cowroy
Addicted to ArboristSite
winland, would you care to start a new thread when you get your insert installed? I would like to see the process, and here your review because what you are doing is exactly what I want to do in my house eventually.
Chimney Fire
- Thread starter winland
- Start date
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My current "heatilator" has intake/exhaust blowers on each side of the fireplace.
Should I leave these connected or have them removed?
If I leave them functioning, will they add any heat/warmth to the room after the installation of the insert?
Should I leave these connected or have them removed?
If I leave them functioning, will they add any heat/warmth to the room after the installation of the insert?
treeclimber101
UNCLE BUCK
3 years ago I also had a chimney fire , knowing full well that I shouldn't have done it , I threw wrapping paper In there Xmas morning , the fire was a carry over from the nite before , since Santa uses our back door when Xmas is cold LOL . So the fire was already hot when I threw a huge crumbled up wad of paper in somehow it managed to go up and get lodged about half way , really heated about 2 sections of tile cracking them , so last week the the sweep told me that's its time to replace the tiles and install a liner , he gave me a price just shy of 3K for a rancher , which I thought is a good price . When it happened to me a just threw a hose on the roof and emptied a ext. right up the flu . And all I had to do was clean up a bit and that was that
allstihl
ArboristSite Guru
should you ever have a chimney fire,open the fire box door throw in some water, shut the door,the steam puts it out instantly.bit messy but it works.
Dalmatian90
Addicted to ArboristSite
The "road flare" isn't. It's chimfex flare, and it doesn't work by consuming the oxygen. There's a dry chemical extinguishing agent contained in the copious amounts of smoke it produces that knocks down the fire, while the smoke itself displaces oxygen to help smother the fire.
Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate) is the primary active ingredient in most dry chemical extinguishers.
Purple K (potassium bicarbonate) is the active ingredient in high end dry chemical extinguishers, but because of the cost isn't as common. It tends to be used in aircraft and other high-value situations in a "twin agent" configuration where the Purple K is used to knock down the flaming fire, and once the flames are gone then a water & foam agent is sprayed to cool surfaces and form a foam blanket to prevent re-ignition of the flammable liquid vapors.
Unlike baking soda & purple K, table salt (sodium chloride) doesn't interfere with a fire chemically. It can act as a smothering agent, and it absorbs an unusually large amount of heat for a solid. That's my best guess to the salt up the chimney trick is if conditions are just right it can rob enough heat to stop the feedback loop where the heat from the fire is causing gases to form from the fuel that then are burned to create more heat. I'd trust baking soda to work more reliably because it's not dependent on the balance of things being just right.
Sodium Chloride is commonly used in Class D extinguishers for metal fires both to smother and absorb heat, but metal fires are funky things and you have to always make sure the extinguishment agent is for the specific metal that is burning, otherwise it can make things worse.
Dunking a roll of paper towels in the dish water and throwing them on the coals followed by immediately closing the door is probably a decent way to produce steam to try and smother the fire in the chimney.
If you have a good draft going, a dry chemical extinguisher into the fire box so it's carried up into the chimney will work. But a baggie of dry chemical is cheaper since you don't have to pay for it to be refilled
If you don't have a good draft and spray an extinguisher...it may come back into your face and make a mess inside.The baggies work really well for the fire department to "bomb" down the top of the chimney. You'll often get chimneys partly (and sometimes fully) blocked by creosote falling off the chimney once it starts to burn, and worse if you get bits of the liner breaking loose.
But there has been a definite decrease in the number and the general pain-in-the-ass factor of chimney fires from when I first joined in '87 and today. Back then airtight stoves still dominated, and those suckers could form huge amounts of creosote when not burned properly. As EPA stoves have come to dominate, we've gone from a dozen+ fires to three fires a year, and the worse of a fire now days is usually equal to an average fire "back in the day." The two hour long chimney fires from hell that used to be encountered a few times a winter are now once in a blue moonevents.
chemfex
That sounds like the thing I saw, thanks Dalmation!
Probably every stove installed should have one of these parked within 3' of it. The local fire department should be writing tickets if you don't. However it requires a person available to "do the deed".
That sounds like the thing I saw, thanks Dalmation!
Probably every stove installed should have one of these parked within 3' of it. The local fire department should be writing tickets if you don't. However it requires a person available to "do the deed".
zogger
Tree Freak
The "road flare" isn't. It's chimfex flare, and it doesn't work by consuming the oxygen. There's a dry chemical extinguishing agent contained in the copious amounts of smoke it produces that knocks down the fire, while the smoke itself displaces oxygen to help smother the fire.
Baking Soda (sodium bicarbonate) is the primary active ingredient in most dry chemical extinguishers.
Purple K (potassium bicarbonate) is the active ingredient in high end dry chemical extinguishers, but because of the cost isn't as common. It tends to be used in aircraft and other high-value situations in a "twin agent" configuration where the Purple K is used to knock down the flaming fire, and once the flames are gone then a water & foam agent is sprayed to cool surfaces and form a foam blanket to prevent re-ignition of the flammable liquid vapors.
Unlike baking soda & purple K, table salt (sodium chloride) doesn't interfere with a fire chemically. It can act as a smothering agent, and it absorbs an unusually large amount of heat for a solid. That's my best guess to the salt up the chimney trick is if conditions are just right it can rob enough heat to stop the feedback loop where the heat from the fire is causing gases to form from the fuel that then are burned to create more heat. I'd trust baking soda to work more reliably because it's not dependent on the balance of things being just right.
Sodium Chloride is commonly used in Class D extinguishers for metal fires both to smother and absorb heat, but metal fires are funky things and you have to always make sure the extinguishment agent is for the specific metal that is burning, otherwise it can make things worse.
Dunking a roll of paper towels in the dish water and throwing them on the coals followed by immediately closing the door is probably a decent way to produce steam to try and smother the fire in the chimney.
If you have a good draft going, a dry chemical extinguisher into the fire box so it's carried up into the chimney will work. But a baggie of dry chemical is cheaper since you don't have to pay for it to be refilled
The baggies work really well for the fire department to "bomb" down the top of the chimney. You'll often get chimneys partly (and sometimes fully) blocked by creosote falling off the chimney once it starts to burn, and worse if you get bits of the liner breaking loose.
But there has been a definite decrease in the number and the general pain-in-the-ass factor of chimney fires from when I first joined in '87 and today. Back then airtight stoves still dominated, and those suckers could form huge amounts of creosote when not burned properly. As EPA stoves have come to dominate, we've gone from a dozen+ fires to three fires a year, and the worse of a fire now days is usually equal to an average fire "back in the day." The two hour long chimney fires from hell that used to be encountered a few times a winter are now once in a blue moonevents.
Very good information!
stihly dan
Addicted to ArboristSite
Don't let spidey see this...uh oh, i think he did.
Why the heck not?? That info from Dalmatian90 is good to know. Heck, I had no clue why table salt put that fire out... I was actually thinking it was because of the way it absorbs massive amounts of moisture. From his explanation of the possible "why", I don't believe I can count on it to work every time... but it don't hurt to have it sitting by the chimney. I knew women have been using Baking Soda to put out grease fires in the kitchen over a hundred years... but, I hadn't thought of adding that to my arsenal of "chimney fire put-er out-er's" in the basement.
My old brick chimney was built for a coal fired furnace... and has a clean-out door by the floor. I use that door (with a mirror and light) to inspect the chimney a couple times a year. When I open it it darn near sucks me in, so I always figured that would be the place to blast-in the fire extinguisher, salt and now Baking Soda... or anything else that might put it out.
Mtnyota
ArboristSite Lurker
How do you apply the baking soda with an insert? Just throwing in and close the doors? Does it have to go down the chimney?
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