Fireplace advice, Part 2

[MossRoad]

Be sure to check your screen at the top of your chimney periodically through the season. I check mine with binoculars from the ground. If you see any creosote or buildup, it is time for a cleaning of the screen and the entire pipe. Otherwise, depending on how often you burn, you need to clean it once or twice a year. Really no set time or formula. Just something that has to be done to prevent chimney fires or smoke coming back into the house if the screen gets plugged (I learned the hard way, but lucky no damage, just some light smoke coming out of the joint in the pipe above the stove). I bought 5 or 6 sections of the 4' cleaning rods and a brush sized for my pipe. I clean it in the early fall and then once again during the January thaw when there is no snow on the rooooooffffff ahhhhhhh!!! :laughing::confused3:

I scrub it up, down and around several times. All of the soot falls into the top of the stove. I can get all the way down to the 45 angles just above the stove. After I get the top section I remove the stovepipe and clean the last 4' and the 45's by hand with a wire brush. While the stovepipe is off, I vacuum the soot that fell down into the top of the stove with a shop vac. Then I remove a couple bricks from inside the stove so I can drop those two ceramic looking baffles that we talked about before and vacuum everything out real nice. Then put it back together again and light it up with a small fire to check for leaks.

It was 18 last night. 76 in the house! :thumbsup:

 

[Egon]

One can also add chemicals or burn a special log to reduce creosote. I've found that using the chemical all I have to do is tap on the pipe just as it comes out of the stove and all kinds of good things come rattling down.

One fellow I know shoots at the screen with a pellet gun. Worked for him!

 

[westbrooklawn]

Moss and Eddie -

Thanks for the info on the pipe orientation... I definitely had it wrong in my mind.

Eddie - I found some of the rubber boots you were talking about at this site
pipebootexpress.com

That looks like the easiest way to go... thanks for the tip, and by the way no need to get a ladder out to take a picture, but thanks for the offer.

 

[Lloyd_E]

Congrats Eddy. You will now look at a tree differently - FIREWOOD!

Lloyd

 

[MossRoad]

Eddie,
In another thread you mentioned not seeing any smoke coming out of your chimney when the fire is burning well. I also use that as a gauge. Kinda neat to see the heat distortion in the air around the chimney cap and no smoke. When your fire is going really well, have you gotten down low on the ground and looked through the glass window up at the top of the stove's interior? You can see those super heated jets blowing out of the side holes of the center rail and then down the walls. Depending on the amount of wood in the stove, it can make some interesting curling flames in there.

I am amazed at the efficiency of this stove. I only clean out the ashes about once a week, and they go into the ash pan below, so I can get a month or more between having to empty that pan.

When I start up it smokes like you mentioned. I have an advantage that I can see the top of my chimney from a side room window. After I start the fire, about every 5 - 10 minutes I look out and see the smoke diminish as the fire burns hotter. Then I go down stairs and throttle the air control to the level I need. Saves me a few trips to the basement. :laughing:

 

[EddieWalker]

I haven't tried looking in there when it's burning, but now you have me curious. I just love to see the flames dancing around through the glass, and it's amazing how clear the glass is!!!

After the first time I started it, I don't see nearly as much smoke in there as I did. I've sort of gotten better at starting a fire and warming my place up. A few times I've gotten it a little too warm, but not too bad. I've been in shorts and a t shirt a few nights, and enjoyed it. I don't burn very much wood either. Once I get it going, I add one or two more to it and it lasts me all night.

I start it with the adjustment wide open, which gives me the best flame. Then when I add more wood, I lower it so it lasts longer, but it doesn't have as big a flame.

I'm very impressed with the stove and how nice it works.

Eddie

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, look in there when you get a chance. Pretty amazing. I also found that if, for some reason, I open the door and a tiny bit of smoke comes out that one or both of those top fiber looking panels has moved towards the front. I just push them all the way back once in a while. That lets the draft go up before it gets to the door.

Get yourself some welding gloves for loading wood when the fire is burning. Keeps your knuckle hair intact! :laughing:

I also got some nice brand marks on my forearms from touching the sides of the openings before I got the welding gloves. You don't stay touching the side too long! :shocked:

 

[dmccarty]

...

Get yourself some welding gloves for loading wood when the fire is burning. Keeps your knuckle hair intact! :laughing:

I also got some nice brand marks on my forearms from touching the sides of the openings before I got the welding gloves. You don't stay touching the side too long! :shocked:

Amen on the welding gloves!

I empty the ashes out every day or so. I do not completely clean the stove out but I like to remove the ashes. But I do not like the ash pan. Just a pain. I carefully put the ashes in a metal bucket. If you use the shovel just so ashes do not fly all over the place. :laughing:

Last year I took out a bucket of ashes that were VERY hot. I was wearing one welding glove. I dump the ashes into another metal bucket with a lid near our back porch. To dump the ashes one handed I grabbed the top of the bucket with the gloved hand and the tipped the bucket to dump the ashes. When I did this the bottom of the very hot bucket hit my forearm just past were the glove stopped protecting my arm. OUCH!

I heard my arm sizzle like a steak dropped on a hot grill. :confused2: Pretty sure the air turned blue due to some adult words I used. But I could be wrong.

I make sure I wear both gloves now. :laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:

The gloves have worn out a bit over time so I used duct tape to fix the holes. :thumbsup:

The flames are fun to watch.

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

I would like to find a scoop with a grate instead of a flat bottom. Since I burn pretty much continuously, I usually have lots of hot coals left when I want to empty some ashes down the ash dump. I usually shovel everything to one side of the stove, then toss the coals to the other side to separate them from the ash, then scoot the ashes over to the ash dump. It takes a while. If I had a shovel with a grate I could just sift the coals right out of the ashes in one movement. It would be much easier. Sounds like I should get some expanded metal and make my own.

 

[dmccarty]

I would like to find a scoop with a grate instead of a flat bottom. Since I burn pretty much continuously, I usually have lots of hot coals left when I want to empty some ashes down the ash dump. I usually shovel everything to one side of the stove, then toss the coals to the other side to separate them from the ash, then scoot the ashes over to the ash dump. It takes a while. If I had a shovel with a grate I could just sift the coals right out of the ashes in one movement. It would be much easier. Sounds like I should get some expanded metal and make my own.

I sorta did this.

I bought two cheap shovels at Lowes. I took the drill to one of them. :laughing: I put a bunch of holes in the shovel.

I had two problems. The drill bit was too small. I should have used something larger. Even with the small holes the ash falls into the stove leaving me with the coals. But I want to throw away the ash. :confused2:

Now I kind slide the shovel from side to side to separate the wheat from the chaff so to speak. :laughing: The thought hit me a while ago that maybe I should cut some groves in the shovel to act as a grate. :thumbsup: This would help push the coals to one side.

I cannot decide if I should drill bigger holes or make a grate.

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

I've found that the ash pan is pretty much more work then it's worth. I don't like trying to get the ash into the hole that goes down into the pan, and then playing around with emptying it and cleaning up the mess that is left. It's just not very effective.

I tried scooping the ash out with a plastic dustpan and emptying it into a five gallon, plastic bucket. I have a lot of those buckets. The fist time it worked great. The second time, I had some hot coals in there and it melted my plastic dust pan. I call those "bald moments"

I went to Home Depot and found a shovel in the fireplace section that was about $8 I think, and a metal bucket that was $10. The shovel is perfect for reaching in there and scooping up the ash. It takes about two minutes and I'm done!!!!! Fast, easy and very little mess.

Eddie

 

[PILOON]

When I used a slow combustion, I found that the combustion was so complete that ash removal was minimal.
I cleaned up barely once a month!--and that the ash was but a very fine powder.
I kept the stove running 24/24 with usually 4 fills/day.

Gave up on wood and went to oil due to the excessive handling of wood as well as rising wood costs. I burned about 10 cords/ season ('face' cords).

Today a face cord runs $100.+ per for what they call semi dry. (semi= cut this year) and that is generally a mix of maple/birch/hickory and oops, some fir got in there by accident.

When I counted all the handling time and mess created I opted for the switch.

 

[MossRoad]

I've found that the ash pan is pretty much more work then it's worth. I don't like trying to get the ash into the hole that goes down into the pan, and then playing around with emptying it and cleaning up the mess that is left. It's just not very effective.

I tried scooping the ash out with a plastic dustpan and emptying it into a five gallon, plastic bucket. I have a lot of those buckets. The fist time it worked great. The second time, I had some hot coals in there and it melted my plastic dust pan. I call those "bald moments"

I went to Home Depot and found a shovel in the fireplace section that was about $8 I think, and a metal bucket that was $10. The shovel is perfect for reaching in there and scooping up the ash. It takes about two minutes and I'm done!!!!! Fast, easy and very little mess.

Eddie

Nice hats! :laughing:

I bought that exact same shovel last week at Lowes for 6. Then we went to Wallmart and it was 5. Later in the day, we were at Meijers and it was 4!

Anyhow, I plan to put some holes in it to make a sifter as mentioned earlier.
We have an ash bucket (made of steel ) but it usually just holds kindling wood.

I also have my father's fireplace set from when I was a kid. It is a shovel and a poker with a hook. I didn't want to drill that one. The poker is an invaluable tool. If you don't have one, get one for sure.

Tonight its 22 outside. Its 75 in here! :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

Regarding plastic buckets... don't ever use a shop vac either! :laughing:

In all seriousness, every year we hear about people cleaning their stoves or fireplaces and putting the ash bucket outside... only they put it too near the side of their house and the coals flair up and start the siding on fire. That, and plastic buckets seem to be the most frequent cause of cleaning type fires.

 

[MossRoad]

When I used a slow combustion, I found that the combustion was so complete that ash removal was minimal.
I cleaned up barely once a month!--and that the ash was but a very fine powder.
I kept the stove running 24/24 with usually 4 fills/day.

Gave up on wood and went to oil due to the excessive handling of wood as well as rising wood costs. I burned about 10 cords/ season ('face' cords).

Today a face cord runs $100.+ per for what they call semi dry. (semi= cut this year) and that is generally a mix of maple/birch/hickory and oops, some fir got in there by accident.

When I counted all the handling time and mess created I opted for the switch.

I burned about 5-6 full cords each of the last two years. A full cord is 4' x 4' x 8', while a face cord is only 16" x 4' x 8'. A full cord here goes for about $125.00 delivered. I cut my own. We are fortunate to have wood on our property about 9 miles away. I try to handle it as few times as possible.

 

[dmccarty]

Eddie I have two of those ash shovels. :thumbsup: One I drilled to sift the coals but I made the holes to small. I do have the drill out so maybe I should redrill. :laughing: The sifter I made out of metal wire to keep out the hot coals was not worth the effort.

I put my hot ashes in a 5 gallon metal bucket with a lid. Looks like yours but hard to tell. I either empty the ashes into the garden or dump the ashes into a 5 gallon bucket until I can dump the ashes. Depends on the time of day, how much time I have, and if it is wet. The youngest ashes will have been in the metal bucket for at least 12-24 hours before getting put into the plastic bucket. So far no problems.

Shoveling the stove out is just easier and fast than using that ash pan and one can carefully, slowly dump the ashes, without making a mess. Most of the time.

We burn a variety of hardwood but mainly red oak, white oak, hickory and maybe some Ash. Sometimes we get very little ash but sometimes a lot. I cannot figure out which give more or less ash. But I empty the ashes about once a day.

Later,
Dan

 

[EddieWalker]

It's snowing today and I'm absolutely loving my wood stove!!!! Seeing the snow come down and having plenty of wood split just makes it all so worthwhile.

I finished splitting all my wood yesterday. I'm not even close to having a place to stack it, but for now, that's not a big deal. What is a big deal is having my home nice and warm, seeing the fire burning and knowing that I'm gonna keep warm if I lose power. It's a wonderful feeling.

Thank you to everyone who helped me out in doing this!!!!

Eddie

 

[westbrooklawn]

Eddie -

There is no warmth that can compare to a woodstove... your setup looks great. Thanks for the advice on the roof flashing you told me about a while ago. I got the same type flashing and finished installing an older "Fisher Mama Bear" stove in my shop. It is not as efficient as the newer stoves, but it still puts out an amazing amount of heat. The knowledge that you can still stay warm in a power outage is a comforting feeling.

 

[MossRoad]

Enjoy the warmth, Eddie!

We go two feet of snow yesterday. 39" total since Thursday. House is 74, dry and toasty! :thumbsup:

 

[dmccarty]

When the power goes out,
And you come in from a freezing outside,
To a warm and toasty house,
PRICELESS.

Makes all that work making firewood a non memory. :laughing:

Later,
Dan