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[BurnBabyBurn]

New to the forum, love the info. I've looked thru other 4400 posts to make sure I'm not duplicating questions but of course I may have overlooked something.

First time boiler stove owner...it came with a property we recently purchased, 5-6 year old unit and we're  in eastern North Carolina with mild winters. After running the stove for about 2 weeks (without problems) we had some crazy warm weather for 8-10 days and I shut the stove off. The stove has a pipe cap (or whatever it's called) but I didn't know I should have put a bucket over it - and we got nearly 8" of rain during the shut down timeframe.

I fired it back up last night and smoke (or steam) went EVERYWHERE, except out the top of the flue pipe. I'd say 80% of my smoke was coming from the backside of my pipe where it connects into the stove. I let the fan run for 2 hours as the temp climbed from 90 to 165...then I was just worried about all the smoke that was exiting the top of the stove, so I shut off the fan for the night and turned the heat pack back on. Also, I had put water in the stove prior to firing it and it over booked a good bit as the temp climbed, but maybe that's to be expected with a cold stove ...water expansion?

So questions - do I need to just run the stove to dry it out? Did I damage the flue pipe by letting that much rain get down into it? Is it likely that my pipe is just gummed/stopped up real badly from the moisture that got in there? And FYI, I did not have this problem prior to the rain issue ...smoke exit was mostly normal (some seepage around the roof and door areas).

Unrelated questions, should I get rid of the pipe cap? ...and now I know they anytime I have the stove shut off, I need to cover the flue pipe.

Lastly, should I completely let the stove burn down and shut it off when we have these warm winter snaps...or should I keep it smoldering? THANKS IN ADVANCE for any input!

[slimjim]

I find it hard to believe that enough water would have gotten in to harm your stove, clean it out, dry it out and give it another shot.

[BurnBabyBurn]

Thanks Jim ... do you mind describing the procedure for "clean it out and dry it out" ??   

[slimjim]

Clean it out from ash and water as well as you can and get it lit ASAP.

[BurnBabyBurn]

Okay thanks, will do.

I've got a local service guy coming out tomorrow to check the flue pipe - he's thinking there may be a lot of build up in the pipe, hence the reason I'm getting most of the smoke coming out around the pipe connection into the roof of the stove. 

The cap is attached to the spark arrest and from the ground it appears to be completely clogged up ... maybe that's a normal appearance however.

[tinfoilhat2020]

Take the rain cap off the flue pipe, clean off cap and spark arrester. I use a blowtorch to clean creosote off mine. Then clean the flue pipe out with aa chimney brush (they sell them at your local big box stores like home depot). Clean all the ash out of the firebox and any standing water that may be in there....reassemble the flue pipe and cap and get that baby lit right away!

[BurnBabyBurn]

Got it fixed, turned out to be a poorly constructed non-factory stack.

Instead of using a double walled steel pipe to connect to the 18" factory pipe that comes out of the top of the stove, someone had two individual sections (2' each) of thin sheet metal connected and running into the factory pipe, then had taken a single walled heavier stainless steel tube and slid it down over the sheet metal pieces ...then welded a spark mesh and cap on the top - so the sleeve/spark arrest/cap were all one solid welded piece - no way to clean the flue without entirely removing the sleeve, which meant breaking the sealant that was in place around the collar and sliding it completely off - big time pain in the arse!

Bottom line, the spark arrest and top 5% of the flue were 95% blocked up so the smoke had nowhere to go except back down the flue and was getting out around the seams of the assembled pieces of sheet metal.

I now have a single piece, double walled stainless steel stack (still 4') running from the 18" factory pipe up thru my roof ...and NO MORE spark arrest or cap. I'll just be mindful to keep a metal bucket on the pipe when it's not running.

And while I had the stove shut down, I went ahead and removed the fan cover so I could check the flapper (good shape and working) and grease the solenoid a bit. Fired it back up this afternoon and 99% of the smoke is exiting thru the flue as it should....which means a HAPPY WIFE tonight 

Thanks for all the help y'all !!

[tinfoilhat2020]

awesome to hear!