Sparks from stack

[cheesegenie]

I am thinking of moving my boiling building closer to home. Problem is, to have
it handy , it would be close to buildings, barn, grassy areas, etc. I know there
is a lot of sparks from the stack, and have seen fires before with other people. Cedar and basswood are the worst, here. Does anyone know how small of a mesh, would control sparks without loosing draft? Thanks for any input.

[barrelstove]

ive been fighting this issue as well. i tried what i thought would be a spark arresting cap that is usually used on oil fired flues. as it turns out it wasnt very effective. it had several plates inside and a 1/4" screen around the outside. it definately hindered the draw even when i first put it on. then after some time the screen developed a buidup of soot and eventually plugged. (this resulted in me beating on it with a stick and alot of soot in my syrup, good thing i dont sell it)

several years ago i used a large peice of window screening loosely wrapped around the chimney topper and secured with a piece of wire (the same stuff i use for a guy wire for the stack, solder would bend easier but i dont think it would take the heat.) that seemed to work ok but i only work with a barrel stove, a larger unit may plug that up as well.

i would check with your local plumbing and heating contractor. they may be familiar with stove pipe type things that could help you. (plumbers are also useful for anything involving soldering and piping around the sugar shack ( mine works for beer and syrup!))

[Brent]

We heat our home with wood and have a spark arrestor mesh on the top. I have never seen sparks come out, but we don't burn spark producing wood. Most burn maple, beech and ash.

What I can tell you is that the creosote will condense on the mesh faster than anywhere else. Our stack will have a thin layer of creosote but the mesh will get plugged, to the point of killing the draft.

If you're nervous, go with a screen but do it in a way that you can change it relatively easy. Hopefully you will get through a season per screen and not have to go up while there is still snow on the roof. Not fun and it's too short for skis.

[Flat47]

Textbook is 0.023" mesh screen. This is what spark arresters on logging skidders, chainsaws, railroad locomotives, etc. must have in Maine. I don't know if it would restict draft, but I doubt it would be noticible.

Hope this helps.

[Brent]

lots of screen area = low resistance