Sorry for the length here...I want to get all the fact out. This site was reccomended and I hope I can find an answer.
We bought a 20 year old home where the prior owner burned wood in a masonry fireplace located in the family room which opens to the kitchen then the dining room / living room. The family room and kitchen have hard wood floors. The kitchen floor was installed about 9 months ago to match the exiting family room. The dining room/living room had new carpet installed about a year ago. All rooms were painted a year ago.. We had the sweep come to do an dinspection and cleaning. He said it was in good shape and did not warrant a cleaning....thought the entire inside (behind the glass ) is black--perhaps that is normal?
After two fires we decided we did not want the agravation but did want the 'pretty' as my wife calls it, fire. We narrowed it down to 3 options: 1) An insert; guaranteed not to smell, to throw enough heat into the house to heat the first floor and about $4K. Well we were not really looking for the heat, just the nice fire for occasional use and $4K was out of our budget. #2) vented log set. Dad has one of these. Huge roaring fire and it heats his room after being run a few hours.....but his room is pretty much enclosed where as we have a very wide open floor plan. We were told not to expect any heat BUT a nice flame. The downside here was the flu must be locked open. I was told this could let heat out of my house when not in use and perhpas even a draft in...note we 2 chairs on each side of the fireplace. Well, its bad enough to waste gas for a nice flame much less let my heat pump heat escape when not running a fire OR worse sitting there with a draft on me or having the smells of neighbor's fires coming in...STRIKE 2.
We settled for an unvented gas log set. I personally was fearfull of the condensation stories and smell stories BUT we were told none of that would be a problem in our home AND we could bypass those issues by just leaving the flu/damper open when in use. When not in use we could close the flu / damper and thus no heat pump heat could escape. Sounded good so we had it done.
So a few weeks into this, the thing has a nice flame, we run it with the flu open, shut the flu when not is use. No condensation. Only a little wiff of something now and then when we open the glass door set. So time passes and we become both brave and greedy. Lets try for some heat, what the heck, they said it would be fine.
Well damn! That sucker poors heat into the house with the flu closed. Sadly it stinks to high heaven too. In fact as soon as the flu is more than half closed the smell starts. I have been told its a kerosene smell... not sure...its not a rotten egg smell though.
The company that installed it came right out - no charge. Immedialtely the dude told me to get rid of all the glade air fresheners in the house. He explained how I was smelling the chemical in the scent being burned. They did say we could get some smells if we did things like paint or varnish etc. The air fresheners did not click until then. Well we got ride of all of them, aired the house out and waited a few weeks. Guess what...still stinks!
So now I am back to thinking those old wive's tales and rumours about vented log sets hold some truth. I am trying to keep an open mind but this time there is nothing I am aware that could be causing the smell. A local friend has a natural gas unvented model and gets no smell. We have propane? Could that have something to do with it?
Any ideas? Could the smell be coming from the black stuff on the inside of the chimeny from where wood was burned by the previous owner? If so what can I do? I'd have cleaned it if they told me this would happen....
It really would be nice to use this sucker for heat. Any ideas are appreciated. Note, this is not smell sensitivity issue. After about 20 minutes with the flu closed the kids and wife come downstairs complaining about the smell. HELP
!
We bought a 20 year old home where the prior owner burned wood in a masonry fireplace located in the family room which opens to the kitchen then the dining room / living room. The family room and kitchen have hard wood floors. The kitchen floor was installed about 9 months ago to match the exiting family room. The dining room/living room had new carpet installed about a year ago. All rooms were painted a year ago.. We had the sweep come to do an dinspection and cleaning. He said it was in good shape and did not warrant a cleaning....thought the entire inside (behind the glass ) is black--perhaps that is normal?
After two fires we decided we did not want the agravation but did want the 'pretty' as my wife calls it, fire. We narrowed it down to 3 options: 1) An insert; guaranteed not to smell, to throw enough heat into the house to heat the first floor and about $4K. Well we were not really looking for the heat, just the nice fire for occasional use and $4K was out of our budget. #2) vented log set. Dad has one of these. Huge roaring fire and it heats his room after being run a few hours.....but his room is pretty much enclosed where as we have a very wide open floor plan. We were told not to expect any heat BUT a nice flame. The downside here was the flu must be locked open. I was told this could let heat out of my house when not in use and perhpas even a draft in...note we 2 chairs on each side of the fireplace. Well, its bad enough to waste gas for a nice flame much less let my heat pump heat escape when not running a fire OR worse sitting there with a draft on me or having the smells of neighbor's fires coming in...STRIKE 2.
We settled for an unvented gas log set. I personally was fearfull of the condensation stories and smell stories BUT we were told none of that would be a problem in our home AND we could bypass those issues by just leaving the flu/damper open when in use. When not in use we could close the flu / damper and thus no heat pump heat could escape. Sounded good so we had it done.
So a few weeks into this, the thing has a nice flame, we run it with the flu open, shut the flu when not is use. No condensation. Only a little wiff of something now and then when we open the glass door set. So time passes and we become both brave and greedy. Lets try for some heat, what the heck, they said it would be fine.
Well damn! That sucker poors heat into the house with the flu closed. Sadly it stinks to high heaven too. In fact as soon as the flu is more than half closed the smell starts. I have been told its a kerosene smell... not sure...its not a rotten egg smell though.
The company that installed it came right out - no charge. Immedialtely the dude told me to get rid of all the glade air fresheners in the house. He explained how I was smelling the chemical in the scent being burned. They did say we could get some smells if we did things like paint or varnish etc. The air fresheners did not click until then. Well we got ride of all of them, aired the house out and waited a few weeks. Guess what...still stinks!
So now I am back to thinking those old wive's tales and rumours about vented log sets hold some truth. I am trying to keep an open mind but this time there is nothing I am aware that could be causing the smell. A local friend has a natural gas unvented model and gets no smell. We have propane? Could that have something to do with it?
Any ideas? Could the smell be coming from the black stuff on the inside of the chimeny from where wood was burned by the previous owner? If so what can I do? I'd have cleaned it if they told me this would happen....
It really would be nice to use this sucker for heat. Any ideas are appreciated. Note, this is not smell sensitivity issue. After about 20 minutes with the flu closed the kids and wife come downstairs complaining about the smell. HELP
!
just kidding.
