Does smoke come out of the door?

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Dec 18, 2009
12
SE Michigan
I am still sizing up all things considered. Back in the day when I owned a Earth Stove. I had to crack open the door slightly for the flames to start back up then i could open the door to put wood in, but even then I had to be careful about opening the door to far because smoke would come back into the room. With most of what you folks have now does this exist still? I think I have the wife on the fence about finally putting a stove in this house ( it's been 20 years since I've had one)and I have to have all of my bases covered.
 
If you have a new stove, in the CORRECT location with the PROPERLY designed
& CLEAN chimney system, you should have NO smoke when you load your stove.
YMMV
 
The principles of draft still work the same way they always have. With a good draft setup, it is indeed possible to never have smoke smell in the house. We all learn quickly how and when to open the doors up and prevent all of that. Tell your wife you can't wait to sit and watch the beautiful flames with her....it will be so romantic!
 
It still happens from time to time My son will open the door too quickly after the stove has cooled down and we will get smoke in the house. When the humidity, chimney temp and fire is all right it does not happen. I am sure each setup will act differently. The newer stoves eliminate smoke when burning secondaries and then you are not opening the stove to reload, you are opening it when the load is gone and the stove is cooler. I have a shorter chimney which probably increases my chances of it happening.
 
Many stoves are designed to operate at times
for open door viewing, with a safety screen in place.
The design of most new stoves for years, called EPA
stoves, provides for excellent smoke control.

Is there an occasional slight smell when lighting, particularly
on a cold start? Yes for me, as I tend to do my cold starts with the side
door open. Closed door starts release no odor.

Today's stoves are smoke free in the home.
 
Assuming you take all the normal precautions (burning dried wood, loading your stove correctly, keeping the chimney clean, etc...) I think that you'll be fine for not having smoke spill out back into the room. But as an above poster mentioned, just be cautious opening the doors when you reload- don't fling the doors open, open them a little slowly.
 
Brian in Michigan said:
I am still sizing up all things considered. Back in the day when I owned a Earth Stove. I had to crack open the door slightly for the flames to start back up then i could open the door to put wood in, but even then I had to be careful about opening the door to far because smoke would come back into the room. With most of what you folks have now does this exist still? I think I have the wife on the fence about finally putting a stove in this house ( it's been 20 years since I've had one)and I have to have all of my bases covered.

What Daksy said. Whether you get smoke in the house with a good stove is a function of your draft, and therefore your flue and chimney, not the stove. So make sure to follow the specs for your flue and don't scrimp and there should be no problem. I don't even need to crack the door to get a good fire going (in fact, it works much better with the door closed and only using the primary air), and I've only very, very rarely had the faintest little puff of smoke come out of the stove when I open the door in the very early stages of starting up from a cold stove.
 
I've had small amounts of smoke spill into the room at times when I do stupid things when loading. The most I've ever had is a wisp of smoke and the smell is gone rather quickly. My Endeavor has a bypass rod that opens when loading and re-loading which bypasses the baffle so smoke goes straight up. If I open the bypass and not the air all the way I've had issues, if I open the door to fast I've had issues or if I forget to open the bypass at all I've had issues. If I get smoke in the room it's usually self induced! This is my first season and after I learned how to run the stove I've rarely had issues. I actually did it last night, I opened the stove to stir the coals so they would burn down and accidentally stirred a few right onto the ash lip. :lol: This produced a slight smoke smell by the time I tossed them back in.

My stove is in my family room and I have a fireplace in my living room. I figured I'd still have fires in the living room occasionally even with the stove, I've only had one so far this year due to how it smells up the house.
 
Just make a habit, no matter the stove, that before opening the firebox door, open the draft full and wait a minute before opening the firebox door. Then when you do open it, just open it a small crack, hesitate a few seconds and then open it. By then the draft should be increased so that it will pull all the smoke and gasses up the chimney instead of pouring out into the room. Remember that smoke, like water, will take the path of least resistance, so if there is good draft drawing, the smoke will go there.
 
With my setup I only get that if I've lit the fire in the last 3 minutes and the chimney is not warm yet, there are wind gusts > 30mph, or the chimney cap badly needs a cleaning.
 
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