New Wood stove problems with Carbon Monxide and damper

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Dave2009

New Member
Jan 6, 2009
7
Eastern Pennsylvania
Hi Everyone,
I am very new to using a wood stove; this is my first post. Great website and very helpful! I am having some issues with my stove and I was hoping for some advice and help.

I purchase a new woodstove this past October (Hampton H300) from a local dealer. Every since we purchase it we been having some problems.

1. I have to keep the damper fully opened or the carbon monoxide detector goes off
2. Even with the damper fully open (burns great during the day and evening ) but through the night when I wake up it has a reading on the CO (it does not go off, just a reading of 48ppm)



(This does not happen everyday, but every other day)
When I wake up around 6:30a.m. The carbon monoxide detector reads 48 ppm on the digital read out. I open all the doors and windows for 5 minutes and it read 0 ppm. I open the stove and a couple hot coals are in but manly grey ash. I empty the stove out complete and take the ashes and hot coals out side. I am afraid to run during the day during the workweek. (We have pets and I do not want anything to happen to them) Then when I get home from work about 5:30p.m. I fire the stove back up. (During the weekend I run both Saturday and Sunday all day and no problems during the day)

I installed a fresh air kit as recommended by the dealer. It really does not seam to be any different. I had the dealer come over and check everything out and said everything seems fine

1957 Ranch house
1200 S.F.
Oil furnace
Hampton H300 wood stove w/ fan in basement
New windows in basement
Original old windows on main floor of house
Burning: Ash, Oak and Cherry

Attached are some photos

The Oil furnace is being cleaned next week, I am not sure if that could be the problem

The damper on the oil furnace seems to be open a lot. Could this be causing the problem?

Any advice or help would be great.
Thanks,
Dave
 

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It may be negative pressure in the basement. Have you had the boiler checked to see if it too needs a fresh air supply?
 
No, i have not. I am having the oil furnace cleaned next week. Is that something service tech can do? or do i need to call someone special?

Just bought the house about a year ago. I am faily new to Oil furnaces and new to wood stoves. Had electric baseboard at my last house

Thanks!
Dave
 
Post here too:

Maybe someone with more knowledge of oil furnace will be along shortly, but I can’t see why that damper would be open at all. This is the flue for the oil furnace, right? (I really don’t even know why it would be there to begin with). Additionally, if both appliances are in the same room / area of the house, you may have some pressure balance issues. You mentioned a fresh air kit (for the stove?) so that should help a lot. Also, anything in the basement which exhausts air may be making the problem worse...vent fans, clothes dryer, etc - can all pull air from the basement and blow it outside...and cause the flue to reverse flow. But my main thought would be close (and seal) that damper on the oil boiler...I can't imagine that it would do anything besides leak combustion gas back into the basement. Wait and see what the oil guru’s say.
 
You do need that damper for the oil burner, it keeps a constant -.03" to -.04" draft if set correctly and the chimney is not obstructed. If you seal that up, there goes you oil burner effeciency. Air or fumes should "NEVER" come out of that damper, there should always be a negetive draft pulling air from the room up the chimney. Now, I am going to directly contradict my NEVER statement...sometimes on ignition, there is a slightly positive pressure which should cause the damper to close briefly, or in my case slam shut because the Utica and Becket AFG factory combo does not play nice with each other in some circumstances.

So yes, a qualified Oil Burner Tech should have a barometric draft meter with him to test you flue draft. Make sure he tests the draft BEFORE any work is performed to get sort of a benchmark, also don't adjust the damper yet. Clean the burner, brush the boiler down and vac it out, clean and inspect the flue pipe. Put it all back together and test again. Now after firing up a clean boiler with a clean flue you see a more accurate draft reading and adjustments can be done if needed.

If the proper draft adjustments are made and you still see CO readings, check for other devices causing a negitive pressure in the basement, like a dryer. Then again, if you have a dryer down there, after the tech cleans and adjusts the boiler, try turning the dryer on while he has the draft meter in the flue? See if that does make a difference.
 
That damper is really open alot. The nerd in me would try to determine if air is flowing into or out of that barometric damper. As easy as holding a match in front of it.

Such a pretty stove to bury in the basement.
 
I am also having a very similar CO problem with my Regency F2400M wood stove in my basement. I do not have an OAK. I've heard mixed opinions on OAK's and wonder if I were to install one, if it would take care of my CO problem? My chimney is on the exterior of the house, it has a brick exterior and lined with clay flue tile. I have a natural gas hot water boiler also located in the basement (about 15 ft from the stove). The CO readings only appear in the morning when there is some hot coals and mostly gray ash. Could the boiler running in the morning cause a negative pressure in the my basement? I've never gotten a CO reading when the stove is fired up and burning.

Dave2009, have you resolved your issue yet?
 
I'd suspect that the OB draws air through the stove vent bringing in the CO from the embers. Outside air for The OB might be warranted.

BTW. Good looking burn
 
Don't even think about blocking or jamming the barometric damper on the oil boiler. Screw up the works if you do that.

The oil boiler could easily pull hard enough to draw back through the wood stove when it starts. It seems like the stove is working properly most of the time, except when it cools off to coals and is burning out.

1. Airtight stove, with outside air kit. Unsure how CO is getting out of system associated with stove in quantities enough to register on CO detector.
2. Problem sounds like it's related to morning... low burn, cooler chimney...
3. Also time oil burner will be starting to take up the slack because the stove is burning out.
4. Sometimes you can get a "POOF" when the oil boiler first starts. This is especially true if the soot passages are blocked in the oil burner and there is restriction.

Keep us posted. Good luck with it.

Maybe move the CO detector around a little? Closer to the boiler?
 
Hi Everyone,
After a long battle trying to figure out, it was a simple fix. The problem was the Chrome Dura-Vent Chimney pipe on the outside of the house. The clean out on the bottom of the pipe, was missing the cap that screws on. I bought a cap and installed it. Everything has been great! Wood stove burns great and no C.O.

I did have the oil furnace cleaned and the tech said the damper is adjusted properly.

Thanks for all your help!
Dave
 
Glad you solved your problem and with an easy fix. (Wish the WI girl could do that with her CO problem). With that cap off, wasn't the stove burning poorly because of lack of draft? Wonder how the CO was back feeding into basement?
 
it was a lack of draft. with the clean out cap off, i would have to keep the damper fully open and CO would go off or have a reading every morning. Once, i put the cap on i am able to close the damper practally all the way. It is be able to burn for a long time and no problems with the CO. It has been about a month and no problems

Thanks!
 
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