treeworld1203

Quick shout for trust insurance, would definitley recommend on being helpful and making a policy work for me.

Ok as promised, sorry for the delay. Here is the flue. It sticks up above the roof line, I was wondering if the wind blowing across the top of it would prevent smoke from escaping and then force it back down the flue? If that was the case, I was wondering about fitting one of those spinning things to the top, to help pull more draw up...

On 14/01/2024 at 11:52, Mik the Miller said:

My take on this is that these are the new Eco/Clean Burn stoves which are designed to swirl the internal gasses so that they burn 'cleaner' and create less polution.

In theory (and computer simulations) this probably works, but in reality the internal dynamics cause a downward (and forward) swirl of air, that when the door is open' ejects the internal gasses (air/smoke/ash) into the room.

I have often pondered this myself Mik 

13 hours ago, Steven P said:

Perhaps also make a diary of how bad it is each day with a note on the outside weather - wind direction - and temperatures (very cold, cold, warm maybe) see if there is a pattern when it is worse or better

Splendid idea, thanks. On that note, I will pop a couple of pics of flue up today on here.

@Muddy42 like this? 

22 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

As smoke cools as it rises, the deposits will be way worse higher up or in the cowl. 

Good point, I hadn't thought of that!

22 minutes ago, Muddy42 said:

Get one of those kits with flexible rods and a brush that you use with a power drill. Its always worth a try.

Do you (or others) sweep your own flues then?! I am intruiged!

Whilst removing the baffle plates this morning, I looked up the flue and saw this flaky deposit (see pic). Is this enough to mess up flue performance?! Last swept summer 2023. Been burning most days since October.

On 26/12/2023 at 22:28, Steven P said:

Last question from me for now, it is a wide door stove, does it smoke into the room continuously or is it smoke dragged into the room as the door is opened and then nothing?

It is a fairly wide stove, it's the "Stovax County 5 WIDE" model. The smoke isn't being dragged into the room by the door opening, we crack open the door catch first then pause a moment then gently open door not too fast. The smoke starts either immediate coming into room, or sometimes after a second or two. Needless to say we keep the door open for as little time as possible, only sufficient to place the new log(s) in.

On 26/12/2023 at 22:28, Steven P said:

Just one check that the baffle plate is fitted properly - though your sweep would have fitted it as it should have been at leas once in the life of the stove but a quick ckeck only takes a couple of seconds.

I have checked this morning, using the manual. Both baffle plates are correctly fitted. I removed them, there was a small amount of ash sitting on them which i hoovered off and then replaced the baffles as per the manual 👍

On 26/12/2023 at 22:28, Steven P said:

If you are going for a couple more details, if you can get something of the chimey installation above the roof perhaps with a bit of the surroundings in it - any nearby trees, where the roof line is and so on, and approximate height.

Thanks, I will get pictures on here very shortly

On 21/12/2023 at 15:43, woody paul said:

As you live in bungalow get on roof and check flue they tar up right at the top and no matter how much you sweep you can't dislodge it

Our flue has got a bit of coarse mesh at the top with the "lid" above that. When the chimney sweep comes, his wife stands outside until she can see the brush right up to the "lid". So I assume the problem we descibe we wouldn't have.

Here is a picture showing a typical burn. This is how we are running it daily. Temperature on the flue reading around 200 C, the airwash on max, the primary air on max and the secondary air control underneath the stove pushed as far away as possible (remains open at 15%). We had the secondary air control wide open until recently. The problem doesn't seem to have changed regardless of where the secondary air control is. If we close down the primary air control (like the manual says) then we start to lose temperature. 

I will try and get a video next of loading it, showing our technique with the smoke coming out.

a

19 hours ago, Essexlogman said:

you should be looking at Min 250 to 400 350 being the optimum temp

Degrees C ? The flue temperature gauge we have says that anything above 250 C is "too hot" ... 

When I get a minute between Christmas and new year, I will pop some pics on here of the stove and flue set up. In the meantime, merry Christmas!

14 hours ago, Steven P said:

Has it always done this?

Pretty much yes.

14 hours ago, Steven P said:

So last question for now, do you keep the room door shut?

The lounge door is always open to a large hall and open plan kitchen/diner. There is also a vent in the exterior wall of the lounge, presumably left over from the gas fire that was there previously. We can feel a draught through it, so theres plenty of air coming in.

14 hours ago, openspaceman said:

What diameter is the flue passage  in the chimney and is the register plate well sealed where the flue enters the chimney

Im not up on these terms, please excuse my ignorance. We don't have a chimney on our bungalow, i think they called the flue they installed, a twin wall system?

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I am going to look into our flue height next. If we had a two storey house, the flue would have had to be much taller, and I wonder if we would have had a different result. Being in a bungalow means a lower flue than a conventional house....

31 minutes ago, spudulike said:

I am guessing the draught from our chimney is pretty strong and yours is non existent. 

I wonder if extending our flue would help? Does anyone know what the recommended height should be for a 5kw stove?

45 minutes ago, Steven P said:

not sure how much you use the stove

Every day almost

42 minutes ago, Steven P said:

How much smoke comes into the room and what is your fire like?

It varies, sometimes you cant see any smoke but we see little bits of ash floating up out of the open door and it smells smokey. Most of the time the smoke is visible, and it is quite a lot and we just try and shut the door asap. We always are burning hot, about 200 degrees C. We refuel before the temeprature drops. The fire has plenty of flames and a good bed of red hot embers.

Here it tells you to close the primary air control when wood burning. If we do that, we lose our fire - even if we wait until the operating temp has reached;

These are the controls it has:

33 minutes ago, spudulike said:

Have you got a flue damper?

No it doesnt have one of them. I think it has something underneath the stove that you can push forward or back...will have a look into that.

1 hour ago, woody paul said:

Air wash cleans glass on doors and throughs heat out of stove more, open both and see if it smokes when door is opened. 

Both open on max when door opening....

Which do you by mean the damper? We have the + or - adjuster at the top which the dodgy installer told us was to make the smoke get burnt better before it went up the chimney (airwash i think he called it) and then the sliding vent at the bottom of the door...