Water Dripping Onto Wood Burner

[ChrisT]

Hi,

I’m wondering if anyone could shed any light as to why water might be dripping into my wood burner when it’s lit?

After about 15mins of having it I can hear a dripping start on the metal plate at the base of the chimney, then a couple of minutes later the water starts to drip through the collar onto the wood burner. 

 

I had a guy round who said it might be tar melting and tried to seal the flu connection with some fire rope but the water just comes through it. I think it’s to watery to be tar and it fills a bean can in an hour so lots of water.

 

As soon as the fire dies down it stops, and as soon as you get it going again it starts! It makes no difference if it’s raining or not. We’ve gone days without rain and it does the same thing. It feels like there is to much water for it to be condensation.

 

We did have the back boiler removed years ago before the wood burner was installed. Could this have anything to do with it?
 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks, Chris.
 

[MikeSharp01]

Interesting! Sounds like it must have something to do with the heat. Heat causes expansion so it may be that the lining, if there is one, is moving and exposing a leaky joint to a collection of water up the chimney or some such. Condensation is also a - does it ever stop if you ;eave the fire on for a long period and keep it in over night?  

[bassanclan]

I think you need to be taking the closure plate off, it's the only way to get to the source of the problem

[ChrisT]

1 hour ago, MikeSharp01 said:

Interesting! Sounds like it must have something to do with the heat. Heat causes expansion so it may be that the lining, if there is one, is moving and exposing a leaky joint to a collection of water up the chimney or some such. Condensation is also a - does it ever stop if you ;eave the fire on for a long period and keep it in over night?  

Hi Mike,

 

It’s a clay liner. Could that expand with the heat do you think? 
 

No I haven’t kept the fire going to see if it ever stops. I wonder if that’s worth trying?

 

Thanks.

[ChrisT]

14 minutes ago, bassanclan said:

I think you need to be taking the closure plate off, it's the only way to get to the source of the problem

I think you’re right. It’s just very strange an can’t work out what it could be.

[JohnnyB]

It's a very late reply but I had this on a stove I installed myself many years ago.  After much investigation and trying different ways to seal the joint, I put it down to condensation as once the chimney was really warm it stopped dripping. There definitely wasn't rain getting in. 

We had a 12" clay liner and I fitted the flue from the top of the stove straight into that, and I think that was the issue.  If I'd fitted a metal liner and back filled so it was insulated then I don't think there would have been a problem but that would have stopped the chimney heating our bedroom.

As we ran the stove nearly all the time it wasn't an issue to us and I found that leaving the door open while the chimney warmed up stopped it dripping.

Not a great solution but it might shed some light if yours is a similar situation and you haven't sorted it yet