room air pollution

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aainla

New Member
Jan 26, 2006
3
I have a new vermont castings resolute wood burning stove. I thought it was supposed to burn clean. Not only are my rooms filled every day with grey ash, the air is like a bar were they have been smoking for 10 years. We burn only maple wood so I don't think the wood is the problem. I never see smoke coming out anywhere. What is the problem??
 
That shouldn't be happening.

What kind of chimney are you venting into and what shape is it in? Has it been cleaned recently?
 
stoves dont smoke/burp/leak, bad chimneys make them smoke/burp/leak. The newer the stove the more draft sensitive its going to be. Efficiency means that theres lots more heat in the room, but not nearly as much heat left for the chimney. Im just repeting what the inspector said...
 
The chimney is entirely within the house. A kit with a 5-8' (I don't know how long it was) stove pipe was attached to the stove vent hole to go into & adapt to our existing brick chimney. The chimney had been cleaned since the time it had been used previously.
 
Drafting is the process whereby hot air rises up through a chimney, pulling room air into the stove, and sucking the smoke and particulates out of the chimney with it. Newer stoves are much more efficient than even 10-15 year old stoves. This means they pull much more of the heat out of the exhause gasses, than older stoves. This means that correct chimney size/length ratios are Vital to correctly start the draft effect. You are venting a round column of hot air with some particulates into a fairly warm pipe (the 5-8 foot section of connecting pipe). Then it connects and vents into a square (ish) MUCH larger MUCH colder brick chimney. (Guessing about size being MUCH larger). This stops drafting cold (pun intended).

Questions:
1. How tall is the chimney?
2. How big is the chimney?
3. How much horizontal pipe do you have going to this chimney?
4. How was the pipe connected to the brick chimney? - (It might be very badly sealed)

With these answers, we can definitely give you some suggestions, although I'm going to offer a preliminary one right now.

Get a liner. It is much easier for smoke to continue up a same diameter pipe/liner, than to vent into tha large cold brick or masonry chimney.

Good luck

Joshua
 
The chimney continues 18-20' above the stove (that is including the area where the round pipe is inserted). It goes up through another floor & short attic space and is at least 4 1/2' above the roof.
A metal flange was put in around the pipe to filling the chimney as well as some insulation material.
The chimney is at least 18" square.
The "horizontal" connection from the stove to the chimney is about 18" and does have a slight slant up to the chimney.
This is an old house and we do not have the problem of being air tight. Also because this is an historic house we do not want to put some sealent in the chimney that could only be removed by damaging the chimney.
Thank you for your continued assistance.
 
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