Sunday 20 January 2013

The chimney dilemma

Now, we know there's going to be lots of opinions on this matter and hope you'll leave a comment with yours.  We're loving our solid fuel stove.  It's made the boat so warm and cosy.  We've had no trouble at all keeping it going overnight.  Enough heat gets down to the dinette that I'm comfortable working all day and the bathroom and bedroom aren't freezing cold.  Overall it's a winner!

Here's the dilemma.  We have one of the little "hats" to keep the rain out of the flue.  When Mick was installing it there were a few people mention the problem of gunk dripping down onto the roof from the edge of the hat and staining the roof of the boat.  We can see on other boats where this has happened.... and run down the channel along the edge of the roof and the dribbled down the side of the boat.  Not pretty.  With the roof covered in snow yesterday the problem was obvious.  The snow under the flue was stained with gunk.

Some boaters appear to have just removed the hat altogether to avoid this happening.  But we're wondering if it's not a good thing to have rain or snow getting into the flue.  Surely moisture inside the flue is going to leave residue on the inner walls of the flue?

We have found so many fantastic ideas from other boaters and we're hoping there might be some for this problem.


Meanwhile, it's been a clearer day today.  The pontoons are a bit more manageable with the snow trampled down.  It looks like there is more snow to come though.




Weather for Stone, UK
Currently : 1°C Mostly cloudy
Sat : Chance of snow, Max 0° Min -3°
Sun : Chance of snow, Max 0° Min -2°
Mon : Chance of snow, Max 0° Min -10°
Tue : Partly sunny, Max 1° Min -3°

 

4 comments:

Peter Berry said...

Hi Elly. We don't use a Cooley hat, and there is no problem at all with the stove in use, as any moisture evaporates as it hits the hot flue. When not in use we remove the chimney and cover the flue with a proprietary cast metal cover with a brass handle, available at the chandlers. However, I have also made a modification to stop the dripping tar. I have sealed a small biscuit tin lid, with a flue sized hole cut in the centre, facing upwards at the base of the chimney fitting. I then drilled a smaller hole in it's outer rim to which I fitted a small diameter pipe fitting, to run a neoprene drain pipe, similar to a lawn mower fuel pipe, down the side of the boat and safely away. Any residue now collects in the tin lid, and drains away safely without making a mess of the side of the boat. Also, having a chimney that is lined, rather than single skinned, helps reduce the tar and residue problem.

Mal Richardson said...

So glad you are happy with the stove.

On a more sombre note, did you fit or have you already got carbon moxide detectors to PS?

If not you need some in case the stove develops problems.

Alan said...

The tar residue from our chimney escapes between the chimney and roof fitting. Putting some silver foil inside the bottom of the chimney stops it almost completely. And the foil only needs replacing infrequently.

Elly and Mick said...

Peter, thanks. We're thinking of ditching the cooley hat too.

Mal, we're all set. We have an integrated gas and co alarm system, plus we've installed a smoke detector in the dinette and a smoke/co detector in the bedroom.

Alan, we've heard that foil suggestion before. We'll see if we need it!

Elly