My Progress has shipped!

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
binko said:
I have an outdoor masonry chimney with an 8 X 8" square clay liner. The chimney has a 16 ft rise to the top. I do have an Exhausto fan on top because we have several 90 deg bends in the flue pipe. I can regulate the draft anywhere from .03" WC to a roaring wind tunnel with a rheostat control for the fan. Woodstock suggests .04 to .08" of WC for a draft. Unfortunately I have been running better than twice that in order to not have a smoky smell leaking out of the stove when throttled down. The smell is coming somewhere from the right side of the stove. I am working with the folks at Woodstock to get this solved. Reading other posts, it appears that a number of others are having similar smoky smell issues when operating in similar conditions.
Needless to say, I can create any draft condition that is required for optimal operation.

That sounds like an absolute PITA! Why not just fix the chimney so it drafts without needing some gizmo on it? Is something like this even to code, what happens when the power goes out?

The stove is a piece of work, it deserves a chimney that is up to the task.
 
even with the power out the chimney will draft OK. The primary advantage is that I can create instant draft to start a fire and it also eliminates any negative draft you can get in the warmer months where creosote smells can back into the house.
 
I also think your chimney setup may be the culprit, Binko.

A normal chimney is a dynamic component of the system, with ever-changing draft strength depending on flue temps but which can be controlled with the draft setting on the stove. You basically have a whole other complexity that I could see being very difficult to perfect along with the draft setting on the stove. While everyone with a Progress has reported similiar things that you have; i.e. strong secondaries with a full load, wood smell when damped down, etc., yours seems to be very pronounced. I remember you reporting burning through a "full" load or wood in 6 or 7 hours. I just cannot see that happening unless something is very wrong with your particular stove or your chimney. Mine would probably melt down if I even tried to burn through that much wood that fast.

I'm glad WS is helping you out, and I think you're having a very different experience than every else so far. I hope you get down to the bottom of it.
 
Binko:

Have you used this chimney setup (fan, etc.) with other woodstoves, and if so, how did they perform?
 
I used it on my VC Encore for 15 years as well as my previous stove, Woostock Keystone. I had no issues with either.
 
binko said:
I have an outdoor masonry chimney with an 8 X 8" square clay liner. The chimney has a 16 ft rise to the top. I do have an Exhausto fan on top because we have several 90 deg bends in the flue pipe. I can regulate the draft anywhere from .03" WC to a roaring wind tunnel with a rheostat control for the fan. Woodstock suggests .04 to .08" of WC for a draft. Unfortunately I have been running better than twice that in order to not have a smoky smell leaking out of the stove when throttled down. The smell is coming somewhere from the right side of the stove. I am working with the folks at Woodstock to get this solved. Reading other posts, it appears that a number of others are having similar smoky smell issues when operating in similar conditions.
Needless to say, I can create any draft condition that is required for optimal operation.

Thanks for working on the solution to this problem, binko. You are not the only one who is having that smell from exactly that spot, I know I do as well (with an internal masonry chimney, over 25 feet tall, with 6" stainless liner). I will be most interested to see how this works out!
 
HollowHill, have you made the Woodstock folks aware and did they offer any suggestions?
 
binko said:
HollowHill, have you made the Woodstock folks aware and did they offer any suggestions?

Yes, I have talked to them about it. Waiting to see how things go with you.
 
HollowHill & Binko:

The smell on my stove is an extremely faint, almost fruity smoke smell. I have to really sniff around to even find it, so in my case it is not a problem. I smell it shortly after the bypass is closed, and before the secondaries light off. I remember a very similar smell after bypassing with the Fireview. It seems to be coming from the rear right corner of the lid, but I have also heard it may be related to the door. Once they start shipping left hand doors, it will be interesting to see if the smell moves to the rear left side.
 
The smell on my stove is an extremely faint, almost fruity smoke smell. I have to really sniff around to even find it, so in my case it is not a problem. I smell it shortly after the bypass is closed, and before the secondaries light off.

Same exact thing with mine. In fact, I hadn't even noticed it until it got mentioned here. If I stick my noise close the right side of the lid I can detect it. I wonder if it's just from the cat heating up? Not sure why it's only on the right side, though. My dad has a left-hand door model installed. I will give his a sniff next time I'm there to see if his smell is on the left side.
 
Waulie:

That would be great if you could sniff a Left Hand door model, it would really help to narrow the problem down. Just don't burn your sniffer!

Funny how some users report a bigger smoke problem than others. I wonder if the draft is much more critical during this part of the burn cycle to prevent the smell? Seems like colder temps should help make this problem go away since draft would improve.
 
My smoky smell problems appears to be solved.
Although I did the dollar bill test several times on the door, I noticed that smoke stains were starting to develop around the gasket at the top of the door. With time the leaking smoke did start to lightly stain the door gasket that runs along the top of the door.
During my discussions with Tom at Woodstock, it was felt that smoke may be escaping around the framework that supports the door. Apparently there is a gasket between that frame and the body of the stove. Tom sent down some gasketing material as well as some gasket cement to replace it. Instead I wanted to try replacing the door gasket. I took the old one out (easy) and instead of just putting the new one in, I took some narrow gasketing material that I had left from a previous stove tune-up and put that into the door channel first. The channel itself is quite deep so by putting the narrow gasket in first, I had a higher starting point for the new gasket. After securing the first gasket in place, I put a narrow bead of the gasket cement that Tom had provided on top of that and placed that new gasket on top of that. When I laid it in there, I pushed the gasket toward itself so that it would puff up a little bit to increase its diameter. PROBLEM 100 % SOLVED.
The original gasket that was in there appears to be quite firm. When I pulled it out, it was quite hard and retained the shape of the door frame. It's not very compliant. The new gasket that I installed is much softer and I can see a notch that the mating surface has already pushed into it-I did not have that on the top part of the old gasket. Since there is no real adjustment for the door alignment, the gasket has to take care of all alignment requirements and if there is not enough being squeezed between the mating surfaces, a gap may remain where smoke can seep out.
I hope this helps all with similar issues.
 
Thanks, Binko, for testing this out and letting us know. That's a relief to know that there is a solution to the problem. It seems as if mine is getting stronger as time goes on, although that might be due to a combination of factors, such as heightened awareness and burning larger loads at lower temps.
 
I missed your post about the gasket, Binko. I came here to report on my dad's left hand door model. Sure enough, the smell (though very faint) on his is in fact on the left side. I guess it all makes perfect sense.
 
Has replacing the door gasket helped anyone eliminate smoky smell. The new gasket is working fine for me so far. No smoky smell at all.
 
binko said:
Has replacing the door gasket helped anyone eliminate smoky smell. The new gasket is working fine for me so far. No smoky smell at all.

I'm getting my gasket shipment on Monday, hope to install it on Tuesday. They are having me, as I understand it (don't have directions yet), put in a ????" thick layer of furnace cement in the door channel and then reapply the old gasket (because it has been fire hardened) rather than putting in new gasket. That is encouraging that your smell has disappeared. I did notice that I'm starting to get a stain on the gasket, top, left as you stare at the door when open, in other words, right where I'm getting the smell. WS says you got longer burns once you made the switch? That would be uber cool if that were to happen as a result of this fix. Will let you know how it goes...
 
Good luck with it!!!
I switched to a much softer gasket and instead of loading a bunch of furnace cement in the door channel, I put a smaller diameter gasket in first with the stove cement that Woodstock provided to me (it works great), then I put a narrow bead of the same cement on top of that followed by the much thicker gasket. I made a point of pushing that gasket toward itself (the opposite of pulling it to stretch) in order to increase its diameter.
Now all is well with the world (not really) and yes I am getting longer burn times now because I can throttle further down without the smell of smoke.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.