White particles appear on stove and around it

[bigpig]

Hi,

I've been running a professionally installed Explorer II for two seasons now. It was installed with fibre glass insulation wrapped around the insert (if insert is the right term here). I have to clean up white particles than fall down after every time the fire is run for an evening/day. I suspect these are from the fibre glass insultation(?) Pictures below. Any guidance appreciated.

 

[begreen]

Not sure what the white particles are, but the fiberglass should be removed and replaced with kaowool or roxul insulation and then a block-off plate installed to seal off the damper area. At the end of this wiki posting there are links to several examples of block-off plate installations.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/why-damper-seal-is-needed/

 

[bigpig]

Is the fibreglass a danger in any way? Why remove

 

[begreen]

It can melt when in contact with a hot pipe. Regardless of insulation you don't want the fibers drifting into your breathing space. A properly installed block-off plate will help prevent this.

 

[mountain man 2]

Fly ash??

 

[begreen]

Fly ash??

I was wondering the same thing. bigpig, if you rub the white spot with your finger does it break apart into powdery dust?

 

[black smoke signals]

Fly ash can accumulate on the smoke shelf get it cleaned

 

[bigpig]

It breaks apart into a powdery grit - and is kinda grey/white/black. There is also some accumulating on the mantle heat shield.

How do I clean the "smoke shelf"?

 

[black smoke signals]

Chimney sweep or pull plate vacuum it out.

 

[begreen]

Looks and sounds like small flakes of mortar.

 

[bigpig]

Still going on... more pictures. Not sure if fly ash or mortar. Note the hotter the stove gets, the more particles I get. Yes it does crumble easily when pinched.

 

[kennyp2339]

im willing to bet that its small pieces of the pipe insulation wrapped around the liner, liner expands during fire or convective heat hits it, a little falls off
could also be mortar

 

[webby3650]

That’s not a terrible looking install. Looks like they tried to do a decent job..
It should have a continuous block off plate above the stove though. The fiberglass should be replaced with ceramic wool or rock wool insulation too.