More info... we've been burning strictly hedge for this entire time and we have hot fires, very hot. The temp on the front of the stove will be at 600-700 no problem but we have no way of measuring flue temp or stove top temp.
If it is down drafting into the house everytime you open the door, you may just be getting enough fine ash in the air when you remove the ashes. Can be amazing what comes out and settles all over the house without you being aware of it. Be sue you have a decent sized container for ash, run a good size shovel very slowly along the bottom of the firebox, let the larger coals roll of the top as you push the shovel. Carefully lift the shovel, gentle slide the ashes off the shovel after the shovel is against the bottom of the pan. Take your time.
Not trying to be stupid, here, or treat you as if you are stupid, just trying to cover all bases. Had you cleaned the ash out of your stove in the spring, or was there ash in the stove when you started burning in the autumn? Just trying to cover all bases.
I understand that sometimes complex problems are best solved by looking at the most obvious and simple solution, I am not offended.
Is it fairly straightforward to open up the old ash dump (sorry if that's a dumb question - I know nothing about masonry fireplaces). A sort of passive OAK like this (if not too much of a PITA to set up) would be an interesting sanity check.
It is fairly easy, yes. I had stuffed it full of insulation and sealed it up with a sheet metal plate, but I can take that apart fairly easily. The hardest part will be moving the stove from overt the top of the sheet metal, which could be rather tricky actually. That may force me to re-do the liner connection anyway.
The other option would be to test this theory with an open window... but that means I would have to leave my window open all night and into the next day.
I am now strongly leaning toward the problem being lack of combustion air available for my home and at the end of burns, my flue is becoming an outside air source for the other fuel-fired appliances in the home.
If that was happening your CO detectors would be talking to you.
I am now strongly leaning toward the problem being lack of combustion air available for my home and at the end of burns, my flue is becoming an outside air source for the other fuel-fired appliances in the home.
If that was happening your CO detectors would be talking to you.
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