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Is this normal ?

Xr650jkallen

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Brand new stove pipe install. I've burned 3 fires so far. I changed my chimney cap out to a better one today. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?
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Xr650jkallen

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My Stove pipe is 8" double wall 14' up to the ceiling box where it connects to 6' of class a chimney pipe. I dont have a moisture meter yet, it will be here tomorrow. I'm burning oak and it seems to be seasoned enough. It burns great.
 

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I wouldn't know, I don't check my chimney cap. I do know, that if I try hard enough I can get it to glow a little, visible with night adjusted vision. I don't know if it is the cap or the screen around the sides that glows. Anyway I do an occasional hot, clean fire with the door cracked open to clean the pipe. The inspector says there's only ash in it when he looks.

I also use ACS spray occasionally, like during those hot burns, if not regularly.
 

Xr650jkallen

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It's my first time with a wood burner. So I'm sure I'm over thinking things, just want to be safe when it comes to this.
 

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For what it’s worth, you’re not over thinking things. It’s a fire in a box inside your home. I didn’t realize it for the first season I had my stove but I was burning wetter wood than I thought at times and not letting the flue temps get hot enough at times either. A moisture meter is a good start for sure and just look at your chimney cap from the ground. You’ll see it if you’re building creosote. It’ll get covered in black goop with black icicles on it.


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It would be good to have a list of the cleaner burning woods. I'll guess hickory, hedge, and locust are some of the cleaner burning ones. Ash would be dirtier in my opinion. I judge how much a wood might contribute to creosote based on the flames it produces. Hickory and hedge don't produce much fire, while sappy pine and Ash do. The fire is flammable vapor burning from the resins inside the wood. Sure you can close the e air vents to reduce the flames, but the resins are still getting baked out, and are not burning, so they condense on cooler surfaces. Give the fire more air to burn clean, and it will burn too hot. So, I just burn hot occasionally, so the heat and extra air help evaporate and burn off deposits in the stove pipe before there's enough to cause a problem. That is one advantage of having a stove pipe: you can burn them hot reasonably safely.
 

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Ash isn't bad at all, but seasoning the wood is key. Softer woods (under 3K lbs/cord dry) aren't bad but mixing with harder woods (Hedge and Hickory) works better. My EA style stove actually does quite well with Pine and Cedar, but the burn time is nil. Mixing with Hedge, Red Oak, Locust and Ash produces VERY good results!
 

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Brand new stove pipe install. I've burned 3 fires so far. I changed my chimney cap out to a better one today. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong?
View attachment 208713
If you have an older pre EPA stove I'd say that's normal. Running a little hotter will help if possible. The warmer days this time of year can make that tough, it'll get better as you learn the stove and the weather gets colder.

For a catalytic/gasification stove I'd guess your wood isn't up to snuff. Should be seasoned at least a year more like two or three regardless if the stove is old or new.
 

Xr650jkallen

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If you have an older pre EPA stove I'd say that's normal. Running a little hotter will help if possible. The warmer days this time of year can make that tough, it'll get better as you learn the stove and the weather gets colder.

For a catalytic/gasification stove I'd guess your wood isn't up to snuff. Should be seasoned at least a year more like two or three regardless if the stove is old or new.

It is an older stove and with the warmer nights I had cut the air back to calm it down a little. So I'd say that's what contributed to it. Its supposed to be cooler this weekend, so I'll let her run and see what it looks like.
 

Xr650jkallen

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Got my moisture meter and my flue gas probe. Moisture is right at 20% in the split and its white oak. My flue temp is holding around 300, I can get it hotter, but geez it's already 76 in the house. Am I just going to have to keep more of an eye on the cresote?
 

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Maybe get it really hot when you are first getting it started to help burn out any residue, and/or regularly spray ACS (Anti-Creo-Soot) in there at least once you get it good and hot. Then run it as cool and dirty as you need for the rest of the day. In this weather I'd just get a hot fire going for 30min-4hrs in the morning to warm up the house, then have the fire go out for the rest of the day, maybe light a single load before bed too.

I'll do something like this, and light it before bed time with the air vents and damper already set for overnight use. An hour or 2 later it is raging for the next 3-4 hrs.

DSC00573 (1280x854).jpg
 

Xr650jkallen

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My stove has two bottom/side air controls and one in the middle front on top. What exactly does that one do? The top one that is
 

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My top one is the damper, it blocks off the direct flow up and out the chimney, and makes it flow towards the top/front and then back over the damper box, so more heat gets transferred to the stove top. And there's supposed to be catalytic combusters in that path, but I took them out and never replaced them, and instead filled their place with a baffle, damper bar, or whatever you want to call it. Something to slow the flow.
 

Xr650jkallen

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This is my stove. I'm talking about the top middle knob, I dont have a damper installed in the chimney. 20191123_211614.jpg
 

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Does it insert or rotate into alignment a combuster? Some have a round combuster that rotates into alignment with the pipe.

Does it do anything? Move? Turn? IDK.
 

Xr650jkallen

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Naw, it just uncovers a hole like the bottom side ones do.
 

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I think it is for top air flow. If so, you can use it to burn the flamable vapors that come out of the wood without burning the left over charcoal, then close the top, and open the bottom ones to burn the charcoal. My stove only has lower air inlets, so it burns the coals first, getting the wood so hot it bakes out all the flamable resins while the coals consume the fresh air leaving the vapors significantly unburned to get lost as creosote.
 
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