Stove puffing

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jeffee

jeffee

New Member
Nov 1, 2007
143
Western Ma
Last night my stove 'puffed'. I loaded it up maybe an hour and a half before going to bed. There was a nice hot coal bed, and the stove top was around 400*. I loaded it about 75 or 80 percent full, with 5 medium-large sticks, more big pieces than I've ever put in it. After 20 minutes or so they were going good, and the stove top was around 580*. I turned the air down in a few increments over several minutes, and had the air 80% closed, a bit more than I usually would, as it was frigid out.

Anyway, the stove was running beautifully -- a few secondaries only; They were located not over the whole width of the stove, but generally over the middle -- and then they might move over to one side or another. The stove was stable at 550* for over an hour I'd say, with the secondaries as I described. I went to bed. Then after another half hour or so, I heard the puffing. Maybe once every 30 seconds. I did smell a bit of smoke, although not much. After 4 or 5 puffs (it took me a minute to figure out what it was, never had them before) I went down and checked it out. It was actually quite cool looking. It didn't seem like very much smoke was coming out the stove into the room, but I opened up the air a bit and it was fine as far as I know.

Advice please ? Should I just be careful about not turning down the air so much, or should I get a pipe damper or something ? My flue is straight up from the stove, into class A, 20 feet total from stove. Thanks in advance if anyone can advise me. I did have one of my tubes glowing a few days ago at stove top temp. 540* with a medium load of wood and air on medium -- in case that means anything ...

Thanks
 
Was it a windy night ? Do you meet the 10/2/3 rule ? Check your cap for blockage.
 
Can't really advise you but mine (not EPA stove) does it quite often. I just adjust the air controls in to remedie. It only happens when the draft is real strong mostly on windy days.
 
I get that with my stove for my hunting tent. Except it chugs like a steam engine.

I'm guessing it's excessive draft. Like pouring from a bottle too fast the air "glugs" back to compensate for the vaccuum created. Too much draw on the chimney with too little for the air to come in to replace the vaccuum and the stove sucks air in from above. I suppose gradually turning down the damper to let the stove cool a bit. Or leave the damper open a little more. Or use bigger splits - less surface area seems to render a longer burn albeit less BTUs.
 
shawneyboy said:
Was it a windy night ? Do you meet the 10/2/3 rule ? Check your cap for blockage.
Click to expand...

Yes, there was some wind that night, but not more than is quite common around here. I would say it was the coldest wind chill of the year so far. Very very cold. The cold was more an issue then big time winds.
I think the cap is fine. There's no screen.

Thank you all so much for the insights!
-Jeff
 
jeffee said:
I loaded it about 75 or 80 percent full, with 5 medium-large sticks, more big pieces than I've ever put in it.

I turned the air down in a few increments over several minutes, and had the air 80% closed, a bit more than I usually would, as it was frigid out.

I opened up the air a bit and it was fine as far as I know.

Should I just be careful about not turning down the air so much?
Click to expand...

I think that's the answer - too much fire for air to be shut down so far/so soon.
 
Back puffing can be caused with poor wood, wind, or poor drafting conditions along with poor burning techniques. Also a cold flue will cause this. Most times it seems that the wood causes it. It sounds like your burning technique is good and wind was not a problem. That chimney should be good for draft with it that high, so that leaves the wood. What happens if the wood is not completely dry is that you get more smoke and the fire will tend to smolder a bit. With the stove turned down, that stops some of the draft and the smoke going up the chimney cools before it reaches the top of the chimney. Then it just sits there or tries to come back down. Then there will be a mini explosion. This will cause the smoke to move fast and it will follow the path of least resistance. That means some smoke may even come out your draft or the firebox door or the top lid, etc. It should also send the smoke up the chimney and at least temporarily get the smoke moving up again. Usually when the stove does this it will stink up the house a bit.

It sounds like your best bet will be to not turn the draft down quite as low. You may have to experiment to find the right setting.
 
Thanks a lot for the information and insight. Dennis, that makes sense -- it sounds like you feel the smoke may have stalled in the chimney due to it not being quite seasoned enough and that I cut much of the stove air off. I wouldn't have thought of that, with it being so cold out, I figured that the chimney would suck anything up. But yes, the sticks being of the somewhat bigger size, and they're cut and split one year ago, stacked 8 or 9 months ago, I can see what you said making perfect sense.

Very helpful, thanks again! Next time I won't turn it down quite so far.

-Jeff
 
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