Jotul Oslo not drafting. House smells of smoke

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acesneights1

Member
Oct 18, 2008
94
North East CT
I have a 6 yr old Oslo. The house smelled smokey last night. I thought it was just the wood was wet or something and I had the door open trying to get it to burn better but I have it burning good tonight and when I open the door the flame nd smoke tries to come out into the room . As far as I know you should be able to burn with the door open so I suspect it's not drafing right. As soon as it cools down I am going to check the chimney and also pull the pipe off the back of the stove and check for build up. Is th3ere anything else I should be checking ?
 

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Just to add, I cleaned the stove pipe and chimney back in November. I can usually go all season without cleaning it as I burn only dry red oak.
 
First thing I'd check would be the cap. A partially plugged cap is often to blame for these symptoms. This winter hasn't exactly been "normal" so even if your wood is ok, perhaps slightly different burning habits in response to this weather could have fowled things up enough that it needs to be cleaned again.

pen
 
Also, did you extend the liner the full way to the top for this stove? Or is it still a stub up into the masonry chimney for the fireplace?
 
I had the same problem last winter, but it was from all the snow sitting up by the chimney... the cold chimney caused more creasote buildup in the cap like Pen mentioned. Dont think that would be a problem this year though, but its worth a check. As Pen also mentioned, mild weather can give pretty poor drafts and we've had plenty of that in the Northeast this year. Good luck.
 
pen said:
Also, did you extend the liner the full way to the top for this stove? Or is it still a stub up into the masonry chimney for the fireplace?

Yes i ran a 6 inch liner all the way up. Its a ranch. Its been very mild here . I think there
Ay be build up of soot in the outlet of the stove
 
camenitto said:
What sorta winter are you having compared to previous years.
I keep the flue temps up so the warmer temps should not have that much of an effect on the creosote formation.
 
acesneights1 said:
pen said:
Also, did you extend the liner the full way to the top for this stove? Or is it still a stub up into the masonry chimney for the fireplace?

Yes i ran a 6 inch liner all the way up. Its a ranch. Its been very mild here . I think there
Ay be build up of soot in the outlet of the stove

Usually buildup is found in the greatest amounts the furthest from the stove since that is where the flue gasses are the coolest and have the greatest chance of condensing into creosote form.

I'd say sweep the thing and let us know how you make out.

pen
 
Also check that horizontal stove pipe run, it should have a slight rise as it goes to your liner tee, the more rise the better.
 
well...gee I wonder why it wasnt drafting...
I have used half the wood this year and it go this dirty. Last year I went all season without cleaning and it still looked good. I got a bad load of wood from a guy that I have been using when it's not that cold but the stuff doesnt burn right. I can't post the pics I took. It won't let me because they are too big and I don't know how to make them smaller but the cap was clogged solid.
 
Job well done!

Doesn't take a whole lot of wood that isn't fully seasoned for that to happen. Very happy you found it and no real damage was done. If your wood supplier is going to be marginal at times, the best thing you can do is cough up some dough and do your best to keep one year ahead on your firewood at all times. Having it split and stacked in your own yard or shed for a year will greatly decrease the chances of this stuff happening and generally makes burning easier / safer. Unfortunately, under seasoned firewood is what the majority of wood sellers are giving folks it seems.

For some help on posting pics you could check out this link. https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewannounce/27_2/

For me, I use www.photobucket.com for a lot of pics. It's free, and once it is uploaded there, you can scroll over the picture and a link will pop up that you can paste into posts on the forum.

pen
 
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