help. house filled with smoke

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wood burning cop

New Member
Nov 10, 2012
47
northern indiana
woke up last night about 2 hours after reload and the house was filled with a smokey haze. it was very windy outside and about 15 degrees. (gusts to 45mph) checked the cap and it was clear. had to shovel out all the wood and coals for the night. cleaned the pipe in the morning and it was very clean. not quite sure how to say it, but was thinking just negative draft because of the high winds. any thounghs and is there a way to prevent it from happening again. had to vent the house for awhile to get it all cleared out. also have about 5 smoke detectors and two carbon monoxide detectors and none of them went off.( they are all only about 1 year old)
 
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Replace those smoke detectors today! Sounds like you may need them!
 
woke up last night about 2 hours after reload and the house was filled with a smokey haze. it was very windy outside and about 15 degrees. (gusts to 45mph) checked the cap and it was clear. had to shovel out all the wood and coals for the night. cleaned the pipe in the morning and it was very clean. not quite sure how to say it, but was thinking just negative draft because of the high winds. any thounghs and is there a way to prevent it from happening again. had to vent the house for awhile to get it all cleared out. also have about 5 smoke detectors and two carbon monoxide detectors and none of them went off.( they are all only about 1 year old)
Interesting because I see you have a O.A.K. installed which should help with pressure inversion..reverse draft.
Do you know if the secondary's get air through that O.A.K. or from room air?
 
Could you possibly have a leak in your flue system somewhere? I would think any backdraft strong enough to push through your burning stove would put the fire out.
 
Very likely atmospheric conditions caused negative draft... but I concur- the biggest problem is the smoke alarms. Get those fixed pronto! The CO units are less of a concern, but still...
 
I see the C0 as a bigger concern.
 
anyone know the propper way to test a smoke detector. if you push the test buttons they work,and sound the alarm but i dont know how much smoke they need to set them off. maybe light some paper infront of them. some are hooked together and two are seperate. i cant see all of them being bad.

i do also have a telescoping pipe from the stovetop and when i burn incense around it some gets sucked into the seam, but i cant seal it because i have to take it off to clean the stove. no leaks around the door or anywhere else i can find. i know the air from the oak has to get into the burn chamber some how, so i am guessing that is where it backed out of.

also when the smoke was in the house the fire was basically out. when i opened the door and gave it more air the coals livened up and started burning again.
 
As wind pushes around the house it can cause negative pressure on the leeward side of the house. I think that I've read that if your OAK is in this negative pressure zone it can cause issues. Now, I know the draft of the stove should be strong enough to overcome this, but in 45 mph winds it may not. This could cause negative draft and the smoldering fire you mentioned. Kinda starved it for air maybe?
 
If your fire was basically out two hours after a reload it makes me think you shut down your air supply too soon before the fire got hot enough to sustain a burn. It doesn't take much smoke in the house to generated a strong smoke smell, but if you could see the smoke as you said, then that sounds like a sizable amount of smoke. I've had a couple of occasions when I attempted a cold start up and got my kindling going, but then had the fire burn out before it got well established. There was so much smoke in the stove I couldn't open the door to relight the fire due to smoke pouring out from not getting a draft established. I'm wondering if your fire might have burned out before it really got going well and then sat there smoldering. Along comes the wind you mention and if it somehow managed to blow down your cool flue driving some smoke out of the telescope connection you mention and/or other air inlets on your stove?
 
on the reload turned down the air in increments over about 30 minutes. stovetop was 650 and fire was going good. had air open about 1/4 maybe a little less. not much full wood in stove after 2 hours (might have been 3 hours) major coals and charcoal chunks. might keep the air open more when it is very windy.
 
anyone know the propper way to test a smoke detector. if you push the test buttons they work,and sound the alarm but i dont know how much smoke they need to set them off. maybe light some paper infront of them. some are hooked together and two are seperate. i cant see all of them being bad.

i do also have a telescoping pipe from the stovetop and when i burn incense around it some gets sucked into the seam, but i cant seal it because i have to take it off to clean the stove. no leaks around the door or anywhere else i can find. i know the air from the oak has to get into the burn chamber some how, so i am guessing that is where it backed out of.

also when the smoke was in the house the fire was basically out. when i opened the door and gave it more air the coals livened up and started burning again.

Light a match, blow it out and hold it in front of the detector to let the smoke set it off. You can do the same with a smouldering candle.
 
Interesting because I see you have a O.A.K. installed which should help with pressure inversion..reverse draft.
Do you know if the secondary's get air through that O.A.K. or from room air?


This is one problem we had occasionally the last time we had an oak and it is the reason we don't have one now. They can work beautifully but this can be one downside of them.

Smoke in the house, candle lighting time. To help get rid of some smells, white vinegar can work wonders. Just sit a few open dishes with the vinegar and it will help a lot. I used to do this when we bought a used car if the car was smelly. I remember one car in particular. It turned out to be a great buy but that thing was filthy and lots of cigar smoke smell. We cleaned and cleaned then sat a small dish in the front and one in the back with white vinegar. Smoke smell gone the next day.
 
anyone know the propper way to test a smoke detector. if you push the test buttons they work,and sound the alarm but i dont know how much smoke they need to set them off. maybe light some paper infront of them. some are hooked together and two are seperate. i cant see all of them being bad.

i do also have a telescoping pipe from the stovetop and when i burn incense around it some gets sucked into the seam, but i cant seal it because i have to take it off to clean the stove. no leaks around the door or anywhere else i can find. i know the air from the oak has to get into the burn chamber some how, so i am guessing that is where it backed out of.

also when the smoke was in the house the fire was basically out. when i opened the door and gave it more air the coals livened up and started burning again.


Get a small split or round just burning a little and hold it by the smoke alarm.
 
My guess is that you had backpuffing.

In certain conditions, I get a strong smoke smell in my garage because the smoke curls in front of the garage door and the door is not a tight fit. I've gotten the same thing if there is a bedroom window open a crack.

A smouldering newspaper is the best for testing your smoke detectors, I doubt a match will be enough but it will depend upon which type of detector you have. I very much doubt they are a problem. They are supposed to go off with certain particulate in the air from a fire. With mine, stray smoke from backpuffing will never set them off but if I forget to open the primaries when I reload, they are beeping within 5 sec. and I can hardly detect any smoke, just odour.
 
Agreed. It sounds like the air was set too low for the wood being burned. This caused it to smolder and the flame to go out. The hot wood continued to emit wood gases (smoke) which filled the firebox. When a flame finally reappeared the gases ignited with a mini-explosion that forced smoke out of every orifice on the stove.

Why and how to prevent? Dry wood.If the wood is insufficiently seasoned it can smolder instead of burning. Too little air. If the chimney is on the shorter side one may not be able to close the air control all the way unless conditions are ideal. Often they are not.
 
thanks for all the input. tested the smoke detectors with a napkin lite on fire and put out. worked fine. i think i will add another section to the chimney to get it a little longer. also will leave the air open a little more when it is windy. someone said it might also be an oak issue. i have a shut off valve on mine would you suggest closing it when it is windy. wood is mostly ash and is three years split and dried and kept in a wood sheed for the winter.
 
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Don't close off the OAK. That will restrict the air to the fire more. 3yr stacked ash should be good to go. How tall is the chimney currently?
 
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it is about 15 foot tall. i am thinking about putting another 3 foot section on it.
 
15' above roof line should be way more than enough, even on a steep pitch. I wouldn't spend the $$ on chimney until you check other possibilities.
 
15 foot from the stove to the top of the pipe. not 15 foot above the roof
 
so how high is it on the roof?
 
it is about 15 foot tall. i am thinking about putting another 3 foot section on it.

Sounds like a good plan. Remember that the pipe needs to be braced at every 5 ft above the roof penetration.
 
woke up last night about 2 hours after reload and the house was filled with a smokey haze. it was very windy outside and about 15 degrees. (gusts to 45mph) checked the cap and it was clear. had to shovel out all the wood and coals for the night. cleaned the pipe in the morning and it was very clean. not quite sure how to say it, but was thinking just negative draft because of the high winds. any thounghs and is there a way to prevent it from happening again. had to vent the house for awhile to get it all cleared out. also have about 5 smoke detectors and two carbon monoxide detectors and none of them went off.( they are all only about 1 year old)

Make your 14' stack a 17' stack.
 
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