-10 degrees...is this normal?

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CJ03

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Nov 25, 2008
21
maine
So, I never see smoke coming out of my vent pipe, always see that "heat" coming out of it, but nothing billowing out or anything. Tonight we are at the coldest of the year(current about -9/-10 degrees. I took the dogs out a while ago and noticed I have large billows coming out. Not black or anything, but you can SEE the smoke. Is this normal for such a cold night, or something I should look at in terms of cleaning the pipe?
 
The air is so dry you are seeing mosture ... like your breath.
 
NoMoreOPEC said:
The air is so dry you are seeing mosture ... like your breath.

I was just about to post the same question. Kinda figured it was something like that.
 
Only time I ever see smoke is when the pellets first light up
upon starting the stove. Other than that, never any smoke.
These suckers are not like wood stoves.
 
-3 degrees here :bug: , and it's only 11:30 PM....I'd imagine if I wanted to freeze my a** off, I'd go outside to see if there was any "smoke" coming out of the pipe, but I'm too warm & cozy next to my Astoria. 70 degrees in here, and stove is only on 75%.
 
Minus 10 here at midnight. I can't wait to see what it's lilke at dawn.....riiiggghhht. A huge hat-tip to the folks here who got me on the right track this morning after I almost flamed out last night. (Clean your stove, yup) And another hat-tip to the folks who ditched into the Hudson this afternoon, a mere 175 miles south of me. It was cold enough down there if you were hanging out in the middle of the river on an airplane wing.

Stay warm, folks, stay warm.
 
Come on guys, nothing! Minus 22.3 here in MN, yep that's moisture out of the vent. Just did a load of wash in the NG dryer, the vent is making snow as I type. Also did the boiling water toss in a glass trick for the kids, very cool (no pun), looks like fireworks! The sh*t we do here to stay entertained....
 
-10F last night and yes when I woke up this morning to start my truck (it was not happy) I could see steam from the vent pipe for the first time ever. I think its completly normal for the currrent weather condition. Every house had steam coming from there chimeny. Also my truck had visible smoke the WHOLE ride to work...... 37miles.

So yea its cold and thats normal.
 
strange, I just came on here to post the same observsation! I noticed "smoke" passing by the upper story bedroom window. I assumed the pellets were running out, and therefore sporadically feeding pellets as they ran out. I went to check on the stove, and it was 1/4 full and burning hot. So when I went out with the dog, I noticed it was water vapor, not smoke. It had the normal burning pellets smell, not smoke. I held my glasses over the vent, and they steamed up.
 
-29 degrees this morning when I got out of bed. My pellet stove and my furnace ran all night trying to keep up...we actually slept in front of the pellet stove last night because my wife can't stand to be even slightly cold haha.
 
34 below in Caribou this morning. I guess you could say it's cold. I guess. :bug:
 
35 below this morning in central mn, my three year old mt vernon kept our 80 year old two story warm. Over 80 hours below 0, going through pellets about 3 bags day. burning lignetics. suppose to get above 0 this weekend.
 
I kind of figured it had soemthing to do with the coooollllllddddd temps, but it took me back a coupple of steps. We got down to -15 last night and we are still below 0 this morning. The ole Englander is keeping the house around 72 at level 5. I don't remember if we got this cold last year(my first year with the stove) so I guess am I am still learning something new every day:)
 
It was -40 at my house this morning. It's still -26 at 10:00 AM! We might make it to 0 today but I'm not holding my breath!
 
-11 at my house this morning. I noticed the steam from the vent, too. A little surprised, though, as I'm using an OAK...that air that its spitting out just came in from outside a couple of seconds ago -- where'd the moisture come from? There's some in the pellets...not alot, though. There's moisture in that cold, dry air, too...maybe its just because the exhaust air is getting "squeezed" so hard by this extra-cold outside air.

NG exhaust making snow: yeah, that I believe. NG flame's give off a lot of water vapor. In the one long power failure (8 hours. "nothing" compared to the recent ice storm, but that's how reliable our supply is) I've had at my house since I moved in 15 years ago, when it started getting uncomfortable, I turned on the gas stove's burners. (propane, used only for the stove...no NG available at my house). I was surprised that those little burners could heat my whole house up to a comfortable temp in such a short time...like 30-45 minutes. I had to shut them off, as it was getting too warm. But also, the windows all fogged up! LOL!

anyway...how cold does it have to be to do that "instant snow" trick? and why does it have to be boiler water? (or does it?) I tried throwing a cup of cold tap water up into the air this morning, @-11...it just came down and hit the ground, same as it went up. no snow. :-(
 
i'd bet it has to be vaporized, or near vaporized, so that the water particles are small enough to freeze quickly, maybe if you sprayed the water our of one of those water spray bottles with the nozzle turned to really fine mist?
 
Orange Crush CJ-7 said:
i'd bet it has to be vaporized, or near vaporized, so that the water particles are small enough to freeze quickly, maybe if you sprayed the water our of one of those water spray bottles with the nozzle turned to really fine mist?

I just saw this while surfing... it is a video of a cup of warm water tossed in the air and freezes. http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6663424
 
I will weigh in from southern Wisconsin... -22 below this morning at 0530 and currently at -4 below... never got above zero last 24 hours. Schools closed yesterday and today due to severe wind chill.
 
They closed the schools in my area too, but it was due to the buses not starting and/or breaking down once they got started.
 
It was -22 this morning around 6:00am. I will be surprized if it breaks 10 today.
 
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