DrOlet Adirondack Stove not venting!

[tcharnisch]

I am trying to find an answer for my Grandmother.

Here is what I know...

She bought and had this wood burning stove a little over a year ago and used it a lot in the winter. Unfortunately she didn't realize she should be useing a chimney sweeping log or anything, she had a cast iron fireplace for years and never had problems with that one. Her new stove was not venting out. Person A tried vacuuming out the top of the fireplace. Person B Checked the chimney to make sure it wasn't clogged, said it was fine. Person C(being Me) took the vent stack off the top and took the fireplace outside and used a air compressor to clean it completely out, blowing air both into the fireplace from the top, you could see the ash and stuff coming out the fireplace, I also blew air up from the inside, and again you could see the smoke like material coming out the top. I continued to blow everything I could out of every cranny and hole. Certain I had fixed the problem since it appeared air was flowing freely through we took it back in and hooked it back up. I checked the stack that runs from the fireplace to the chimney, some buildup on the sides, but still leaving a good open 4-5 inches of clear pipe. We lit a piece of paper in the fireplace and you could see the smoke build up inside and the fire went out. We opened the vent on the bottom and lit several more pieces of paper to geta good fire and the smoke built up very quickly and the fire went out abruptly, tell me there was no air venting. I pulled the stack off the top witha fire going, and some smoke was coming out, but a lot was still building up in the stove.
So with someone who knows chimneys checking that part out and seeing for myself that the stack to the chimney was very clear, The problem seems to be inside the fireplace, but with high pressure air and a half hour of work, I though I had it pretty cleaned out. These stoves don't just open up to see the problem, they are a solid piece and im sure for good reason.

Please help, what can we do to diagnose/fix this problem???
My wife and I are going to her place again this upcoming weekend and hopefully can offer a solution to the plug.
Thank you for any and all input! (If pictures are needed to help, i can get some)
Tim and Colletta

 

[begreen]

Welcome Tim. Pictures are always welcome and often very helpful. In order to visualize the setup we need a few more details. Do you know what make/model stove this is? Can you describe in detail the complete flue connection on the stove? Does it go into a short pipe into the chimney flue or is there a full liner from the stove to the chimney cap?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

your not trying to check draft in the dead of summer are you?

 

[BrotherBart]

You pulled the pipe off the stove in full burn inside the house? Whatever you were smoking, I want ten pounds of it. UPS delivery. I will email a shipping label.

 

[begreen]

I thought you liked your buds light.

 

[Todd]

Pull out the ash pan and look at the air control mechanism, it may of worked loose.

 

[MishMouse]

As an FYI:

I used to have a Drolet Adirondack stove, I got rid of it due to it being to small and not working as efficiently as it should have been. I talked to the person I gave it to and he said that he was having similar issues. So he took it to one of his friends that works with metals, and they removed the top of the stove and found out the baffle system had come loose thus starving the secondary burn from air, according to him they were only welded on by a couple of welds. After they repaired it he said it was working better then normal.

Note: I do not know all the details behind the work that they did to fix it.