Brand new stove... smoke in the basemnent

[cumak]

Hi folks,

New wood stove owner here. We just had our stove installed this week, a Lopi Freedom, and I think we're having a backdraft problem. We have a single masonry chimney with 3 flues. The stove (on the first floor) and the furnace in the basement both exhaust through this chimney. There is another fireplace on the second floor tat is not used. When we light up the stove, after a while the basement room where the furnace is becomes hazy with smoke. I'm assuming that there is a backdraft in the furnace.

The stove uses a 25' SS liner. I'm not sure what the setup is for the furnace.

Any suggestions on what can we do to prevent this?

Thanks for your help.

 

[begreen]

Do the tops of the flues all terminate at the same height? If so, the suggested remedy is to put a 6-12" extension on the woodstove flue.

http://www.extendacap.com/

 

[cumak]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, the flues are at the same height, so this solution might apply to our situation. During the wood stove installation I had a chimney cap installed that covers all 3 flues. It cost me $200... I wish the installer had suggested something like this instead.

Is this a common solution, and is it generally reliable?

Thank you.

 

[begreen]

Yes, your installer should have known this is a common problem. There is a good chance that extending the flue will solve the issue.

 

[Lighting Up]

Hi folks,

New wood stove owner here. We just had our stove installed this week, a Lopi Freedom, and I think we're having a backdraft problem. We have a single masonry chimney with 3 flues. The stove (on the first floor) and the furnace in the basement both exhaust through this chimney. There is another fireplace on the second floor tat is not used. When we light up the stove, after a while the basement room where the furnace is becomes hazy with smoke. I'm assuming that there is a backdraft in the furnace.

The stove uses a 25' SS liner. I'm not sure what the setup is for the furnace.

Any suggestions on what can we do to prevent this?

Thanks for your help.

I have to ask this...you say it's a new stove, could the haze just be the paint haze burning because it's a new stove? Did you do any break in fires ?
md

 

[cumak]

Yes, we did a few low temp fires to break it in and I could smell the fumes as the paint cured. This is definitely smoke. Also, it's in the basement right near the furnace, whereas the paint smell was in the family room where the stove is.

I was pretty sure it was entering the basement via the furnace exhaust , and the link BeGreen posted supports that. I'm going to talk to the installer about extending the flue, and we'll take it from there. I'm just bummed that we can't run the stove until this is fixed... it's supposed to be cold tomorrow, and all I can do is sit there and look at it.