Need help... bad soot/ash problem, possibly caused by overfire?

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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.
 
One more item to note... Almost every time, maybe every time I go to lite this insert, it is down drafting back into the house when I open the door and I have to crack the back door and light some newspaper to get the draft going, before I go ahead and light a fire. Maybe that's normal but I feel it's worth mentioning.

This house was built in 1974 and not particularly the highest quality construction, but also not bad by any means. We've lived here 5 years and I've done my best to weatherize, seal and insulate everything I touch. We had an energy audit in 09 or 10 and I tried to fix everything they found. I have personally replaced every window, I got in the attic and sealed every penetration I could find and access, I sealed and insulated the entire rim joist, weatherstripped every door, spray foamed everything I can gain access to, sealed and insulated our ductwork. But, our furnace is 80% gas, water heater is probably 80% gas (20 yrs old), electric dryer vents to outdoors, 2 bathroom exhaust fans. Maybe I've made this house too tight?? I figured there was no way I would make a house built in 74 too tight, even if I sealed everything I could find.

I wanted to install an OAK with this insert but there wasn't one available from the manufacturer, there is no connection for one.

Maybe I need a decent outside air source. That seems hard to do when it can be zero degrees and blowing snow from the North at any time here from New Years into March, a climate most of you deal with I'm sure.
 
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.
 
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.


I appreciate your response but this happened to us again this year before I even scooped any ash. I'm still at a complete loss as to how this is happening.
 
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.
 
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.

I had completely cleaned out the firebox of the stove in the spring, blocked the flue and put some decorative logs in the box to look at during the summer months. When we started this fall, the box was clean, but I had yet to sweep the flue until last night.
 
I understand that sometimes complex problems are best solved by looking at the most obvious and simple solution, I am not offended.

This is leading me to step back even further and examine my fundamentals. After not finding any source for such an issue, 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. I feel this would cause back-draft to occur while the coals are still burning out, leading to very poor air quality.

I am thinking of opening up the existing ash dump that is in the floor of the original masonry fireplace and using it as a make-up are source for the stove.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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've done that when the stove is really rocking - cracked a kitchen window just a tiny bit, at the far end of the space (not wanting to pull freezing cold air right into the stove room where we spend all most of our time in the evening). The dog likes it (our newf) as it can get a bit cooler in that area if I leave it overnight. Maybe an open window for a day or so is worth it if you can crank the stove up and troubleshoot.

Sorry I don't have much to offer except the obvious, but I'm keen on this thread - will be very interesting to know what the outcome is. Good luck...
 
Question - Is my problem considered "Backpuffing" or is that something different? It's hard to troubleshoot a problem that isn't clearly defined...

I'm getting ash in the house... regardless if it smells like smoke or if the CO detectors read anything, there is a reason large quantities of very small particle ash are in my house, I'm assuming they are coming in with some amount of smoke or combustion byproduct.
 
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.
 
If that was happening your CO detectors would be talking to you.

"The solution to pollution is dilution" I'm wondering if the polluted air is diluted enough in the home that it's not registering as a problem. I'm throwing darts here of course... I don't know what the real problem is and I don't know what the real solution is.

The tuff part is that I may not get a chance to burn this stove again this year because my wife won't allow it, for the sake of our families health. I agree with this, but I also want to do some trial-and-error with my stove!
 
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 checked my CO monitors last night for the peak values (every time we look at them they always read zero) and the peak read 36ppm for the detector in the basement with the gas appliances and the detector in our bedroom read 30ppm. In that past (maybe 2 years ago) the bedroom detector never had a peak, always read zero, and the basement detector had a peak of 19. I would reset the basement detector and check it a few weeks later and it would again have a peak of 19, so that seemed consistent to me (remember this is happening a few years ago).

So to me, I've changed/sealed/insulated enough things in that time frame that now my CO peak levels have gone up, all over the house, including the bedrooms.

This is again leading me to believe that I need a make-up air source for combustion in our house, for the wood stove and probably the gas-fired appliances too. I am planning to install a combustion air source this weekend for both and hopefully we can burn on Saturday night and I'll get to see how everything acts.
 
So nobody agrees with me that negative house pressure can cause a situation like this... interesting. Bag of hammers, thanks for sticking with me here and not leaving me hanging with ideas and trouble shooting.
 
Just here for moral support since I'm pretty clueless as to what's going on.

Here's a thought from way out in left field, I know, but at my place in town, the outside air is pretty bad sometimes (fine dust particles accumulate over time - all from local industry + a south wind helping push the crap my way). This stuff (fine greyish powder) is pollution, it will get sucked into the house, not at any noticeable rate, but significant accumulation over a long period of time (in attic soffit vents, etc.). I don't have a wood stove there, but I wonder if I did have a stove going strong inside the building envelope, in addition to the other appliances, would it suck a bit more of that dirty air in through all the drafty spots?

Probably out to lunch with the other-source-of-crap theory, especially if it's wood ashes you're seeing, and a relatively new issue - but I'm tossing it in anyway.

It will be interesting to see if your outside air feed has any effect.

Yeah I'm working on not living at that place anymore, asap....
 
That sounds bad, from a whole town perspective! I've actual heard that your envelope can act as a filter for stuff like that, just because the infiltration holes are so small.
I'm going to bring in a passive combustion air supply for my gas appliances, hopefully Saturday. I think I need it anyway and I feel like my furnace is causing the stove to back draft, so I'm hoping it will fix the issue. If not then I'll go for the ash dump as an OA source also.
 
Some time ago, when I tore out and rebuilt my front porch, I tore open the old ceiling and poked my head up into the closed attic space over top (porch was an old retro fit, very badly built). I scanned across to some old soffit a few feet over, in an adjacent overhang, and there was easily 1/4" of "stuff" (looked like graphite dust, etc.) that had settled in there from the airflow over the years. The edges of the attic insulation were black and caked with crap. I replaced everything with new, and I've been working feverishly on my addition (several miles away). Things are better now, but I still wish I had a bag of $$$ to just get it done.

Good luck with the air supply, hope it resolves things
 
(Ultrasonic Cool Mist Humidifier x 3) + hard water

That was the cause to all my problems. My 25x25 furnace filter had a healthy layer of white powder on it after only 2 weeks in service.
 
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