Hi Everybody. I hope you can help me. I've had my Enviro mini for 4 or 5 years now, and it has been an intermittent performer for me. Initially, the problem was a strong smoke smell on start-up that persisted as the stove ran. The dealer's repair person was useless, although he was able to use a magnahelic to set the combustion air, and the dealer got increasingly unresponsive. Within months, that dealer was out of business. I read Rod P's site and changed the venting system: I added a 90 and an 8' vertical run to the existing 3' vertical run with a 90 to an 12" horizontal (I'm on a houseboat, and have to go up before I can go out). I could still smell smoke, but it was a little better. I run it mostly on the low setting.
It's never burned consistently - one day the flame is whipped by the air, one day it's lazy. Some times the smoke smell has me plugging in the space heater, and other times I just open the windows and live with it. The glass has always clouded up and the flue pipe is coated with black soot - all 12 feet of it (fine and powdery). Until this weekend, I thought I was cleaning it adequately because I never got an owner's manual and the repair guy assured me I just had to empty the ash holder, which I did faithfully. (I was a little nervous about this as my old Whitfield required much more than this, but I was willing to be lulled). On Friday, I turned on the stove then went upstairs to sip some tea. I could see - and smell - white smoke billowing up from somewhere; turned out it was my flue.
Smoke was pouring out of the stove - no flame - and leaking out of the joints of the flue. The stove was silent - no fans were running. I (carefully) used a fire extinguisher to put it out, then cleaned up the mess. I went online looking for answers and found the latest user manual with terse cleaning instructions (no pictures). I cleaned out the ash from the crevices behind the ash pan (after removing the access panels) and behind the walls in the burn chamber, which I also removed. I pulled the flue pipe out of the back of the stove and vacuumed the T in the flue pipe and the opening to the exhaust fan. I haven't cleaned the rest of the flue (the 90 outside).
Now the flame is tiny and bright, and whipped by air, and it puts out heat. Problem is, the smoke smell is worse than ever. It's most pronounced in the back of the stove generally and at it's absolute worst during start-up. I can't use the stove without feeling ill and having my eyes burn, so I've unplugged it. Oh - before I unplugged it, I hooked up the flexible hose from my shopvac to the fresh air intake to see if that helped, and it made no difference. My dealer is gone and Enviro was of no help in the beginning, so I have my doubts about them being of use. I'm sure I'm missing something key, but I can't figure out what it is. Can you help? I'd like to love my Mini as much as the rest of you seem to. Thank you.
It's never burned consistently - one day the flame is whipped by the air, one day it's lazy. Some times the smoke smell has me plugging in the space heater, and other times I just open the windows and live with it. The glass has always clouded up and the flue pipe is coated with black soot - all 12 feet of it (fine and powdery). Until this weekend, I thought I was cleaning it adequately because I never got an owner's manual and the repair guy assured me I just had to empty the ash holder, which I did faithfully. (I was a little nervous about this as my old Whitfield required much more than this, but I was willing to be lulled). On Friday, I turned on the stove then went upstairs to sip some tea. I could see - and smell - white smoke billowing up from somewhere; turned out it was my flue.
Smoke was pouring out of the stove - no flame - and leaking out of the joints of the flue. The stove was silent - no fans were running. I (carefully) used a fire extinguisher to put it out, then cleaned up the mess. I went online looking for answers and found the latest user manual with terse cleaning instructions (no pictures). I cleaned out the ash from the crevices behind the ash pan (after removing the access panels) and behind the walls in the burn chamber, which I also removed. I pulled the flue pipe out of the back of the stove and vacuumed the T in the flue pipe and the opening to the exhaust fan. I haven't cleaned the rest of the flue (the 90 outside).
Now the flame is tiny and bright, and whipped by air, and it puts out heat. Problem is, the smoke smell is worse than ever. It's most pronounced in the back of the stove generally and at it's absolute worst during start-up. I can't use the stove without feeling ill and having my eyes burn, so I've unplugged it. Oh - before I unplugged it, I hooked up the flexible hose from my shopvac to the fresh air intake to see if that helped, and it made no difference. My dealer is gone and Enviro was of no help in the beginning, so I have my doubts about them being of use. I'm sure I'm missing something key, but I can't figure out what it is. Can you help? I'd like to love my Mini as much as the rest of you seem to. Thank you.