PPPPPP

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

I've been heating with wood since 1976.  ~43 years, doing flue maintenance annually.  Or more often.  Today, I hit a low point in flue condition.

I knew last year that it was time to service the flue pipe but I postponed.  I knew it was time in the Spring.  All that nice weather with a months dead fire and no smoke.

Cool weather.  Build my second fire of the season.  "I'll do the flue pipe next stretch of good weather".

Smokey fire, drawing poorly.  Stove about half full of wood with a poor fire.  House is filling with smoke.  Messed around.  Shoveling ashes. Tapped on the lower flue thinking I could jar an obstruction down.  My hand went about half way into the pipe.  More smoke streaming into the house.  Shut off air supply as well as possible and got some new pipe which has a breakable seam lengthwise.  Put new pipe over old and wired it down.  Smoke situation improves.  I notice another weak bulging place in the next higher section of flue pipe.  Put another new piece over it and go in search of more wire.  Return to better position the 2nd piece and find it too hot to handle; burned my hand.  Wired it down in a sub optimal position.

Now, I have to wait for the fuel to be exhausted so I can take the flue down without too much more smoke coming into the house.  That fire burn down normally takes at least two days.  We have 3+ days of cold weather before us. Maybe I'll get my lash up secure enough that I can burn during the cold spell.  Maybe I'll resort to electric heat.  From the grid.  I barely got the PowerWall charged today; heavy clouds all day.  I considered trying to put the fire out with water.  What a mess that would make.  Maybe the whole flue pipe system will fall down and all the flue gas will vent into the house. Then, I'll move out until the fire is burned out and the smoke dissipated.  Maybe my end will come from smoke inhalation or carbon monoxide poisoning.

I guess I should turn this into a blog post.  I'll take a photo or two. I can still see the humor in it.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/zCrGMvRcooaGxXgs6


Later.... it turned out fairly well.  Every single piece of flue pipe was falling apart.  No two pieces held together so I had to make one trip outside for each piece.  Most years, I pull it out, put whole assembly outside, and clean out the inside with a wire brush made for the purpose.  Then replace the bad pieces and reuse the others.  Fortunately, I had all pieces needed in stock.  Will I remember to replenish stock for next year?

Now, the stove is working WONDERFULLY well!  Good hot fire.  Not a hint of smoke in the house.  Ready for the first freese of the season.  Ready for a long cold winter.