House filled with smoke

[diane06413]

Hi everyone. I was corresponding with you guys last month about my older model Lopi Yankee and how it was burning. It has been much better but my newest problem was that yesterday the whole house filled up with smoke. The smoke was barreling out of the blower area. We cleaned out the vent piping outside thinking it was clogged and the stove ran great the rest of the night. Well, this morning, the same thing happened. I called the guy I bought it from and he said that there was probably a break in the seal and to recaulk. We will be doing that. Apparantly if there is a leak in the piping caulk, the fan sucks the smoke back into the stove and shoots it out into the house instead of outside. My question is, why did the stove run fine after we cleaned out the piping, wouldn't it have smoked us out all night if there was a leak or could it be an intermittent thing?

 

[Hanko]

I dont know how tight your house is, but its possible you could be pulling a negitive beccause of not enough combustion air. If you have a new house with good windows and insulation you might check by cracking a window, if that dosed the trick add and outside air sourse. i had to do that in my shop because of the dense pack insulation, and very tight construction.

 

[Highbeam]

You don't have to caulk anything on a Lopi or even anywhere on the chimney. Last I heard, every Lopi has a welded steel firebox. The only cracks will be in the chimney system and if the chimney is clean and the fire is hot it will draft without spilling smoke. My old Lopi insert didn't have a stove collar. It was just a hole into which you jambed the pipe. If the chimney is somehow dislodged from that hole and/or knocked off of it then you could have an issue.

Pull off the top of the surround and check the joint where the stove hits the chimney. I assume you have an insert.

 

[diane06413]

It is a freestanding unit.

 

[LLigetfa]

We cleaned out the vent piping outside thinking it was clogged and the stove ran great the rest of the night.

What are you calling the vent piping, the chimney or a dedicated outside air vent?

A plugged chimney or cap could cause a leak as could a bad negative pressure situation resulting from stack effect or exhaust fans. If opening a window in the same room as the stove doesn't stop the smoking, suspect a plugged chimney. If you feel a significant in-rush of air when cracking the window, suspect a negative pressure situation.

Report back with your results.

 

[savageactor7]

It's almost sounds like the chimney is plugged. If the stove fire is out go to the clean out and mirror the chimney to make sure it's not clogged up. If you can see a perfect square, rectangle or whatever your chimney is then it's not plugged up.

Well allrighty then, from there I'd check out a possible insufficient draft problem...start a small fire with small splits etc...touch it off with a door or window slightly open. The fire burns good, Ok so add a few more splits when that fire is going OK close those opened windows/doors and observe the fire for 5 minutes or so.

If the fire is affected by the closed window then you must have a well insulated air tight home in need of an OAK...do a search on that. But I suspect from the sucess of your previous fires that you may have a clogged chimney from smoldering for long burns or unseasoned wood...hey it happens to the best of us at least once. Good luck Diane.

 

[diane06413]

Thanks for the replies. It is a free standing pellet stove that is vented horizontally out the side of the house so there is no chimney involved. I had recently adjusted the restrictor so I am also wondering if that was the problem. I had closed it quite a bit so I am wondering if that was causing an airflow problem and putting out the flame, therefore causing smoke. But, why wouldn't it vent out of the house instead of getting sucked back into the stove to be blown out into the house? Also, I relit it today and it ran just fine, same as yesterday. After yesterdays incident, we cleaned it, relit it and it ran perfectly normal until this morning when it smoked up the house again. Also, the smoke is brown, not black, white or gray.

 

[wwert]

Hey Pyro, you may be a fire pro but you can't read for squat. Splits in a pellet stove. HaHa

 

[savageactor7]

Diane pellet stoves are out of my lane...maybe check out the pellet stove forum here for some heads up.