I've been battling my home for a couple of years and keep on loosing. The home was built in 1941 and has a clay lined chimney. There was a original steel insert fireplace when we bought the home. The insert was not very efficent so we removed it and installed a Franklin stove. I quickly learned that these Franklin's were pretty horrible stoves and quickly replaced it with a Jotul I bought used locally. After a while, the Jotul didn't seem to be working very well and I found that it was a Chinese knock off and was missing several burn plates. We removed the Jotul and replaced it with a Vermont Castings Encore. This is the current stove. The first year we burned the stove, I noticed that it didn't seem to be heating as efficiently as it should. The stove was barely able to maintain 68 degrees in the living room. Our entire home is only 900 some square feet with much of that space in the living room so we should be having to open the windows and dump heat! The next spring I noticed some glazed creosote in the flue and very little dust was created when I brushed the cimney out. There was also a space where the creosote had liquidfied and dripped from the flue creating a puddle behind the stove. Hoping the cat converter was bad, I replaced it with a new one and burned for another season. The results were the same with a continued build up of glazed creosote. At this time, I'm not comfortable using the stove and would like to solve the problems before the season starts. Lets run down my installation:
The stove sits on the hearth in front of the old fireplace opening. The flue pipe comes off the back of the stove, travels horizontally for 18", converts to a 8" round pipe, turns up, and then enters the flue. The original damper and smoke box have been removed. The clay flue pipe measures 7"x10" inside dimensions and has a slight jog, but sky can be seen from below. There are some masonry defects dating back to the original chimney construction. One of the flue pipes shifted during setting and does not align with the tile below. You can actually see the structural bricks through the gap. This is not a new defect, but one that has existed for 60 years. We burn well seasoned wood, two years under cover, mixed hardwoods - mostly elm. If I disconnect the flue pipe in winter, I get a pretty good draft up the chimney. Now that it's summer, we are getting some reverse drafting. Occassionally, I get a stinky creosote smell in the house. The house leaks well enough that venting hasn't been an issue. I've tried to crack a window when the stove was burning and saw no change in it's performance.
I believe my problem is one of two things: The short horizontal run off the stove and/or the existing flue. There isn't a whole lot I can do with the horizontal run, so can we talk about my flue? If I calculate the area of the existing pipe, I see that it's slightly larger than the 8" round pipe which is recommended for the stove. My understanding is that the 8" pipe is recommended to prevent back puffing. I talked to my local stove supplier and we both agree that the cimney could be relined. The problem is trying to fit the correct sized liner in. A 8" liner won't fit. He warned me that the easy fix would be a 6" liner, but that the liner would be undersized. He thought it would be Ok, so long as I didn't burn with the doors open. I'd like to get some other opinions as to the best way to fix my problematic wood stove.
The stove sits on the hearth in front of the old fireplace opening. The flue pipe comes off the back of the stove, travels horizontally for 18", converts to a 8" round pipe, turns up, and then enters the flue. The original damper and smoke box have been removed. The clay flue pipe measures 7"x10" inside dimensions and has a slight jog, but sky can be seen from below. There are some masonry defects dating back to the original chimney construction. One of the flue pipes shifted during setting and does not align with the tile below. You can actually see the structural bricks through the gap. This is not a new defect, but one that has existed for 60 years. We burn well seasoned wood, two years under cover, mixed hardwoods - mostly elm. If I disconnect the flue pipe in winter, I get a pretty good draft up the chimney. Now that it's summer, we are getting some reverse drafting. Occassionally, I get a stinky creosote smell in the house. The house leaks well enough that venting hasn't been an issue. I've tried to crack a window when the stove was burning and saw no change in it's performance.
I believe my problem is one of two things: The short horizontal run off the stove and/or the existing flue. There isn't a whole lot I can do with the horizontal run, so can we talk about my flue? If I calculate the area of the existing pipe, I see that it's slightly larger than the 8" round pipe which is recommended for the stove. My understanding is that the 8" pipe is recommended to prevent back puffing. I talked to my local stove supplier and we both agree that the cimney could be relined. The problem is trying to fit the correct sized liner in. A 8" liner won't fit. He warned me that the easy fix would be a 6" liner, but that the liner would be undersized. He thought it would be Ok, so long as I didn't burn with the doors open. I'd like to get some other opinions as to the best way to fix my problematic wood stove.
