Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => General Outdoor Furnace Discussion => Topic started by: Scott7m on January 29, 2013, 08:26:06 PM
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We are always doing q and a on here but sharing stories could be an interesting twist.
I thought I would share a story from several years ago when I was doing an install. While speaking with a fellow forum member this evening I told him about it and thought I would share and see what other stories folks have.
But on to the story,
It was dark, trying to finish up an install when an impatient customer was building a fire with green wood "no doubt" as we were tying everything together. He was raising heck saying it wouldn't burn well, I was explaining the green wood and went on doing what I was doing, I came back by the stove moments later and thought I smelled kerosene, I opened the door to look inside and saw a huge white fog, "kerosene fog" I saw it start to swirl as air rushed in and slammed the door, instantly it went KABooooomm!!! The main load door held, but the ash pan door came out so hard it broke the latches clean off and took my legs out on the way out, I went hurling into the air. I was laying on the ground probably 20 feet from the stove when I looked up and saw the "mushroom cloud" of kerosene exploding above the stove, the fireball went well above the power lines!
Needless to say, my shins turned blue from bruising, I singed hair off of both my arms from shielding my face from the flash, singed some of my hair and eyebrows still yet, my helper at the time was standing 12-15 feet from the boiler when she went off, he also had burns all over, mostly singed hair. Knocked him down as well, so we had numerous scratches and stuff, it was quite the day...
What happened? Customer threw in a water pale of kerosene when I wasn't looking, the fire was smoldering and it was atomizing the kerosene, the fuel was so rich inside the stove it didn't have enough o2 to ignite, well, I gave it the o2 and she went off!!! Kerosene in vapor form, wow!!!
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Some story, I believe I would've been tempted to throw the customer in the stove. LOL
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Some story, I believe I would've been tempted to throw the customer in the stove. LOL
Exactly what the other forum member said he'd do... Lol
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Sounds like you were real lucky could have been a lot worse on you.
I once new an old man that always said ignorance is curable but stupidity is forever the older i get the more that seams to make since.
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So how did the customer act after all that took place?
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Until now I've only burnt my arm on a cast iron door.
I've used a small amount of used veggie oil but no more than 8oz.
You are one lucky person, I'm sure he recieved a few choice words.
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I finished up, but I haven't heard from him since, kinds hope I dont
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I was hoping this would never get brought up... that was me... :bash:
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Classic !!
Glad you are ok. Never would ahve thought about the Ash door being blown open and taking out your ankles. OUCH !!
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I was hoping this would never get brought up... that was me... :bash:
Pretty cool to admit it, bet you dont do that again...
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Yes airforcepol, have to agree with pitcrew, praise to you to admit fault for such an error in logic. Hope Scott7m can forgive you for the brusing, hearing loss,pain & suffering, PTSD, and soiled undergarments. Next question, Scott7m have you fully recovered?(hopefully)!!! Does that void the warranty on the boiler? Certainly a maximum pressure test. Nearly a 911 call. Reminds me of my High school buddy who was trying to light a pilot on a gas stove in a mobile home. Took too long and blew himself on his ass. The pressure blew the door open and cracked windows, wow that hurt our ears. Igniting flammables in an enclosed area= bomb.
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Besides the latches, I didnt notice any damage, the breaking latches were the release as well as the chimney
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You guys didn't really think it was me did you? lol
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Oh, and J Cooch, Ssshhhhhh..... dont mention the PTSD. They'll take his guns away!
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Nice going Scott, you say sharing interesting stories on here and throw out something few or any can compete with. The ones that could compete are dead or can't type now, so their story will never be told. ;D thanks for peeing in our Wheaties, now the rest will just sound lame. My hopes are crushed :'(
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Seriously, glad your ok. I hope you opened a new can of whoop ass on the dude.
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This is my true story, ENJOY! My mishap just happened this past monday the 28th of january 2013. My wife had got up around 6:30am to get ready to goto work while I was sleeping like a bear in hibernation because Im working the evening shift and had stayed up to watch my recorded show AXE MEN and eat a bag of popcorn! I was awakened to her screaming the house is freezing and the vents are blowing cold air! I managed to open my eyes and pull the covers back to sit up in bed to start getting dressed when I realized, it's freezing in here! What is going on! My heart skipped a beat and my adrenaline started pumping to prepare me for the catostrophic event that had forced me from my beauty sleep. My first two thoughts- 1. My boiler had sprung a leak and all the hot water had ran out so it was no longer making it to my house! 2. My pump has died and I dont have a spare so Im going to have to start up the ole trusty indoor wood stove! I threw on some sweat pants, a tee shirt, my old sneakers and my fill up the wood stove jacket and headed down into the basement. I first went to the breaker box to check and see if maybe a breaker had just kicked and I could reset it and go back to bed, but no such luck. I threw open the basement door heading outside into the semi-lit morning when I quickly realized we had gotten the freezing rain the weather man was forecasting, I almost fell on my hiney with my first step and boy was it a doozy. I looked like a person ice skating for the first time, just could'nt get my feet under me, arm's out like they were air plane wings and I was flying! Much smaller more careful steps from here on out I promise. I made my way to my stove thats about 60 feet away and slightly down hill making sure each foot was secure before moving the other. Like I said earlier we had gotten freezing rain so everthing was wet and frozen so from a diastance I thought the worst. I finally made it to the stove and opened the door where the water level and ranco are housed and to my surprise the water level was still up, No Leaks!I then opened the firebox door and all was dry and smoldering just like it has been so I closed it up. Looked back up to the ranco and no temperature was being displayed, but I checked the breaker! Dang it my thermostat had failed me I thought but that doesn't explain why the pumps not running.....Im on to something here. I think it was at this point that my brain really woke up.........we have a underground dog fence with lightning protection and it's on a ground fault interrupter outlet. MY stove is on a outlet on the other side of the basement but it is tied into that same gfi, ding ding ding we have a winner! I think? Slowly back up the slope to the basement and inside I slid, sure enough the light on the dog fence is off, yes I figured it out finally! Or had I? I removed the large plug for the lightining protector for the fence and hit the reset.......it poped right back out! WTF! OK maybe the pump has shorted and is kicking the gfi off so I walked to the other side of the basement and pulled the plug going to the outdoor wood stove, still the gfi would not reset. What now? Well there is one more thing plugged into the outlet where the stove is plugged in, it goes to the block heater on our Ford superduty diesel, could it have shorted and be my problem? Lets find out. I slid back out side and looked to my surprise to see the truck is plugged in and the plug is hanging out the front bumper with the cord covered in ice. WOW! I unplugged the cord from the truck, threw it back toward the basement, slid back inside unplugged the extension cord from the wall, ran back to the gfi, hit the reset and PRESTO! POWER! The water temp. in the stove was 187 while the temp. in the house had dropped to 62 degrees, I know freezing right. LOL Took a minute or two and the lines coming into the heat exchanger were hot and the vents in the house were blowing hot air. I made my grand entrance back into the house stating that I had fixed the problem but it was her fault. "How was it my fault"? She asked. Well I said "you know that truck that you plugged up so it would start so easy and have almost instant heat and no frozen ice on the windshield"? "Yea" she said. "Well it's frozen like a giant block of ice and the house was cold beacuse when you plugged it up you didn't tuck the plug in the bumper and all that rain/ice ran down in the plug and kicked the gfi out on the stove, truck, and dog fence" I said. "Oh, well I didn't mean to" she said as I laid back down to goto sleep in my nice warm house!
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i would be moving my wood stove plug to a non gfi one, they are just too finiky for me. ground your stove to the earth good and use a normal plug to energize it...but it waas a great story :thumbup:
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Yeah woman Your ground fault. HAHA!!! Put that boiler on the line side of that GFI if possible. Never wake up to a cold house & wife, with a runaway dog ,frozen truck & bolier.
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I hate gfi plug ins, I usually replace them if the stove I'm installing comes with one
Good story though lol
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Was reading back through the forum and thought people could get a good laugh out of this and hopefully not make a goofy mistake such as this.... :bash:
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There's two of the best stories Iv'e heard in a long time thanks guys, you put a smile on my face, I'll try to think of one myself.
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There's two of the best stories Iv'e heard in a long time thanks guys, you put a smile on my face, I'll try to think of one myself.
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You gotta watch em slim, ppl will try anything lol
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I changed the oil in my car last winter and decided my firebox could burn 5qts of oil pretty easy? Long story short I tossed all of it in my stove on top of the wood packed in there. I quick closed the door and for some dumbass reason I opened the door to see what would happen..........kapowwwwww frikkin eyebrows singed along with arm hair and my head hair. I swear my face took a sunburn from that heat. What a dbag I was.
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As I mentioned a while ago on another post, thats how I keep that fairly attractive beard and long hair trimmed for the wife, she says the burned hair smells better than the cigars anyway
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This is wood burning related but not an OWB. About 15 years ago I was working out in a rural part of the county I live in and was tooling down the road headed for my next job when I noticed flames shooting probably six feet out of the chimney of an old farm house about 150 yards off the road I was on. Kicking the accelerator I sped up to the house and ran to the front door. Now, I knew the folks that lived here, an elderly couple in their mid eighties at the time, so I just ran on in yelling "your chimney's on fire, your chimney's on fire." I went to the stove and closed the damper hoping to cut the air off. Just then Mrs. Smith (name changed to protect the innocent) comes shuffling around the corner and I tell her to call the fire dept., (no cell phone back then). Mrs. Smith being hard of hearing, asks me if I'm staying for supper. :-\ I raise my voice some and repeat, this time asking where Mr. Smith is. She tells me he is in the barn, so I assume this time she also heard the part about the fire and calling help. So I take off and run for the barn. The barn is about 100 yards from the house, a good walk for Mr. Smith, an even greater run for me. Finally getting to the barn I find Mr. Smith and try to explain the situation. Now after my 100 yard dash I don't have much wind left so Mr. Smith with good hearing has a hard time understanding me. So finally with what seems like eternity I get my point across. Here is the reply I got. "Bout time, I've been shovin' cardboard in that thing all day trying to get it to burn." So I said you want me to call and tell the fire dept. not to come? and he says "Well it won't burn clean if the fire dept. puts it out will it?" So I start my mad dash back to the house to try and head off the fire dept. When I get in and go to the phone Mrs. Smith asks if there is a problem, knowing by her question that she never heard about the fire I just put the phone back down and fall into a chair at the table. Now this time when she asked if I was staying for supper, I said in a loud tone, "What are we having?" Everything worked out, Mr. Smith gets his chimney burnt clean and I get a nice supper. I sure do miss those folks. He cut a lot of his wood his self up to the day he died. Come to find out he cleaned his chimney every year like that. I would be nervous trying that with my house chimney, but didn't seem to bother him. Sure gave me a scare.
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I can read these stories all night!!!
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Lol good one
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All I got to offer is, I clean my OWB every couple of weeks, especially the primary air holes. To do this you have stick the entire upper half of your body in the firebox to reach those in the back. I have come to learn that if you have sneeze, DON"T do it while your head is in the firebox! WOW! I was the most beautiful shade of BLACK I've ever seen. I think it took me an hour in the shower to get all of the grime and gunk off my face, every crease and out of my hair. I can honestly say that this was the first time I left a ring of dirt in the shower (The drain plugged on me).
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Try replacing firebrick in the middle of the winter with a hot Seqouyah Paradise E-3400, nice stove, not a nice place to be!
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I work in an ER in Michigan and just took care of a family of 4 who were lighting their stove for the first time after having it installed this summer. Dad, mom, and 2 teenagers couldn't get the thing started, saying they were using paper and wood just like their campfires. So they thought it would be a good idea for a small amount of gasoline... That worked out well. The dad was half bald from being flashed burnt on his head, mom now has short hair from the same thing, one of the teenagers had a sprained ankle from jumping back and falling over a piece of wood, and the other one had a cut on his head because he was laughing so hard and his brother hit him in the head with a stick. People like this keep me in business.
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Have you posted anything about your experience with your Heiss heater?
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Andy, was actually just about to. Check the main board here in about 15 minutes.
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Well, I figure this is a good place to tell on myself. I had a little mishap last night. I'm still not exactly sure the order of events, but I will do my best to summarize. I went out, opened the door and shifted around the coals and remaining pieces of wood, as per normal. I threw in 2 pieces of wood toward the back. It started to smoke a bit, so I turned on the fan by adjusting the thermostat to call for heat. Again, as per normal. So, the fan kicked on, changed the smoldering into a fire on the remaining wood, and the thick smoke thinned out, as per normal.
Now, this is where things get fuzzy. I think, for some reason, I closed the door. I'm really not sure why I did that, but I think at that point, the fire extinguished, even though the fan was still going. A few seconds later, I hear a WOOSH, and flames came out of the chimney! I was a little startled as a 10' flame erupted and continued to burn out the top of the chimney. See attached picture. But, that wasn't the bad part. What I didn't know, was that the WOOSH had re-extinguished the fire. The flame was just the creasote burning off the chimney. So, I turned off the fan and went to open the door. When I opened the door, I saw how pitch black it was inside. At this point, the exact course of events is a little fuzzy. I didn't black out, but the adrenaline dump must have erased my memory. I remember seeing how black it was inside, I remember thinking "not good," then I remember the biggest WOOSH and fireball I have ever seen! It was so strong that the water gauge right next to the chimney was sucked out of the stand pipe and fell to the ground!
Somehow, with the fan, the smoldering, the wood gases, the fire going "out" and the door opening had created the perfect storm for a massive backdraft! I think I lucked out. No singed hair, no stove damage, no fan damage. A new pair of underwear and I was good to go!
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CountryBoyJohn - That flame shooting out of the stack is most impressive. You gotta watch for low flying birds, though. And, a spare set of underwear is also very important. Roger
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Glad to hear your o.k.