Basement stove backdraft problem

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ChadD

ChadD

Burning Hunk
Nov 10, 2012
123
Connecticut
I recently hooked up a new stove in my basement with 30 foot stainless liner. I have run it a hand full of times now and every time I have problems with smoke coming into the room upon intial cold startup. The basement is around 50 degrees. When I open the stove door on a cold start I can feel cold air coming down the chimney into the stove. The first time I lit the new stove I had a basement full of smoke so now I try burning some newspaper to heat the stack to establish a updraft. Tonight I tried taking hot coals from my upstairs insert to warm the stack up before starting a fire to eliminate the back draft. I opened the air control on the stove all the way and about 15 minutes later my Carbon monoxide detector was going off and the coals were not glowing. Does anyone else have problems establishing a draft with a basement stove?
 

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Lowest pressure in your house is in the basement. Put an outside air kit on the stove. Hard to do in a nicely finished space like that basement. Also make sure there are no other appliances like a clothes dryer running down there.
 
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My insert is in what is more like a walk out basement and I have some issues though it sounds like yours may be a bit worse. The downdraft can be due to cold or maybe suffering from a stack effect.

Does it spill a lot of smoke even after warm? I've had a full blown reverse draft which is no fun. I use newspaper as that seems to move the cold slug of air the best. If it's stack effect that's harder to solve but opening a window (if you have one) may help.
 
Yeah cracking a window will tell you if negative pressure is the problem.
 
No smoke after fire is established. I'll try cracking the window next time and see if that helps. Thanks
 
Keep it running 24/7, problem solved.
Almost all stove will downdraft at cold start up from time to time.
 
I have a basement install as well, one trick i've learned to get rid of the down draft on cold starts is to get a small fan like they have for doorway corners and place that under the air intakes and let it run for a few minutes, this blows room temp air up your chimney and getting the draft going the right direction.
 
First off is the liner insulated that will make it much easier to get the draft started I have had customers do all sorts of things from a propane torch and heat guns to candles. They all can work as can a draw collar i think the heat gun in there for a few moments the easiest option
 
bholler said:
First off is the liner insulated that will make it much easier to get the draft started I have had customers do all sorts of things from a propane torch and heat guns to candles. They all can work as can a draw collar i think the heat gun in there for a few moments the easiest option
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Heat gun is probably the safest too.
 
So, I don't have much to add beyond what was said already, but I have a stove in our basement, outside masonry chimney. When starting cold, I'll often have a fairly strong draft coming into the stove. I've tried various tricks mentioned here - hair dryer, heat gun, rolled up newspaper lit at the top of the stove - with limited success.

The routine I've settled on which seems to work best for me is to (a) open a basement window, and (b) get a really hot fire going with scrap lumber, which smokes very little and quickly warms up the stove. Usually within a few minutes, the draft reverses and goes up the chimney.

I try really hard not to let the fire ever go out; as long as the chimney stays warmed up, downdraft is never an issue.
 
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I tried opening the window and using the hairdryer. (Wife's old one) It was much better very minimal smoke upon startup. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Good to hear it worked. Pick up an inexpensive 1500w heat gun. It's handy for starting the BBQ charcoal too.
 
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