Englander 25-PDVC First burn produced smoke: questions

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houset

Member
Hearth Supporter
Feb 8, 2008
45
Pennsylvania
Hi,
I have a couple of questions on my first time burning the stove that i wanted to make sure everything was ok.

1. When i first started the stove, the fire was nice and bright. no issues there. Heat was pretty substantial (I'm realizing my house in one room is going to get extraordinarily hot. need to figure a way to circulate better). But the main issue i had was smoke. I have smoke coming from back of the unit. It almost looks like it is coming from behind the metal sheet attached to the back. I noticed also that there is some smoke leakage in the appliance adapter. Again, it looks like it is coming from a place i would not expect, which not where the pipe connects to the stove, but from the lip of the adapter facing the stove. So i have a few questions..

1) When you are running your stove, should there be little smoke or no smoke whatsoever? i think mine is excessive, but i want to gauge what it should be like when all is working properly.

2)When i shutdown the stove, everything operated correctly. When i woke up this morning to open the door to see what the burn pot looked like, the door seal was sticking to the frame, and it was a bit hard to open the door. Is that normal as well?

3) Also, when the blower kicked on for the first time, it did produce smoke through the blower vents, however i think that was drywall dust and not actual smoke. We were replacing some drywall in the room where the stove was sitting. Any concerns if i see smoke again from the unit. It's hard to tell what it was, especially since the unit was operated for the first time.

Thanks for answering my questions.
 
I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to have any smoke. I have some smoke on startup from my St. Croix, but it's from poorly sealed joints. A little metal flex tape should take care of most of that, but as soon as the flame gets hot, the smoke goes away since the natural draft pulls the smoke up. Some others may tell you it may be the paint curing that you're seeing smoke from, but yours sounds a bit excessive. Did you have it professionally installed? If so, I'd suggest contacting them and having them check it out.
 
New stoves will smoke and smell during the initial burn. Englander has recommendations for the first burn on their website. You should check that out and open some doors and windows when doing the first burn since it's burning off machine oils and tempering the paint. Nasty stuff. Once the initial burn is done however you shouldn't see any smoke coming from anywere inside your home. Most stoves have visible smoke, out the exhaust vent, during start up and shut down but not continuously during a normal burn.

BTW, I think you should have gotten a DVD with operation instructions and maintance tips with your stove. If you don't have one you can order one from the Englands Stove website.
 
houset said:
Hi,
I have a couple of questions on my first time burning the stove that i wanted to make sure everything was ok.

1. When i first started the stove, the fire was nice and bright. no issues there. Heat was pretty substantial (I'm realizing my house in one room is going to get extraordinarily hot. need to figure a way to circulate better). But the main issue i had was smoke. I have smoke coming from back of the unit. It almost looks like it is coming from behind the metal sheet attached to the back. I noticed also that there is some smoke leakage in the appliance adapter. Again, it looks like it is coming from a place i would not expect, which not where the pipe connects to the stove, but from the lip of the adapter facing the stove. So i have a few questions..You should not have real smoke (from the pellets) leaking into the house from any part of the stove & vent piping. If it's coming from the joints like where the appliance adapter is located, you should look to tighten up the connections, make sure you used plenty of high temp silicone and tape the joints. If it doesn't smell like wood but more like burning oil or paint, then it's probably smoke from the cure burning in the paint & oils you're seeing and that stuff will go away after you've burned it for a few hours.

1) When you are running your stove, should there be little smoke or no smoke whatsoever? i think mine is excessive, but i want to gauge what it should be like when all is working properly. You'll see smoke in the firebox behind the glass when it starts that will clear up as soon as the fire is going nicely. No pellet smoke should be coming into the house from any source.

2)When i shutdown the stove, everything operated correctly. When i woke up this morning to open the door to see what the burn pot looked like, the door seal was sticking to the frame, and it was a bit hard to open the door. Is that normal as well? The first few times things will be a bit tight & potentially sticky as the paint cures and the hinges/latch/etc loosen up a bit. After that if it's still hard to open, you'll want to adjust the door latch per the instructions in the manual. Remember you don't want it too loose or you'll get draft & smoke problems (dollar bill slide test between gasket & stove is traditional).

3) Also, when the blower kicked on for the first time, it did produce smoke through the blower vents, however i think that was drywall dust and not actual smoke. We were replacing some drywall in the room where the stove was sitting. Any concerns if i see smoke again from the unit. It's hard to tell what it was, especially since the unit was operated for the first time. See above. No smoke should come in the house. If there is smoke, there's CO.

Thanks for answering my questions.
 
DiggerJim said:
houset said:
Hi,
I have a couple of questions on my first time burning the stove that i wanted to make sure everything was ok.

1. When i first started the stove, the fire was nice and bright. no issues there. Heat was pretty substantial (I'm realizing my house in one room is going to get extraordinarily hot. need to figure a way to circulate better). But the main issue i had was smoke. I have smoke coming from back of the unit. It almost looks like it is coming from behind the metal sheet attached to the back. I noticed also that there is some smoke leakage in the appliance adapter. Again, it looks like it is coming from a place i would not expect, which not where the pipe connects to the stove, but from the lip of the adapter facing the stove. So i have a few questions..You should not have real smoke (from the pellets) leaking into the house from any part of the stove & vent piping. If it's coming from the joints like where the appliance adapter is located, you should look to tighten up the connections, make sure you used plenty of high temp silicone and tape the joints. If it doesn't smell like wood but more like burning oil or paint, then it's probably smoke from the cure burning in the paint & oils you're seeing and that stuff will go away after you've burned it for a few hours.

1) When you are running your stove, should there be little smoke or no smoke whatsoever? i think mine is excessive, but i want to gauge what it should be like when all is working properly. You'll see smoke in the firebox behind the glass when it starts that will clear up as soon as the fire is going nicely. No pellet smoke should be coming into the house from any source.

2)When i shutdown the stove, everything operated correctly. When i woke up this morning to open the door to see what the burn pot looked like, the door seal was sticking to the frame, and it was a bit hard to open the door. Is that normal as well? The first few times things will be a bit tight & potentially sticky as the paint cures and the hinges/latch/etc loosen up a bit. After that if it's still hard to open, you'll want to adjust the door latch per the instructions in the manual. Remember you don't want it too loose or you'll get draft & smoke problems (dollar bill slide test between gasket & stove is traditional).

3) Also, when the blower kicked on for the first time, it did produce smoke through the blower vents, however i think that was drywall dust and not actual smoke. We were replacing some drywall in the room where the stove was sitting. Any concerns if i see smoke again from the unit. It's hard to tell what it was, especially since the unit was operated for the first time. See above. No smoke should come in the house. If there is smoke, there's CO.

Thanks for answering my questions.


Thanks for the help. i guess i will take it one step at a time and reseal the appliance adapter first to see if that prevents leakage. I'll let you know how it goes
 
Okay. i've burned my stove for about 2 hours now (still have it going) & I don't see any pellet smoke from the vents, but there is a very faint hint of smoke coming from the stove in the back and in the front.. Smells like oil burning, so i assume this is the curing time. Notice smoke coming from teh front door just now. Very difficult to tell where it's coming; possibly the bottom of the door, but i can't say for sure it is pellet smoke or again oils. i can't get close enough to get a good smell of it.. Anybody have thoughts where i should expect the "oils" to burn off from?

Oh yeah, Home depot must have had something stuck to the glass like glue or something when i bought it and now i have a nice brown streak in the middle of the glass. I really hope that i can get it off once i shut this down and let it cool. Any suggestions on cleaning that?
 
The oils will burn off from everywhere on the stove. When I broke mine in it smoked for about 6-8 hours.

The glus is from a tag that is hunt on the door by Englander. Just take a razor blade to it and it'll come off.
 
I have the same stove. Englander recommends you run the stove for at least 3 hours at setting 5 to burn off any oils from the manufacturibg process. This helps cure the paint also. It does stink and smoke pretty bad. After the burn in process it doesn't smoke or smell anymore. I love this stove.
 
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