tonight.