Smoking Whitfield Advantage Pellet Stove

We had an Advantage IIT insert from 1991 to 2005, and near the end of its life we had numerous smoke issues. Because it was an insert it was particularly difficult to deal with, but in almost every case we solved the problem by a good cleaning (be sure to remove the steel baffles behind the firebricks and also try to clean out the horizontal passages) and carefully reattaching the pipe to get a good seal. Finally we got a smoke problem that we could not solve after multiple attempts, nobody had any fresh ideas, so we scrapped that thing and put in woodburner in its place, but I don't want to be discouraging....

Good luck with your problem, let us know how it goes.

Sounds like with the sealed stove your not getting a natural draft when the chimney is cold. Once you open the doors and it gets going (warmed up) does the smoke continue?

If the insert has a combustion blower make sure that it's clean and blowing air. The combustion blower is what helps push the emissions out of your stove and into the vent pipe.

We,too, own a WP2 insert; it seems to be blowing a smoke smell out of its heat tubes even if there is no fire. As the fire starts up and continues, the smell gets worse. I've caulked around the tube cleaner handle and put in a new larger rope on the ash pan door. I've shown a light down each tube in near total darkness and looked for holes on a tube.

When last running, it was almost 24/7 for years.

We had the back upper firebox cleaned, too.

How would smoke get into the convection system?

Thanks, anyone.

MyFire

chances are that the smoke is leaking out the "air wash" (most of the whitfields have the top of the glass installed without the gasket to allow air to flow down the glass to keep it clean) or, the leak is at the exhaust flange and the blower is sucking in the gas as its leaking and spitting it out the front through the tubes.

Garys314- make sure that new pipe is "silly-coned" on there good, and check to see if the gasket attached to the exhaust flange (called a quick disconnect) is there and not all chewed up.

The new pipe you installed, was it a flex pipe or solid? If it was a flex maybe it got crimped. I would go on the roof (if safe) and look down the pipe with a flashlight and see if anything is blocking the pipe. I would check the combustion fan. Is the fan turning at full speed? Set the pellet feed at 5 and start stove, you don't need a fire, just watch the combustion fan on 5 the fan should be running full blast. If the combustion fan is not running at full blast, try oiling the motor. If after cleaning and oiling and there's no change in speed, you could have a bad board.
I would take the combustion fan out and do a bench test. This is a 120 motor. I would only do this if you feel safe doing it. Putting 120 to the fan and it runs at full speed, you have a bad board.

Also if flex, and over 14,' it should of been up-sized to 4" dia. flex.

smoke will normaly will not come out of the front of the stove unless the flue is blocked because the stove is negitive air. If you had a leak at the front it would suck air in.

If the new pipe was not the right size or they did not seal the joints and the connection to the flue adapt or they broke the seal on the Flue adapt that connects to the combustion blower it would leak there.
AFTER THE COMBUSTION BLOWER

MyFire said:

We,too, own a WP2 insert; it seems to be blowing a smoke smell out of its heat tubes even if there is no fire. As the fire starts up and continues, the smell gets worse. I've caulked around the tube cleaner handle and put in a new larger rope on the ash pan door. I've shown a light down each tube in near total darkness and looked for holes on a tube.

When last running, it was almost 24/7 for years.

We had the back upper firebox cleaned, too.

How would smoke get into the convection system?

Thanks, anyone.

MyFire

Click to expand...

Sorry, Just realized that this was a thread started back in 2008 and shared recently again.

So, now I see what Hearthtools is making reference to.

Whatever leaks out behind insert (AFTER THE COMBUSTION FAN) will absolutely be sucked right up by the fan and expelled into the room.

Even without a fire those leaks will vent some residual smoke odors from the flue.

And that is why I think it is very important to have a CO detector near your pellet stove--especially an insert, where the convection fan is sucking its air from the same confined space though which the exhaust pipes go. Any leak(and it is under pressure aft of the combustion fan) here and the convection fan just gulps it up.

hearthtools said:

smoke will normaly will not come out of the front of the stove unless the flue is blocked because the stove is negitive air. If you had a leak at the front it would suck air in.

If the new pipe was not the right size or they did not seal the joints and the connection to the flue adapt or they broke the seal on the Flue adapt that connects to the combustion blower it would leak there.
AFTER THE COMBUSTION BLOWER

Click to expand...

I agree, usually smoke does not come out the front. Sometimes I've seen smoke leak a lil puff at the time of ignition (pressure change and whatnot) but thats about it.