Please Help!

[dippinkodiak]

hey guys, i'm new to the forum and could definitely use some help. i'll jump right to it.....

i bought an englander wood burning stove, and i've installed it. the old fireplace has been bricked off with only an 8" hole remaining for the smokestack to go through. anyway, the stove sits about a ft out from the bricked off fireplace so i had to get a welder to fabricate a iron pipe to come out of the back of the stove and into the 8" hole. basically, there's a horizontal two foot iron pipe running from the back of the stove to the chimney shaft. i've run the stove several times and i can't complain as it does its job......EXCEPT when i open the doors to add more wood smoke comes pouring out. needless to say my firealarm goes off everytime. how in the world can i get it to stop pouring out the front. this only happens when i open the doors after its been running for a while.....never when i start the fire. its not getting enough draft would be my guess, but what are some other possibilities? how can i prevent this annoying thing from happening? thanks in advance, guys!

 

[JV_Thimble]

Maybe posting a picture will help folks visualize your setup. Also, did you mention how tall your chimney is?

 

[bogydave]

You are right, not getting enough draft. I'm not familiar with this stove but with my BK with a cat.

It could be several things but this may help.
I turn it to high with the bypass open for about 5 minutes. This heats the flu up & gets a good draft going.
Crack the door & get even more draft flowing for a minute or so.
With your chimney set up, it may take longer to get a good draft flowing.

Kinda hard to troubleshoot with out knowing more about the set-up, pictures help.
Lots of things may help, chimney liner, 2 45° elbows, different type of chimney cap etc.

Also
I usually burn down to embers, so when I open it, it's not real smoky inside.

 

[Todd]

Does that horizontal pipe coming out the back of the stove have a slight rise as it goes into the old fireplace? Also, does that pipe just stop there or did you continue with a liner all the way to the top? I'm pretty sure your stove exhaust is 6", why did you go with an 8"?

 

[n3pro]

Kind of a dumb comment BUT, how fast are you opening the door? If you open it too fast there will be smoke spillage.

 

[pen]

it is also helpful if you don't open the stove while there are active flames. (doing that is hard this time of year, but still hear me out).

Load the stove in cycles. Start it w/ a small fire and let it burn to coals, then load it up and let it cruise. Don't open it again until it is burnt down to coals again. Rinse, lather, repeat.

If you do have to open the stove while there is flamage, then open the air control all the way about 30 seconds prior, then slowly open the door and do your business.

Burning in cycles is the best way to keep the system as a whole working as it should. The idea of adding a log or 2 every now and then just doesn't work so great w/ these modern stoves.

I burn about a 1/2 doz different stoves on a regular basis and each remind me of children in that no 2 are alike.

Above all, you have to be more careful than most since you have a 6in stove going into an 8 in thimble. If the chimney is short to boot, then that amplifies your problem.

Also, how warm have the temps been for you when trying this? Considering what we do know about your system, I'm betting your draft is just not strong enough until you get down to near freezing.

pen

 

[branchburner]

Two more questions: what are the dimensions of the chimney flue the pipe goes into, and is there any source of air that might be leaking into the chimney/fireplace from below the thimble (clean out door, ash dump, etc.)?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Welcome to the forum dippinkodiak.


I'm betting you are simply opening the door when you want to add wood. If so, then you probably did not know, but now do, about opening the draft full and then wait a minute before opening the door slowly. You might also be adding wood too early and not waiting for the entire cycle. These are all common errors with new wood burners so you are not alone. Good luck.

 

[dippinkodiak]

hey guys, thanks for the replies. my house was built in the 1920s so......it's old to say the least. i read on here opening a window to get a better draft before opening the doors, and it has helped although still not good enough. if i waited until the flames were out there's no doubt that the smoke wouldn't be bad at all. unfortunately, i don't stay up late enough to wait until the flames die to embers. i could probably start the fire earlier once the temps drop much lower......right now they're in the high 50s. anyway, i just tried to attach a pic, but it's apparently too large. any idea how to adjust the resolution to get it a smaller size?

 

[branchburner]

Can't help you with the pic, but we'll settle for a thousand words. Regarding some of the questions we were asking: are you opening the draft full and waiting a minute before opening the door slowly? The dimensions of the chimney flue and any possible source of air leak? How warm have the outside temps been, and why did you go with an 8” instead of 6"? Inquiring minds want to know!

 

[savageactor7]

Along with the good suggestions above...

You could have a plugged chimney or cap too.

Did the welder fab the flu pipe connector so there's an slight upward draw for the smoke? Gotta have that ya know.

 

[thechimneysweep]

the old fireplace has been bricked off with only an 8” hole remaining for the smokestack to go through.

Reading this, I got a horrible flashback to the late 70's, when we encountered a few installations exactly as this one is described. No stainless liner, no direct connection to the existing clay chimney liner, just a bricked-over fireplace with a thimble hole in the front. In this configuration, the wood exhaust would exit the connector pipe into the bricked-over fireplace cavity, where it would cool considerably as it expanded to fill the void. Then, it had to compress to pass through the damper opening. Then, it had to find its way through the way-oversize throat and smokeshelf area to (finally) enter the likewise oversized fireplace flue. Back-smoking into the room through the stove was a common complaint, due to the resulting poor draft.

Dippin, if this describes your installation, a smokey room is the least of your problems. In those installations the smoke was barely moving by the time it finally entered the flue, and cool enough to start dumping creosote like crazy. The smokeshelf and fireplace would eventually fill up with creosote, as the thimble hole was the only access opening and there was no way to clean it out. The chimney fire, when it inevitably happened, was a DOOZY.

What you need is a 6" stainless tee liner extending to the top of your chimney.

 

[begreen]

i just tried to attach a pic, but it's apparently too large. any idea how to adjust the resolution to get it a smaller size?

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewannounce/27_2/