# Insulation INSIDE the stove????



## HatCityIAFF (Dec 21, 2011)

Ok. We got called out for heavy smoke coming from someone's chimney last night.  The resident said his wife was burning duralogs all week, he got home, threw one in, then threw 3 pieces of wood on top. (Older osburn stove i think).  Said he saw thick black smoke pooring out of his chimney, so thought he had a chim. fire. We got there, and the smoke was coming out very lazy, and not black.  I took the insert face plate off, and checked the stove, pipe, and liner for temps with the thermal imaging camera, and everything was in spec, if not lower.  Opened the door, and a massive amount of smoke came out, with 0 draft.  Dropped chains down the liner from the roof to make sure nothing was clogged, and all was good.  I started to get a bit nosey, so i started to take out the upper bricks above the secondary tubes, and on top of the bricks, was 2 inches of rock wool insulation.  The whole inside top of the insert was insulated, blocking the 6" flue. DIRTY insulation.  Is this normal in older stoves? Maybe something to help with the secondaries?  I took out all the insulation, put the bricks back and lit a piece of paper and threw it in the stove, and the draft seemed to be fine?


----------



## firefighterjake (Dec 21, 2011)

I get some build up of soot/fly ash on top of the insulation blanket . . . one reason I take the time in the Spring or Fall to vacuum it up since left unchecked I know with my woodstove it could build up over time to block the chimney and affect the draft . . . and this is in a modern EPA stove.


----------



## DAKSY (Dec 21, 2011)

Some of the inserts out there have a blanket on top of the baffles, 
but most of the ones I've seen like that have a metal baffle, not firebrick. 
Most of them also have metal weights to hold the blanket in place...
I've seen the blanket get pushed back into the flue collar area, blocking
the smoke exit  - due to careless cleaning, & poor draft is the result...


----------



## mellow (Dec 21, 2011)

More than likely was half inch Kaowool,  if it gets bunched up it could block the exhaust, and as mentioned if not cleaned the ash/soot can block it as well.

I bet a bunch of soot feel down the chimney and blocked it up.


----------



## HatCityIAFF (Dec 21, 2011)

yeah I just wasn't sure if some of the inserts had that in them.  It was bunched up pretty good by the exhaust, and the liner was clean all the way down. Problem fixed.


----------



## HotCoals (Dec 21, 2011)

HatCityIAFF said:
			
		

> yeah I just wasn't sure if some of the inserts had that in them.  It was bunched up pretty good by the exhaust, and the liner was clean all the way down. Problem fixed.


Man you should be commended on the measures you took ..above and beyond imo.
Great work!


----------



## Heatsource (Dec 21, 2011)

mellow said:
			
		

> More than likely was half inch Kaowool,  if it gets bunched up it could block the exhaust, and as mentioned if not cleaned the ash/soot can block it as well.
> 
> I bet a bunch of soot feel down the chimney and blocked it up.



osburn used 1" ceramic wool to get a cleaner burn

many sweeps remove them, but they help improve efficiency in addition to insulating the baffle


----------



## tim1 (Dec 23, 2011)

The PE stoves have a piece of stainless on top of the insulation to keep it from being sucked up the pipe with a good draft. When I rebuilt mine, I added a bolt to secure the plate. Tim


----------



## rwhite (Dec 23, 2011)

Mine has insulation blanket sitting on top of the fire brick and I am still not convinced it does a lot. The weight that was supposed to be with mine was not there and looked rather small from the diagrams. I used an old circular saw blade and threw it on top of the insulation. Don't think the blanket is hindering anything just not sure that it's worth the pain to get it up in there.


----------



## tim1 (Dec 23, 2011)

an old saw blade would be great. I just has to be heavy! I am not familiar with firebrick above the secondary burner. The summit is my first epa stove. Tim


----------



## mellow (Dec 23, 2011)

It does quite a bit,  it especially with firebrick baffles, it seals up the holes in the back and sides and top.  I know with my insert the vermiculite baffle does not go all the way to the sides and back so the kaowool covers those areas to make sure the smoke travels the way it should along the tubes.


----------



## begreen (Dec 23, 2011)

It sounds like a homemade retrofit. I've not heard of bricks and rockwool for an Osburn baffle, but maybe they did try this at one time? 

Have to get FyreBug to ask the Osburn engineers about this one.


----------



## rwhite (Dec 23, 2011)

The 1st osburns used fire brick and baffle blanket. From what I can tell it was from 89 to early 90's then they switched to the vermeculite.


----------

