Well, I may have had a chimney fire today.
I am new to wood stoves. I just got my Jotul F3 CB installed, coming up on a month ago soon. In preparation for it's installation, I had a Selkirk Class A double wall installed.
Here's what happened. Let me just confess for starters, that I did two stupid things. Then, I'll explain what happened further.
1. While spring cleaning, I broke down a pallet in my backyard, and decided I was going to burn it. Aside from the fact the wood is the furthest thing from seasoned hardwood, I took it a step further by choosing to burn it even after it amounted to a bunch of shim sized splinters during dismantling. I believe this would be considered a "kindling fire", and from what I have read, you do not want those to fill your firebox (but that hadn't stopped me.)
2. I opened the ash door to get it going, since it was wet and I wanted to dry it out fast. But to make matters worse, I left it open too long (around 3 minutes...)
What seemed like a great hot fire at first, began to feel more like a terrible hot fire. First, the DSP stove pipe elbow going into my wall thimble started smoking. It set off my smoke alarm. Secondly, the Selkirk chimney starting making crackling and popping noises inside. Lastly, the little adapter connected to my stove pipe elbow, which permits connection to the Selkirk Chimney connector, began glowing a dull red. In the aftermath, the adapter still remains amber in color (instead of stainless steel). I'd like to add, that during the majority of this fire, the stove surface was around 300 degrees, so I don't think it suffered any damage.
In response to this event, I opened the primary air control all the way, and then closed the ash door. My hope was that by opening the primary, a vacuum wouldn't get created when I closed the ash door. Seemed to go OKAY. Then, I slowly closed the primary. Then I slowly closed the secondary air. After about 15 minutes things started settling down. The chimney stopped roaring, and the stove itself started to heat-up instead, getting up to around 600 before cooling off as well. I will say, that I had yet to see secondary combustion work so well!
Outdoors, flecks of black, paper like ash were belching out of the chimney at a continuous rate, littering my roof and the lawn. Though, flames never came out of the top of the chimney, and after just 15 minutes it didn't burn to go up on the roof and touch the top of the chimney with bare hand.
It would seem as if I did have a chimney fire, I am going to need to alter my burn practices. I suspect it's unusual for me to have enough creosote to cause one if I were doing things right. The only other possibility that would make it not my fault, is in the chimney design, which includes a 2ft horizontal run going to my Tee.
But, the more important question for me is- is it still safe to use this chimney?
Thank you,
Dedicated Noob, happy to have not burned down his house.
I am new to wood stoves. I just got my Jotul F3 CB installed, coming up on a month ago soon. In preparation for it's installation, I had a Selkirk Class A double wall installed.
Here's what happened. Let me just confess for starters, that I did two stupid things. Then, I'll explain what happened further.
1. While spring cleaning, I broke down a pallet in my backyard, and decided I was going to burn it. Aside from the fact the wood is the furthest thing from seasoned hardwood, I took it a step further by choosing to burn it even after it amounted to a bunch of shim sized splinters during dismantling. I believe this would be considered a "kindling fire", and from what I have read, you do not want those to fill your firebox (but that hadn't stopped me.)
2. I opened the ash door to get it going, since it was wet and I wanted to dry it out fast. But to make matters worse, I left it open too long (around 3 minutes...)
What seemed like a great hot fire at first, began to feel more like a terrible hot fire. First, the DSP stove pipe elbow going into my wall thimble started smoking. It set off my smoke alarm. Secondly, the Selkirk chimney starting making crackling and popping noises inside. Lastly, the little adapter connected to my stove pipe elbow, which permits connection to the Selkirk Chimney connector, began glowing a dull red. In the aftermath, the adapter still remains amber in color (instead of stainless steel). I'd like to add, that during the majority of this fire, the stove surface was around 300 degrees, so I don't think it suffered any damage.
In response to this event, I opened the primary air control all the way, and then closed the ash door. My hope was that by opening the primary, a vacuum wouldn't get created when I closed the ash door. Seemed to go OKAY. Then, I slowly closed the primary. Then I slowly closed the secondary air. After about 15 minutes things started settling down. The chimney stopped roaring, and the stove itself started to heat-up instead, getting up to around 600 before cooling off as well. I will say, that I had yet to see secondary combustion work so well!
Outdoors, flecks of black, paper like ash were belching out of the chimney at a continuous rate, littering my roof and the lawn. Though, flames never came out of the top of the chimney, and after just 15 minutes it didn't burn to go up on the roof and touch the top of the chimney with bare hand.
It would seem as if I did have a chimney fire, I am going to need to alter my burn practices. I suspect it's unusual for me to have enough creosote to cause one if I were doing things right. The only other possibility that would make it not my fault, is in the chimney design, which includes a 2ft horizontal run going to my Tee.
But, the more important question for me is- is it still safe to use this chimney?
Thank you,
Dedicated Noob, happy to have not burned down his house.