Using Bit Coal and Chimney Soot Dangers

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mslisaj
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Post by mslisaj » Thu. Aug. 13, 2009 12:45 pm

I have a Vogelzan Potbelly stove that works very well. I do notice through my Barometric Dampner that I have about 1/4 inch of powdery soot in the chimney. My first question is this soot dangerous like creasote and wood fires? Also can anyone recommed a better way to build the fire so I don't get so much soot? I have a real good draft on the Chimney and have to really be careful I don't overfire the stove and get it red hot. I have to keep the vents closed and damper it down sometimes. Other then these questions/issues everything is working very well with no problems...........

Thanks for your help...........

Lisa

 
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coaledsweat
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Post by coaledsweat » Thu. Aug. 13, 2009 1:02 pm

It is flyash and while it will need to be cleaned periodically, it is not a hazard like creosote as it will not burn. It will eventually choke off the draft when it accumulates enough.

 
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mslisaj
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Post by mslisaj » Thu. Aug. 13, 2009 2:54 pm

Thanks so much for your timely response. It's good to know it's not dangerous. While it's black like soot I'm learning now there are other things going up the chimney........... Again thank you for your response.........

Lisa

 
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Berlin
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Post by Berlin » Fri. Aug. 14, 2009 12:52 am

with bituminous it is "soot" (and flyash mixed in) it can burn, but not dangerously like creosote from a wood stove, it can ignite and "burn" very, very slowly and without much heat being produced and certainly without any danger. the vogelzang pot belly is not an ideal stove for bituminous coal, however, try adding new coal only to one side, then the other alternating during loading thus allowing a few red coals on one side to remain exposed to ignite more throroughly the fresh volitiles from the fresh coal being loaded. soot is acceptable and inevitable with any hand fired bituminous appliance. this is why I reccomend always using 8" flue pipe NOT 6" regardless of what the flue collar on the stove measures; the soot will only build up so much then fall apart inside the pipe (with an 8") with a six inch pipe, it's small enough that it will require periodic cleaning (banging on the outside of the vertical sections and brushing the horizontal areas is ususally sufficient) when the draft becomes affected.


 
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mslisaj
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Post by mslisaj » Fri. Aug. 14, 2009 3:30 am

Wow!! Thanks so much for the insightful and informative comments. I was sort of lucky and had all the 6" pipe I needed for this installation in the attic of my house when I bought it. But when the time comes to replace it I will be upgrading the chimney to 8". It only makes sense to do that and as you said the soot will just flake off and fall back down the chimney easier. Thanks to about the reassurance that the flyash/soot is not dangerous. I will keep and eye on it and start loading the fire as you instructed. I have just been putting new coal right on top and in the center of the old one. Great idea about one side or the other..........

Again thank you so much for your comments and help........

Lisa

 
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BigBarney
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Post by BigBarney » Fri. Aug. 14, 2009 10:38 am

I burn bituminous coal in a boiler and get a small amount of soot in the

flue and it will burn with a slight glow but not a fast vigorous flame.Most

is swept up the chimney when a large fire is going,I don't get the cobweb

type of soot that some others get.The hot fire come when I reload and keep

the ash door open for awhile to clean the flue out.

On these hotter summer days it is hard to do because the high draft

can't be achieved due to the heavy air and high humidity,so I clean the

flue of the soot and fly ash manually with a flue brush.

BigBarney

 
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mslisaj
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Post by mslisaj » Sat. Aug. 15, 2009 2:54 pm

Hi Big Barney,

Thanks for your help too. I'm happy for the opportunity to learn about this so I don't have to worry.

Thanks for taking your time to respond to this topic............

Lisa

 
larryfoster
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Post by larryfoster » Sun. Jan. 21, 2018 7:24 am

I found this old thread while trying to figure why I have so much soot in my chimney.
Or fly ash.

I cleaned my chimney on December 11 and I know it's time to do it again because I'm getting a lot of smoke out my load door when I add coal.
MPD is open and ash door is also open when I load.
Manometer readings are creeping down to a maximum of .06-.08.

I keep the ash door open for a while after loading to get a good fire

I have been keeping my secondary open to burn off the volatiles for anywhere from 45 minutes to over an hour.

I will get close to half a kitchen garbage bag of soot/ fly ash out of the chimney.

I'm under the impression that people clean their chimneys once a season and not once a month.

Is there something that I might be doing that is causing this and is there something that I can do to reduce this?

Thanks


 
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BigBarney
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Post by BigBarney » Mon. Jan. 22, 2018 10:54 am

The last time we cleaned the chimney this year was in October 2014 .

I don't get much soot mostly flyash. I burn all Bit coal and a little wood

just to get rid of waste wood from the tree falls. I can clean short pipe to

chimney and the boiler heat exchanger with a low fire and never have to

shutdown , I can burn 24/7/365 , I do shut down once in the winter break

to clean the clinkers and any non burnables from the grate ,did it last week.

I don't need a shaker grate and am able to use a straight and a hooked poker

to get the ash to fall.




With a downdraft boiler the combustion is very complete with the added

secondary air all the time.In the boiler the volatiles go up into the hopper

fill area and are drawn back down thru the hottest part of the fire and

burn with a blue/yellow flame. See my logo picture for view into the sec-

ondary air port at the grate level .

Will try to get a drawing so you can see how this boiler works.

BigBarney

 
Volatile
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Post by Volatile » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 10:13 am

When it's down below 20 degrees outside and I have a hot fire going with lots of draft I can see it snowing soot outside indicating the stoves self cleaning mode is working. But I still do take apart the pipe inside and run a brush through it in the spring the same time I clean out the bottom of the chimney when weather permits.

 
Volatile
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Post by Volatile » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 10:25 am

I do recommend however that if you burn much wood in the fall then switch to coal for the winter to check for any creosote or run a brush through your stove pipe before switching over. I had a close call once when we had an unusually warm fall and I burned mostly wood for a couple months then switched to coal when it got cold out. I had a good fire going and when I poked the coal bed, enough heat went up the pipe to get the creasote/soot mixture to start burning which made the stove pipe temp to shoot up to 750-800 degrees and start glowing. I shut down all the air and closed the baro and after a little while it burned out and cooled down. Lol

 
corey
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Post by corey » Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 2:44 pm

Volatile wrote:
Sat. Dec. 01, 2018 10:25 am
I do recommend however that if you burn much wood in the fall then switch to coal for the winter to check for any creosote or run a brush through your stove pipe before switching over. I had a close call once when we had an unusually warm fall and I burned mostly wood for a couple months then switched to coal when it got cold out. I had a good fire going and when I poked the coal bed, enough heat went up the pipe to get the creasote/soot mixture to start burning which made the stove pipe temp to shoot up to 750-800 degrees and start glowing. I shut down all the air and closed the baro and after a little while it burned out and cooled down. Lol
+1 great info i also had a flue fire one year after burning wood then coal.

I have found straight coal soot just glows then gets sucked out lot safer then creosote from wood.

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