Help! Pacific Energy NEO 2.5 insert smoke problem

Hi everyone, New poster and new fireplace insert owner here, really hoping someone can help me fix my problem!

I had a Pacific Energy NEO 2.5 installed this past autumn and since day one we have had problems with smoke escaping when the fire door is opened. It isn’t a lot of smoke, maybe 10% of whats going up the chimney, but it is making my house smelly and my life miserable. When the insert door is open to load fresh wood some smoke kind of rolls lazily out of the front. Its like there isn’t strong enough draft to suck that little bit of extra smoke up past the baffle and instead it rolls out under the top of the door frame.


I know it sounds like there isn't enough draft (and there probably isn’t) but I’ve been reading on here about other people having problems with their PE baffles and the bracket it sits on. It got me wondering if it’s an insert issue. I started investigating and my my glass is really black on the left and relatively clean on the right as others have complained about. I also noticed that my baffle doesn’t sit totally flush on its bracket. At the back right corner the baffle rises (or the bracket lowers) and there is about a 1/16” gap between bracket and baffle. Some smoke might be escaping through that gap straight up the flue bypassing the baffles but I didn’t think that would lower my draft, would it? Is there anyway that smoke could get mixed up with the clean air wash air and flow down in front of the glass?


If it isn’t the insert than I guess the problem is with the draft but I’m not sure what would be the best way to increase it. Or where the weakest link is in our setup.


We have a large 2 story house and the insert is in the second floor. The flue is 5 1/2” diameter, it’s the flexible tube type stuff and is uninsulated. The flue is in a brick chimney that runs up the outside of our house. From the top of the fire box to the top of the flue is aprox 16 feet. It was shorter but we had the installer add about 3 feet of double wall insulated on top to increase its height and hopefully improve the draft.


The PE manual recommends 15’ minimum chimney height so we are just barely reaching the minimum. Adding more height isn’t realistic as it already looks goofy sticking so far above the top of the brick chimney. I wonder if insulating it would significantly increase the effectiveness of the height we do have? We live on Vancouver Island and the temperature outside rarely reaches freezing.


The PE manual also recommends 5 1/2” or 6” diameter flue lining. Our installer said that the smaller diameter should increase “velocity” but another shop’s opinion was that bigger diameter is better for draft because it allows more exhaust to escape.


We don’t currently have a dedicated outside air intake. Our house is big and not very air-tight and I don’t feel like the fire is starved for air. There is an exterior ash-cleanout for the brick fireplace about 8 feet lower than where the fireplace is installed. The installer recommended that we leave the cleanout hole uncovered to allow fresh air into the fireplace chamber.


I’ve been reading about having a dead-air area inside the chimney that warms up to insulate the flue, I guess with the ash cleanout open the air in our chimney never really gets very warm.



OK I’m rambling when i’d really rather be reading your ideas of what I can do to fix this persistent problem.



Thanks for your help!

Hi I'm opening it fairly often. Usually after its been lit for an hour or so I'll open it with active flames to top it up with larger pieces. Depending on how i've timed things sometimes I'll open it with flames to fill it up before bed. Usually I'm opening it as part of an experiment to see if (window open, clean-out cover closed, ceiling fan reversed, bedroom doors closed, some other experiment) will solve the problem.

I may be opening it too often, but I was under the impression that you should be able to open the door at any point and not get a bunch of smoke into your house.

Wow, thanks for all the great responses everyone! I'll try to answer your questions;

I have been making sure that all hood fans, dryers, exhaust fans etc are off when reloading. I also turn off the overhead ceiling fan before opening the door. Problem persists.

The flue is a very straight shot. It is an insert that sits back into the fireplace opening, I wasn't home when they installed it but I think the flue collar and the chimney are generally in a straight line. The flexi flue liner may bend slightly to get around the old damper / smoke shelf whatever is in there but its more or less straight up.

I can post a picture of the setup tomorrow when I get home.

The problem is worse sometimes than others but I hadn't considered looking at the outside air temperature. Mind you, all winter there was never a period of even a few days where the problem vanished and we did have a couple relatively cold weeks.

I could have sworn that my manual says the flue liner can be 5 1/2" or 6". Are you looking at the insert manual or the stove manual? I have an insert. At the time of install the installer never asked me what diameter i wanted and because i didn't anticipate having a problem i never thought to ask. Would a 6" provide better draft?

I think my wood is ok, its mostly douglas fir, My moisture meter is usually between 17-20 but i haven't tested it on fresh wood right after splitting. I usually just test the outer surface of whatever is going in the fireplace. My fires aren't excessively smokey, when you look from the outside you don't see any smoke coming from the top of the chimney. I sometimes burn a little off-cut dimernsional lumber (so very dry) and still get the problem.

I do open the primary air for a minute before opening the door. I have tried opening an outside window with no effect, and the baffle sits correctly on the supply tube.

i don't know if the installer made a block-off plate but I doubt it because it has never been mentioned.

Thanks everyone for your input!

A follow up question, If you had to choose between upgrading to a 6" diameter flue OR insulating the existing 5 1/2" flue, which would likely cause the greatest increase in draft? Thanks

Hi Begreen,

No I think that I can fit an insulated 6" liner in the chimney and after this winters fiasco I probably will go that route. I was just curious which would have the bigger positive effect, increasing diameter or insulating. If for instance the consensus here was that a 5 1/2" liner should be plenty of capacity but that an uninsulated liner was a big no-no one then possibly I would just add the insulation and leave the liner size alone so I'm only fixing what is broken.

Hi Grisu,

Your right the wood probably is too wet, I will split and check the inside of a typical piece soon. I bought 3 cords in September from a co-worker who sells firewood on the side. He swore it was seasoned and dry but didn't really elaborate on where it came from or how long it had been seasoned. I bought it in September and stacked it into my wood shed which is covered but has open sides and a slatted floor for air circulation. I started burning it in October so it wasn't in my possession long before I started burning.

My flue is clean, the installer has twice cleaned it this winter trying to alleviate the problem. Each time it had no effect on the smoke back-puffing. There isn't actually a screen around the rain cap, so that isn't the problem.