Stinky Stove

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bartlett920

New Member
Feb 15, 2008
125
Fort Scott Kansas
I haven't burnt in my stove since late march and it has been 90 degrees or better here since June and today I walked by my stove and could smelll stale smoke smell and my wife said she noticed it yesterday! so I looked in the stove to make sure there was no moisture and there wasnt. What could cause this sudden outbreak of smoke smell?
 
My insert does this also. I always figured it was from a bad seal between the hearth and the surround. I am also guessing that pressure delta that causes the air to flow down the chimney during wqarmer weather. You never noticed it before? Has anything changed? I.E. Window open, different configuration of vents closed/open?
 
Only thing you can do is clean everything up really good and make sure everything is sealed up good. Check the pipe for gaps and also where the pipe connects to the unit.
 
could be warm weather downdrafting , have you been runnig the AC? was this a day when the missus may have done a lot of laundry? (dryers move a lot of air out of the house) you might open a box of baking soda and set it in the stove (clean stove first if necessary) it may help with any sneaky odors as well as act as a dessicant to ward off surface rust from higher humidity.
 
Personally, I love the smell of smoke. It also helps to keep the hypochrondiacs at bay. :)
 
I havent noticed it before and nothing has changed ie windows vents laundry- We have had rain the last two days it maybe heavy air pushing down the chimney. The stove is new and all interior pipe joints are cemented. The stove was only burnt in two months total and has been cleaned out for months. Thanks for all the input I will try baking soda and see how that works.
 
Maybe plug op the stove pipe with some insulation to keep the downdraft at bay.
 
Could be a moisture thing making that smell...burn 1 of those small 12 hr candles in the stove and it will go away.
 
My suspicion is dampness, also.

A bit of sweating from temp and or humidity differentials can cause enough moisture somewhere to be stinky.
Could be in the chimney rather than the stove.
 
dont know why all of a sudden you smell it, but
just buy a small thing of "activated charcol/carbon" from an aquarium like pet store.
100x better then baking soda.
leave that inside the stove for a while
 
obviously you ahve cleaned it all out right? Make usre that your chimney by pass/damper is closed off too.
 
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