At Home In The Woods

[Coyote machine]

WBWI,
Yes we have a screen for the fireplace but haven't used it yet.

We are still learning the fireplace and are not sure if we have a fireplace issue, a learning issue, or a wood issue. This past weekend my wife build a really hot fire using small dry wood. The fireplace got so hot that the heat duct that runs from the fireplace to the hallway ceiling got very warm and set off the smoke detectors. I went into the attic and unscrewed a piece of OSB so I could inspect the b-vent double-walled duct that runs to the hallway ceiling. The insulation company did not do a great job installing the rockwool around the b-vent duct so their was blown insulation touching the hot duct. I believe the warm insulation touching the duct caused the smoke detectors to go off.

So we were able to get a really hot fire using smaller wood. Today my wife built another fire and has been experimenting. In the fireplace manual, there is a statement that says you should either operate the fireplace with the glass doors completely closed or completely open. If the doors are cracked, the manuals says you will have smoke issues. We are able to load the fireplace and burn it fine with both the doors open without a significant
amount of smoke entering the room. The chimney is definitely drafting.

The fire seems to be burning better but we aren't sure if it is burning as hot as it should be. So we aren't sure if the problem is us, our wood, or the fireplace installation. Our wood was cut over a year ago and has been stacked outside uncovered and off the ground. It has had time to season but has been exposed to the weather.

The fireplace people are supposed to come out in two days.

Obed

If I were you- based on your description above, in color, I'd STOP playing with fire literally and figuratively and wait for the fireplace pros to attempt to solve your problem.
Clearly you are not qualified to fix the problem and you could end up burning your house down- which is what your smoke alarms are attempting to warn you about.
I'm not trying to be harsh here, but I live in VT where there are more stove related fires and chimney fires and deaths as a result, due to a variety of factors, one of which is about people getting in over their heads with installation issues/ performance issues etc.
You are at virtually NO risk if you leave it alone for a few days.
Be smart, and be safe. Find something else to play with for a few days.

And technically, leaving wood exposed to the elements/weather is not really seasoning it. Drying wood protected from the elements, is what you need to do to use wood effectively, and safely, (dry wood produces less creosote). Plus, the recent stoves/fireplaces burn more efficiently when using dry wood.

 

[WBWI]

How clean are you keeping the bottom of the fireplace? With the airtight we used to have, we had to keep a bed of coals/ash on the bottom or it significantly reduced the amount of heat it would put out.

I have the same FP that Obed has and in my experience the less ash the better. There is a night and day difference in heat output when I clean the ashes out.

 

[ruralruss]

We have kept the fireplace burning for the past 24 hours. It is keeping the house temp around 70 degrees. Last night I loaded the fireplace full and still had coals this morning.

We are trying to learn how to use the FP. We have to be very careful about getting the house smokey. Smoke wants to leave the fireplace when you open the glass doors, especially if the left door is opened. I tried cracking a LR window before opening the glass doors and that seemed to help. Our house may be so airtight that with the glass doors open, the fire can't suck air up the chimney so the smoke comes into the room. We can't open the glass door on the left at all because of the smoke so we have to load firewood through the right door only - that's a bit of a pain.

It is important to fill the fireplace up with wood and let it burn until it is burning hot! Then shut it down and don't open the doors until you have nothing but coals. Other wise it will smoke and make creosote. That is what we do with our fireplace insert. It is also important to have properly seasoned wood. Just because wood has been cut for a year does not necessarily mean it will burn good. Does your stove have a lot of thermal mass?

 

[Obed]

Does your stove have a lot of thermal mass?

I don't know the answer to that.
Obed

 

[Obed]

In preparation for the badly needed excavation and gradining project, yesterday (Saturday) we cleaned up scraps around the house. When we checked the schedule for the dump, we found that the dump closes at 11:30 AM on Saturdays. So we'll have to wait until next Saturday to unload the trailer. The trailer is pretty full. I suspect we will be over the "free" weight limit so we'll probably have to pay to dump this load. Unfortunately, you can only use your one time per year free dump allotment during the week, not on the weekend.

This morning I took the trailer to the dump. The debris weighed 2600 lbs, 600 lbs over the free limit. We suspected we would be over the limit so yesterday my wife called the county and was able to get the once time per year heavy load waiver so we didn't have to pay. Yay!

It's also very nice sitting at my computer now, typing this message, looking out the window and seeing trees instead of trash. Yay! Little by little we get closer to getting this place cleaned up.

 

[dcyrilc]

This morning I took the trailer to the dump. The debris weighed 2600 lbs, 600 lbs over the free limit. We suspected we would be over the limit so yesterday my wife called the county and was able to get the once time per year heavy load waiver so we didn't have to pay. Yay!

It's also very nice sitting at my computer now, typing this message, looking out the window and seeing trees instead of trash. Yay! Little by little we get closer to getting this place cleaned up.

Did you ever get the camper sold?

 

[Obed]

Wednesday evening, WBWI and I talked on the phone. He has a Quadrafire 7100 fireplace like we have. I described our issues and tried to compare what I was seeing to what he sees with his fireplace. I was attempting to determine whether or not I was imagining our burning issues or whether they were real. Talking to WBWI helped. He said that his fireplace will burn just as big with the glass doors shut as with them open as long as he has the air control all the way open. He said that he did not have seasoned wood during the first year after his fireplace was installed but that he does not remember the fireplace acting any differently with the unseasoned wood as with the seasoned wood had used in subsequent years. WBWI was very helpful. He even went onto the Quadrafire page on Facebook and posed a question to the company for me. Thanks WBWI!

The questions concerning the fireplace started discouraging my wife. We literally designed the house around the fireplace, the fireplace being the central feature of the house. We placed the fireplace at an interior wall for heating efficiency. My wife did tons of research picking this fireplace. So to be questioning whether or not the fireplace was working correctly started weighing on her. It did not help that the fireplace tech had never worked on the model we have.

This week the fireplace tech called Quadrafire and relayed our questions. We could not call Quadrafire directly ourselves, The manufacturer gave the standard response - "Your wood is too wet. The chimney may be positioned such that it doesn't draft well. etc. etc." The manufacturer did not provide any resolution options other than for us to use different wood or rebuild our house.

I decided to get involved and called the local fireplace company who installed the unit and who was consulted in every piece of the design (fireplace location, location of ducts, heat zones, etc.). I ended up talking to a couple people at the local store, one of which was the local technician. They made some calls and talked to a service manager in Charlotte. The fireplace store is a national chain. The Charlotte service manager said that he had a customer with our exact same symptoms. He said that our fireplace ships with a screw that prevents the outside combusion air damper from being damaged during shipping. This screw must be removed to allow correct operation of the combustion air damper. The fireplace's installation manual says nothing about this screw. The tech who installed our fireplace is sure he did not remove such a screw. The Charlotte service manager said he is 99% sure that is our problem.

So the new fireplace tech we've been talking to and the store's district manager are coming out Monday to remove the screw. Unfortunately, we will have to cut through sheetrock in the master bath to be able to get to the fireplace. However, if this fixes the problem, we won't mind at all cutting the sheetrock. The fireplace people have been very helpful so far and did try real hard to help us. They could have easily just dismissed our case like the manufacture and said it was a problem with the wood, our education, etc.

To be sure, we had some "dry" firewood delivered to the house yesterday. Supposedly, the wood was cut over 6 months ago and has been stored under a tarp. The wood is Ash. I'm not totally convinced the wood is that old but I've heard that Ash burns real well, even when it is freshly cut.

 

[Obed]

Did you ever get the camper sold?

We still have the camper and the storage trailer. Do you want them? Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!

Obed

 

[dcyrilc]

We still have the camper and the storage trailer. Do you want them? Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!

Obed

The property sold OK though?

 

[RadarTech]

We still have the camper and the storage trailer. Do you want them? Cheap! Cheap! Cheap!

Obed

hey bidder bidder.. give me a number.. come on folks...
First bidder step right up.....