So many times I've read that wood burners don't need to worry about CO because you would smell the smoke if the flue was clogged or if you had a reversal, and that would tip you off to the danger. I have always thought that the most dangerous time is after the fire cools and all you have left is a bed of smokeless charcoal. I got proof of this earlier in the week.
The other day, I went down to tend the stove first thing in the AM. I knew ahead of time that I had a huge bed of coals because I could feel the heat as I opened the basement door. I looked at the stovetop thermo and it was at 325º. I opened the damper and peaked into the stove and there was about 6" of hot coals sitting on top of a couple days worth of ashes. The air intake was buried. I used a poker to clear a channel next to the intake, but I wasn't happy, so I decided I would deal with the hot coals and get some of the ashes out.
I grabbed the rake, knelt down in front of the stove and opened the doors. It was a real hassle shuffling the coals from side to side, but in about five minutes I had half a bucket of ashes out of the stove and covered in a bucket. Then I reached over to grab a couple of small splits and threw them on the coal bed. They almost self-ignited when they hit, and when they did, a big cloud of smoke came pouring out of the top loading door. I had forgotten to close the griddle top!
You can fill my stove with the griddle top open without losing the draft of the chimney, but having both the front doors and the top door open completely bypasses the flue, and the hot gases will just rise into the room itself. I quickly closed the top and then shut the front doors to let the stove fire up to temp.
My CO detector is in the bathroom directly at the top of the stairs. Theory has been that any CO would rise with the hot air and enter the bathroom doorway. The first thing I always do every morning is to check the detector before my morning pee for a possible trace level (mine won't sound the alarm until 70 PPM has been in the air for a while, but it will detect and record levels as low as 10 PPM). It's always said "0" at this point, but when I pressed the button this time, I got a reading of 20 PPM.
So the thing works, and I've got it in the right spot, so that's good news. The major eye opener here is that, until I added fresh wood, I never noticed or smelled anything coming from the stove. If by some chance I got distracted and walked away with both the top and the front doors open, I would have surely gotten a lot higher reading than 20 PPM. And if I had gone back to bed, and if I didn't have a quality CO detector in the correct spot, I might not be writing this now.
So disregard anything anyone tells you or that you read about on the Internet. Dangerous levels of CO gas are always forming at the end of a burn, and you won't smell the fumes because the smoke is long gone. Be safe. Get a CO detector (or two) if you haven't already done so.
The other day, I went down to tend the stove first thing in the AM. I knew ahead of time that I had a huge bed of coals because I could feel the heat as I opened the basement door. I looked at the stovetop thermo and it was at 325º. I opened the damper and peaked into the stove and there was about 6" of hot coals sitting on top of a couple days worth of ashes. The air intake was buried. I used a poker to clear a channel next to the intake, but I wasn't happy, so I decided I would deal with the hot coals and get some of the ashes out.
I grabbed the rake, knelt down in front of the stove and opened the doors. It was a real hassle shuffling the coals from side to side, but in about five minutes I had half a bucket of ashes out of the stove and covered in a bucket. Then I reached over to grab a couple of small splits and threw them on the coal bed. They almost self-ignited when they hit, and when they did, a big cloud of smoke came pouring out of the top loading door. I had forgotten to close the griddle top!
You can fill my stove with the griddle top open without losing the draft of the chimney, but having both the front doors and the top door open completely bypasses the flue, and the hot gases will just rise into the room itself. I quickly closed the top and then shut the front doors to let the stove fire up to temp.
My CO detector is in the bathroom directly at the top of the stairs. Theory has been that any CO would rise with the hot air and enter the bathroom doorway. The first thing I always do every morning is to check the detector before my morning pee for a possible trace level (mine won't sound the alarm until 70 PPM has been in the air for a while, but it will detect and record levels as low as 10 PPM). It's always said "0" at this point, but when I pressed the button this time, I got a reading of 20 PPM.
So the thing works, and I've got it in the right spot, so that's good news. The major eye opener here is that, until I added fresh wood, I never noticed or smelled anything coming from the stove. If by some chance I got distracted and walked away with both the top and the front doors open, I would have surely gotten a lot higher reading than 20 PPM. And if I had gone back to bed, and if I didn't have a quality CO detector in the correct spot, I might not be writing this now.
So disregard anything anyone tells you or that you read about on the Internet. Dangerous levels of CO gas are always forming at the end of a burn, and you won't smell the fumes because the smoke is long gone. Be safe. Get a CO detector (or two) if you haven't already done so.
