"Something happened yesterday" that I will try to describe the best I can, and let you folks diagnose it........
I had the wood stove burning on Friday night, and re-lit it again Saturday morning really early (like 4 A.M.) and let it go out after that. We had to go get groceries Saturday morning (around 7:30) so I figured I'd come back after that, and re-light it as necessary.
When we got home from grocery shopping, the fire was mostly out (except for the obvious embers that will typically stay within the bed of ash for hours after a visible burn is done).
There was a party at our house, scheduled for 3 that afternoon, and the temps were not going to be cold here, so I didn't re-light the fire again all day.
Once the house was full of people, and we were sitting around the living room, I decided that our 2 year old grandson might enjoy performing for the folks, and I know he likes to "help Pepére" (me) build a fire. So I gave him some newspaper pages to crunch up and toss into the penned area that surrounds the wood stove (one of those child fences we have for protecting young hands from the hot stove). He LOVES to crunch up the newspaper.........gets such a HUGE grin on his face. He really "gets off" on doing this!
Then naturally, the next thing he likes to do is get the kindling pieces and put them between the bars of the kid fence, because he knows from my teaching him, that that's part of the process of building a fire, (I was not intending to actually BUILD a fire this time), and he didn't seem content to just put the things in there, but also wanted me to put them in the wood stove.
So I put in the 3 pieces of small kindling, and the scrunched up newspapers, and closed the door. This seemed to satisfy him (or pacify him), and so I left things as they were.
The conversations continuing around me, with all the folks in the room, and perhaps 15 minutes later I happened to glance over at the stove, and the entire stove area was filled with smoke, and THERE WAS SMOKE LEAKING OUT AROUND THE COLLAR WHERE THE STOVE PIPE MEETS THE STOVE!!
Obviously I realized that apparently there were STILL embers in the ash on the bottom of the stove, from the morning burn that were alive, and the paper was attempting to burn. I opened the front door of our house (located in the same room as the wood stove), for air flow, (obviously this meant keeping a watch on the door because we had 2 year old grandchildren running around), and opened the door of the wood stove just a crack.
This seemed to be the most logical action.........to try and get some air flow into the stove. (the damper was fully open), because what appeared to have happened, was that there was just enough smoldering ember to build the smoke, but not enough air to trigger the flame, and .......since there was not a heat increase at that point, there was no draft happening, and all the smoke was just building up within the stove.
I told you all that, to help you understand the fundamentals of what happened yesterday.......but my question and concern, is about the smoke that I saw swirling out around the OUTSIDE collar of the stove, between the stove and the flue pipe.
I suppose that if you get THAT much smoke in the wood stove, with no place to go, (because draft had not started, up the chimney) that it would build up to such an extent that it would need to find places to go,...........but what disturbs me, (and makes me nervous), is that it found a way out between the stove and chimney
I have questions now, like:
A) Is there ALWAYS a certain percentage of Carbon Monoxide coming out between
my stove and chimney pipe, OUTSIDE the stove? (My CO Detectors don't go off, and didn't go off)
B) Did the build up of smoke that happened yesterday, that found its way out between the stove and
chimney flue, break some sort of seal or bond between the two, and now the stove is compromised
and needs repair?
Naturally, once I introduced some air to the situation, the flames started. And because there were so many people in the house, and the temps in the house were such that I didn't need a fire, I let the small fire die out quickly, so as to not drive everyone out, because of the unnecessary heat.
Our grandson was thrilled of course.......not realizing the situation, .....he just stood there totally proud of himself, for having built his own fire.
Should I be concerned about the condition of the stove at this point? Did the smoke that found its way out between the stove and pipe collar show me an issue that needs correction? (By the way, the volume of smoke coming out was more than a whisp, ......there was substance to it).
YOU be the judge!
-Soupy1957
I had the wood stove burning on Friday night, and re-lit it again Saturday morning really early (like 4 A.M.) and let it go out after that. We had to go get groceries Saturday morning (around 7:30) so I figured I'd come back after that, and re-light it as necessary.
When we got home from grocery shopping, the fire was mostly out (except for the obvious embers that will typically stay within the bed of ash for hours after a visible burn is done).
There was a party at our house, scheduled for 3 that afternoon, and the temps were not going to be cold here, so I didn't re-light the fire again all day.
Once the house was full of people, and we were sitting around the living room, I decided that our 2 year old grandson might enjoy performing for the folks, and I know he likes to "help Pepére" (me) build a fire. So I gave him some newspaper pages to crunch up and toss into the penned area that surrounds the wood stove (one of those child fences we have for protecting young hands from the hot stove). He LOVES to crunch up the newspaper.........gets such a HUGE grin on his face. He really "gets off" on doing this!
Then naturally, the next thing he likes to do is get the kindling pieces and put them between the bars of the kid fence, because he knows from my teaching him, that that's part of the process of building a fire, (I was not intending to actually BUILD a fire this time), and he didn't seem content to just put the things in there, but also wanted me to put them in the wood stove.
So I put in the 3 pieces of small kindling, and the scrunched up newspapers, and closed the door. This seemed to satisfy him (or pacify him), and so I left things as they were.
The conversations continuing around me, with all the folks in the room, and perhaps 15 minutes later I happened to glance over at the stove, and the entire stove area was filled with smoke, and THERE WAS SMOKE LEAKING OUT AROUND THE COLLAR WHERE THE STOVE PIPE MEETS THE STOVE!!
Obviously I realized that apparently there were STILL embers in the ash on the bottom of the stove, from the morning burn that were alive, and the paper was attempting to burn. I opened the front door of our house (located in the same room as the wood stove), for air flow, (obviously this meant keeping a watch on the door because we had 2 year old grandchildren running around), and opened the door of the wood stove just a crack.
This seemed to be the most logical action.........to try and get some air flow into the stove. (the damper was fully open), because what appeared to have happened, was that there was just enough smoldering ember to build the smoke, but not enough air to trigger the flame, and .......since there was not a heat increase at that point, there was no draft happening, and all the smoke was just building up within the stove.
I told you all that, to help you understand the fundamentals of what happened yesterday.......but my question and concern, is about the smoke that I saw swirling out around the OUTSIDE collar of the stove, between the stove and the flue pipe.
I suppose that if you get THAT much smoke in the wood stove, with no place to go, (because draft had not started, up the chimney) that it would build up to such an extent that it would need to find places to go,...........but what disturbs me, (and makes me nervous), is that it found a way out between the stove and chimney
I have questions now, like:
A) Is there ALWAYS a certain percentage of Carbon Monoxide coming out between
my stove and chimney pipe, OUTSIDE the stove? (My CO Detectors don't go off, and didn't go off)
B) Did the build up of smoke that happened yesterday, that found its way out between the stove and
chimney flue, break some sort of seal or bond between the two, and now the stove is compromised
and needs repair?
Naturally, once I introduced some air to the situation, the flames started. And because there were so many people in the house, and the temps in the house were such that I didn't need a fire, I let the small fire die out quickly, so as to not drive everyone out, because of the unnecessary heat.
Our grandson was thrilled of course.......not realizing the situation, .....he just stood there totally proud of himself, for having built his own fire.
Should I be concerned about the condition of the stove at this point? Did the smoke that found its way out between the stove and pipe collar show me an issue that needs correction? (By the way, the volume of smoke coming out was more than a whisp, ......there was substance to it).
YOU be the judge!
-Soupy1957
