Coal Burning Safety

And on the other hand, an equivelant size bag of sand would have cost $5.00 KISS--many different thoughts on the old FORUM here

Because of the location of my stove relative to my chimney, I have to travel about 4-5' horizontally. What's the best way to design the stovepipe to avoid buildup and create a safety issue? (new installation, haven't constructed the chimney yet.)

FarmKid wrote:Because of the location of my stove relative to my chimney, I have to travel about 4-5' horizontally. What's the best way to design the stovepipe to avoid buildup and create a safety issue? (new installation, haven't constructed the chimney yet.)

Welcome to the Forum,

You may want to repost this to the Venting, Plumbing, Chimneys, Controls, Coal Bins page. It will have more exposure there. It's possible that some where on that page there is a better way that fits your situation. The guys will ask for a little more detail about the location of both the chimney and the stove. Why is a 4 or 5 ft run needed. Good luck, Lisa

I pick up my Sodium Bicarbonate in a 5 gal pal from my fire extingusher servicer for free! (coalkirk thanks for reminding me of days bye gone!)

Thought it might be time to dust off this old thread. This is the point in the season when flyash has accumulated in the horizontal pipes and starts to diminish draft. Time to clean it out. Also check the manufacture date on that CO detector. Most have a sensor that is reliable for 5 years. Some for 7. Date is on the back. And lets not forget the smoke detectors. Don't want any of my coal burning brothers and sisters to have an incident.

Great Idea

that loss in CT of the 3 kids and 2 grandparents really hit me sad as it came out that they had permit paperwork for 7 smokedetectors yet none of them were hooked up SO
if any procrastinators out there with the detectors still in the plastic amour package.......rip em open and stick the 9volt in!!



ALSO the reality of that terrible loss is that they took hot ashes and put them just outside the door on the porch....

OK, perhaps it's a newbie talking but bicarb picks up moisture sooo quickly that when you come to actually use it in say three years or so it will be a rock however it is packaged. What is wrong with coal ash? I did notice that my AnthraKIng Powervent has a 90C tab on the side. Is that so that I can connect a sensor to do something if it gets over 90C? If so what and is that an effective aid to safety?

ALSO the reality of that terrible loss is that they took hot ashes and put them just outside the door on the porch....

Pilots on this board will tell you that we have a access to a directory of past screw ups on our type of plane. So for my Cessna 182 I could always look up why pilots died or planes crashed, was it pilot error, mechanical failure or weather. We learn a lot from this as a community. So the small plane pilot learns early that most of his buddies died from not paying attention to weather and so that is built into our training from the FAA. So AHS/AA puffbacks, I am sure scares the c rap out of you but how many have actually died or been injured? So now about a forum, stoves listed my manufacturer and stove type and an incident report. It is much more focused than a "let's all be safe".

read where another house in Conn. caught on fire,family saved by a passing contractor who woke them up . same scenario, hot fireplace ashes placed outside the porch. maybe building codes should include fire rated porches for homes with fireplaces.

homecomfort wrote:read where another house in Conn. caught on fire,family saved by a passing contractor who woke them up . same scenario, hot fireplace ashes placed outside the porch. maybe building codes should include fire rated porches for homes with fireplaces.

I'm going to assume you are joking. Why don't we just outlaw all fireplaces but electric? You can't fix stupid. Anyone with a shred of common sense would not put ashes in anything combustible (cardboard box) or put them on a wood deck.

coalkirk wrote:You can't fix stupid. Anyone with a shred of common sense would not put ashes in anything combustible (cardboard box) or put them on a wood deck.

[I'm a very occasional poster here...]

Yeah. I hesitate to "pile on" in such a horrific and tragic (and terrifying) situation, but this has had me going for a few days now.
Nothing can bring those unfortunate people back, and that man will have to spend the rest of his life thinking about this every single day, but, WOW!

He was the contractor, living in the house as he worked on it, and he PUT THE ASHES / EMBERS IN A COMBUSTIBLE CONTAINER AND LEFT THEM ON THE PORCH AGAINST THE SIDE OF THE HOUSE.

Good heaven, I still can't wrap my brain around it.

I put my ashes in a closed metal can as far from the house as possible - it would never occur to me to leave then in contact with the structure.
I also go around the house upstairs sometimes when the stove is really going, and feel the walls around the chimney, just to be sure they're cold.

Regarding that, and the subject of safety advice, several years ago near here, a very "fashionable" couple had a 1700s-era farmhouse they had just bought and fixed up, and were having a housewarming party with a raging fire in the huge fireplace. Someone noticed the walls around the chimney upstairs felt warm, so they MADE HOLES IN THE WALLS, STUCK IN VACUUM CLEANER HOSES, AND BLEW IN AIR FROM VACUUM CLEANERS TO COOL THEM DOWN. As many of us know, smoldering fire + air = great big fire. The insurance rebuilt the house quite nicely, though.

Happy New Year!

- Eric

yeah, I was being sarcastic. tragedy like that is no joking matter, but goes to show that sometimes people need to be protected from themselves, and lack of common sense. what a shame.