Wood stove heat

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  • #701
I'm wondering how many of us brush our own chimney/flues, vs. how many of us hire it out? And another wondering...how frequently do y'all either do it yourselves or pay a pro to do it?

Me, I do it myself. Have all the tools, and can access my flue easily...wtf, that was part of our house design from the getgo :).

Brush the flue and clean the residue out of the woodstove twice a year. Early fall, before the daily use kicks in, and sometime in the late winter, to keep all ops to top performance. Takes a couple of hours each time.
 
I used to brush ours every month during burn season until I installed a secondary burn tube, now it’s just once a season and it’s barely worth the trouble. Gives me peace of mind tho.
 
I do mine once a year before burn season. Seems to work, but I don't know what's good. I don't get a ton of stuff, but I don't know how much is too much.
 
We shove the brush down ours a couple times a season, take out the baffle plate and catch a half bucket of crap.
In between the Mr beats the bit sticking out the top with a wooden stick maybe once a month to loosen any buildup, usually a few handfuls.
 
The one I have now came with the secondary burner, the old one didn't have it.

"Secondary burn is the "re-burning" of the off gasses that occur during the pre-coaling stages of burning wood.

Burn tubes is one of 2 methods to generate this secondary burn. It is basically a set of tubes at the top of the burn box that gets "super" heated during the burn process. Additional air is feed to these tubes (which have holes in them). When the smoke meets super heated burn tubes with the extra oxygen being pumped in at the same point.....whooof. You got fire. It burns the nasties up (fuel), reduces emissions, and creates a really cool light show at the top of the burn box."

www.stoveworlduk.co.uk

What is secondary burn on a wood burning stove?

Secondary burn is a feature incorporated in the majority of new wood burning stoves. Stove World UK explains why a woodburning stove with secondary burn is so desirable.
www.stoveworlduk.co.uk www.stoveworlduk.co.uk
 
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In the old house I had an insert like Kyle, I did it every year for a while and never got much out so only did it every 3 or 4 years.

Did this one just before winter this year and got about a dustpan full after 4 winters. So with burning only good hard wood and the secondary burner it makes a big difference.
 
Burnham said:
What is this secondary burn tube, may I ask?
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This is what I did to our stove Mr. B. Just welded a 1” stainless pipe to a 1” black pipe on a 90*, drilled a hole in the stove on the top of one side close to the door to introduce air as far from the exhaust port as possible. The stainless goes inside the stove and the black pipe is attached to the side of the stove to catch some heat. No real reason for two different types of pipe, just had a limited amount of stainless on hand. Made two burners but with just one the stove burns great. More heat, less ash and hardly any smoke out the chimney. Smoke is unburnt fuel so I’m told. Burn time for the stove is about the same. I’ll try to remember to get a picture of the stove when I get home this weekend. It’s nothing special, straight up ghetto.

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I brush every year. I always expect a full grocery bag of debris but it has constantly been a third of a bag. The stove itself gets cleaned in November and in February. On another note, someone overfired the stove last year. I hope the boat between New Hampshire and Connecticut does not get stuck in a port 😀.
 

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  • #712
BlackSmith said:
This is what I did to our stove Mr. B. Just welded a 1” stainless pipe to a 1” black pipe on a 90*, drilled a hole in the stove on the top of one side close to the door to introduce air as far from the exhaust port as possible. The stainless goes inside the stove and the black pipe is attached to the side of the stove to catch some heat. No real reason for two different types of pipe, just had a limited amount of stainless on hand. Made two burners but with just one the stove burns great. More heat, less ash and hardly any smoke out the chimney. Smoke is unburnt fuel so I’m told. Burn time for the stove is about the same. I’ll try to remember to get a picture of the stove when I get home this weekend. It’s nothing special, straight up ghetto.

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I understand. That's a good mod. My Hearthstone is built that way, more or less, from the factory.
 
There’s a good many secondary burn stoves on the market. Great idea. Less pollution, more heat, less creosote.
 
Patrick A said:
I brush every year. I always expect a full grocery bag of debris but it has constantly been a third of a bag. The stove itself gets cleaned in November and in February. On another note, someone overfired the stove last year. I hope the boat between New Hampshire and Connecticut does not get stuck in a port 😀.
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What exactly are we looking at? You ordering a new part?
 
I am ordering a new part. The part sits above the catalytic converter. It is supposed to be flat and not concave. It bent so much that it is touching the catalytic converter (not engaged in the pic)
 
It looks like the catalytic converter is responsible of this hot spot. And I'd say that it's a repeated event. Multiple red hot thawings / coolings forged the plate in that shape, not just once. The deep /multi layers scalling in the center can testify that.
 
Patrick A said:
I brush every year. I always expect a full grocery bag of debris but it has constantly been a third of a bag. The stove itself gets cleaned in November and in February. On another note, someone overfired the stove last year. I hope the boat between New Hampshire and Connecticut does not get stuck in a port 😀.
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The least they could do is try to add some braces to such large thin sheets of metal to both add thickness to reduce warping, and to act as a heatsink. In my opinion, it is one small modification the factory could make to save a lot of trouble from overfiring. Sometimes you use different wood that is more resinous, or gaskets get old an leaky that can cause a hot fire. My stove seems to almost have a thermal runaway temp where once it gets that hot, it just keeps getting hotter due to how strong the draft is, plus the fact that not all the air vents can be shut. In place of the perforated tubes like what Blacksmith is using, my stove was made with the window gasket missing along the top edge to both burn cleaner, and to keep the window clean from creosote buildup, but I can't shut that vent.
 
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  • #719
That's a cute idea :).

Jeez, my boy's axe and chopping block work mighty fine for kindling. For that matter, I hand split everything with a 5 pound axe or 6 pound maul, that goes into our woodstove.

Y'all are clearly a buncha wimpy culls.
:D

Not!
 
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  • #720
It's easy to poke hard funnin' at you youngsters, when one is as old as I am. I don't need a machine to make big firewood small enough that it fits into the woodstove :D.
 
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  • #721
Well, I have to admit, it's only 2 or 3 cords a year. "Easy" for any old man, I suppose ;).
 
I don't always need a beer to have a good time either, but it efn helps! Hahahahaha I'm excited to use my new chipper crane when I'm splitting here, I'm like that already :lol: seriously tho, depending on what you got here hand splitting is sometimes mashing yourself against wall. I've even seen a few of the hydraulic ones with twisted beams and stuff just blown apart. Even the one i helped my buddy build with had to be straightened and beefed up. Used a rosebud torch for a long time to get the whole bent section red hot, then straightened it out with a come along, a pipe wrench, and the hydraulics :lol:
 
The concept of splitting kindling is pretty foreign to me. I get enough sticks in the yard to burn as cordwood if I could get them pressed together. I bet I could soley burn sticks every 2-3 years, and have enough for the whole winter. I currently have ~.5 cord on the hill neatly stacked, another .25 cord in piles, and at least a winter of kindling just laying around the yard. That's after burning a bunch in the barrel a month or so ago.
 
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