Fire goes out when I close the doors

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Bcurley

Bcurley

Member
Nov 11, 2014
27
Long Island, NY
Hello,

I had a Heat N Glo Northstar installed for about 2 months now and it has been working great until the past few days. I am loading it up and getting a good fire going and then when I close the doors the fire goes out. I am using fully 2 year old seasoned wood and all the dampers are opened up all the way. I have vacuumed out all the ash as well. I can't figure out why this would be happening.
 
Check the chimney cap screen first for plugging and the upper section of the chimney second. If they are both ok it could be you have run into some damp wood in the pile. This happens sometimes. Try wood from another stack.

Does the fireplace have an outside air intake? If yes check to be sure it's not closed or obstructed.
 
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Bcurley said:
Hello,

I had a Heat N Glo Northstar installed for about 2 months now and it has been working great until the past few days. I am loading it up and getting a good fire going and then when I close the doors the fire goes out. I am using fully 2 year old seasoned wood and all the dampers are opened up all the way. I have vacuumed out all the ash as well. I can't figure out why this would be happening.
Click to expand...

Cut, split, and stacked to dry for two years? Not sure what you mean by 2 year old seasoned wood. In any case, an inexpensive moisture meter will help you troubleshoot in these situations...
 
Yes, cut split and stacked for 2+ years. I have a moisture meter and its measuring 11-15%. The wood burns great and lights right up. This problem only started 3 days ago.
 
Bcurley said:
Yes, cut split and stacked for 2+ years. I have a moisture meter and its measuring 11-15%. The wood burns great and lights right up. This problem only started 3 days ago.
Click to expand...

That's good, so begreen's suggestions are the next step.
 
Okay, so I checked the chimney cap and there is no mesh screen. I figured while I am up there I minus well clean the chimney out. I did that and got a decent amount of creosote out. The same thing keeps happening though. I get a great fire going and when I close the doors it goes out. It is almost like it is getting starved for oxygen. I have the ACC opened up all the way and the outside air is opened up. It is very odd that it worked great for the first six weeks and now I am having problems. Any other thoughts?
 
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were I troubleshooting that I would empty out the stove and test the inlet air. That sounds plugged up to me. If there was a problem with the chimney it wouldn't work with the door open either. Find where the air comes in and blow into the hole and see if it goes through ... I'm not a pro!
 
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Check that your baffles and ceramic blanket are properly seated and not covered in ash from your sweeping. May have been dislodged during loading or occluded from when you brushed it down.
 
The ceramic blanket did have some creosote on it when I took it out. I took it out prior to sweeping. Should I dust it out? I didn't want to mess with it too much. I just shook it out and got the creosote off of it. It is discolored from smoke I guess, but still intact.
 
So the ceramic blanket was a bit bunched up when I checked. Could that be the cause of the flames going out when the doors shut or should I look into maybe another issue?
 
Bcurley said:
So the ceramic blanket was a bit bunched up when I checked. Could that be the cause of the flames going out when the doors shut or should I look into maybe another issue?
Click to expand...
You're in the best position to say but if it was interfering w/ the flow out to the flue then yes. It's happened before.
 
Bcurley said:
So the ceramic blanket was a bit bunched up when I checked. Could that be the cause of the flames going out when the doors shut or should I look into maybe another issue?
Click to expand...

I don't know your fireplace, but I checked out the manual for diagrams. Hell, I don't even own a fireplace right now, so please disregard if you think
I am way off base.

Could it be a problem with the air intake (do you have one like the one on page 27) being blocked?

According to the manual: http://hearthnhome.com/downloads/installManuals/480_2350.pdf

Edit note: Sorry, I see that this has been already asked, but I'll leave the manual here for the heck of having a manual here.
 
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This is what my ceramic blanket looked like when I pulled it back out to make sure it was laying flat on the fiber board. Does this look right or is it shot and need to be replaced?
 

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Good luck, so long as you were able to get it in position and lay flat should be OK.
 
@ jatoxico...does that ceramic blanket look OK? The brown on the top is normal? I also just noticed you are from L.I...what town are you in?
 
Bcurley said:
@ jatoxico...does that ceramic blanket look OK? The brown on the top is normal? I also just noticed you are from L.I...what town are you in?
Click to expand...

I don't have a blanket but I can't see anything wrong with it except it does look like it wasn't laying flat. I can't imagine It's not going to get discolored, maybe it could be brighter (burn hotter) but as long as it's intact seems perfectly good to me.

I'm on the north shore near SBU, you?
 
It should be almost white or ash color.
 
Something tells me that the color of you blanket is due to you sweeping and not disconnecting the stove. The front part looks a little crimped and may be reducing the air flow above it and the ensuing draft.

Did it work well since you swept it?

Andrew
 
@Swedishchef When I took the chimney cap off some creosote fell down the chimney and landed on the blanket. The front part did crimp a little while I was messing with it to take it out and lay it back inside the firebox.
 
I am uncertain how much height clearance there is in your unit when the blanket lays flat. But if it's an inch and the crimp lifted the blanket .5 inches then you may be restricting air flow.

Does it work better since you swept it? How much was removed from your stack?

Andrew
 
Stupid question but is the outside air intake gate opened? I forgot to open mine once and the fire wouldn't stay lit. A duh moment for me but glad it was an easy fix!

I did have an issue last year with mine but found the cap to be clogged with creosote. Apparently it was so cold for a stretch of time that it was building up on the fins. Cleaned them off and it worked much better.
 
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