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Homer 123

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I have a boat mans stove and in the 2 weeks I've been living aboard its been great but last day or so had a job to get it going. It will go with bottom door open but when door is shut smoke comes out through the top and then it goes out. I had a new flue fitted before I moved on. Could the flue need sweeping already? How often should they be swept? I've cleaned everything else, grate has been cleaned of all ash and plates on top swept!

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Hmmm. I assume you have the bottom vent fully open? When you say smoke comes out through the top, do you mean the top vent, or around the door seals? Or somewhere else? it wouldn't hurt to sweep your flue but you'd have to have been burning some pretty filthy stuff to creat much soot in 2 weeks. What are you burning?



Yep, sounds like flue clean time. It can be difficult to clear the crud from the base of the flue and you may need to invent a tool.

Do you really think so Matty? After 2 weeks? I sweep mine about twice a year which is more than sufficient since even then its not like a huge amount comes out.

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We had a similar instance, albeit longer than two weeks use - the issue was that a large, but very thin, sheet of soot/ rust appeared to have dislodged and was largely blocking the flue. Easily sorted though.

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Somethings blocking the updraught so thats the first thing i would do. Then I would start checking other things. It was also probably the first wind free night since Homer moved on board so may have had an effect on his usual stove control

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I have a boat mans stove and in the 2 weeks I've been living aboard its been great but last day or so had a job to get it going. It will go with bottom door open but when door is shut smoke comes out through the top and then it goes out. I had a new flue fitted before I moved on. Could the flue need sweeping already? How often should they be swept? I've cleaned everything else, grate has been cleaned of all ash and plates on top swept!

The other possibility is that you're putting too much fuel on too quickly. My experience of boatmans is that you start slowly with dry wood before putting coal on.

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It's pretty unlikely to have sooted up in two weeks, but you don't actually say when it was last swept. It literally only takes seconds to shove a brush or a twiggy piece of wood down the chimney until it emerges in the stove.

 

Unless: 1. there is a bend. you'd have to brush up through the stove as well.

2. the flue comes out of the back of the stove - make sure nothing is lying on the horizontal bit

3. there is a baffle plate - sloping plate, usually removable, in the top of the stove to deflect the flames.. Feel around to see nothing has collected on top of this.

 

I don't know the Boatman, but some stoves have an extra damper, operated by a lever, in the base of the flue. Mine has one. They are a Very Bad Idea, as they very easily get blocked when in the closed position, which may happen if the lever is accidentally knocked (I would never close a flue damper like this).

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Known as the damper. closedeyes.gif

 

We had one on our Rayburn (in the house) because we had a very tall chimney with a good draw, it was always nearly shut, not completely that was impossible in the way it was designed.

 

Fully open to get the fire going and then shut until it just started to smoke through the top plates and then opened a bit.

 

Also adjusted if the wind was on the wrong direction

 

Stopped the fire roaring away, in tandem with the bottom spinwheel.

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We had a similar instance, albeit longer than two weeks use - the issue was that a large, but very thin, sheet of soot/ rust appeared to have dislodged and was largely blocking the flue. Easily sorted though.

I had that too not that long ago and it caused the same symptoms. It was fixed by poking the boat pole down the chimney from the roof (while the fire was out) and wagging it about to knock the loose sheet of sooty rust down. Worked at treat.

 

There is an oven door next to the ashcan door but the smoke seems to come through the plates on top

Ah... That's not a Boatman stove, that's a boat man's stove

 

;)

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There is an oven door next to the ashcan door but the smoke seems to come through the plates on top

This sounds like a range like the Epping or Classic.

If so, apart from ensuring that any "butterfl"y flap in the flue isn't closed or blocked you need to be aware that stuff cleared from the flue builds up on the void at the base of it. You need to remove the top covers, then really fish around to drag out all the old muck that may be gathered "around the hidden corner"

They are not a great bit of design!

 

Add image to show type of range I'm referring to....

 

SDC13112.JPG

 

(Image from blog for narrow boat "Star")

Edited by alan_fincher
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This sounds like a range like the Epping or Classic.

If so, apart from ensuring that any "butterfl"y flap in the flue isn't closed or blocked you need to be aware that stuff cleared from the flue builds up on the void at the base of it. You need to remove the top covers, then really fish around to drag out all the old muck that may be gathered "around the hidden corner"

They are not a great bit of design!

 

Add image to show type of range I'm referring to....

 

SDC13112.JPG

 

(Image from blog for narrow boat "Star")

Yes that one is very similar. Mine would be an older model. There is no make on mine that I can see but does look like an older, smaller version of that!

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Known as the damper.closedeyes.gif

 

 

We had one on our Rayburn (in the house) because we had a very tall chimney with a good draw, it was always nearly shut, not completely that was impossible in the way it was designed.

 

Fully open to get the fire going and then shut until it just started to smoke through the top plates and then opened a bit.

 

Also adjusted if the wind was on the wrong direction

 

Stopped the fire roaring away, in tandem with the bottom spinwheel.

 

See my post #8 cool.png

 

So what happened when some soot or tar fell down the chimney and blocked the litlle hole left - did the house fill with smoke or worse? (I may add we used to have a Jotul with a top damper and used it just as you describe, until exactly this happened. I then stopped using any top dampers, and certainly wouldn't buy a stove with one.)

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Not a great design Alan ! i don't see much wrong with them, iv'e cooked for years on one, just shovelled down a big roast dinner tonight, cooked with a bit of mouldy wood.

 

iv'e always had a tool like a poker with a flat scraper on the end, that gets right in under the flue and scrapes everything clean, i don't know if it comes with the range.

 

 

By the way, having no feet on it like in the picture i found a big problem, the base gets really hot on these, i had one sitting on 40 mm box section and the ply under neath caught fire, unless you've only got steel or fireproof board under there i would not do it. And the one in the picture has a big gap at the oven end and no gap at the firebox end, next to the cupboard, which i presume is ply, should be the other way round. isn't that a BSS fail ? it's genuinly dangerous.

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Mine stands on metal feet which are placed in a metal tray. No more problems since I played with the damper nut but then again yesterday was the first day since I've been on the boat I've not had to light it! Considering lighting today!

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