Sealed unit? - Smoke coming out of side (Explorer)

[bigpig]

Looking to answer two questions :

• Is the stove a sealed unit?
• How did this happen?

Take a look at the picture :



I suspect when lighting the stove I mis-triggered opening the flue (on an Explorer you can close the flue if you don't want to wait for the timer by releasing a mechanism to the bottom right - I could of messed up releasing that mechanism before opening it so it was in an odd state of appearing open when it was still closed) - then the stove failed to light (no air and not the dryest kindling) and just smoked so much it came out the sides! However I thought the unit was sealed so smoke could never be emitted from anywhere other than the flue and the door being open(?)

 

[jatoxico]

Times I've had a reverse draft smoke gets past the door gasket and form the primary air intake.

 

[bigpig]

Tested this again twice - its as if the flue / chimney is sealed shut. I held rolled lit paper and again with a firefighter to the front top and the smoke just drew into the room. Never happened before and now it is consistent. Help?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

Maybe open a window, or try heating up the flue with a hair dryer to see if you can reverse the draft... make sure you're not running anything that might be sucking air, like a big air vent over a stove, or a bathroom fan, or the clothes dryer...... these things can all reverse your draft and cause smoky start ups

 

[Chuck the Canuck]

I don't think stoves are really "air tight sealed units." When you get a reversed draft the smoke will leak out all over the place on the stove, wherever the easiest place is to get out, until you get your flue pulling air again.....

 

[kennyp2339]

Check you chimney cap for any clogs / plugged up, run the brush down the chimney to make sure its clean. Split smaller splits to get light off. I don't think anything major would have happened to the stove that juristic over night to make it do what its doing, but a dirty chimney with these warmer wet nights can certainly create conditions like you are experiencing right now.

 

[moresnow]

Check your cap. Is it a screened version? Possibly plugged? Opening a window and turning off household items that steal air are all good pointers. I've had the reverse draft mentioned above as well. Spooky! Opening a window nearest the stove quickly fixed it.

 

[Highbeam]

Your air tight stove probably has several holes in it on purpose for all of the various combustion air inlets. My noncat nc30 has four separate holes scattered all over and some can let smoke out.

 

[Chimney Smoke]

As mentioned above, I suspect reverse draft. I have experienced that once or twice and my stove did the exact same thing. Cracking the window next to the stove usually clears it up. I'm happy that I don't have to deal with that very often, usually when it's damp and still with no wind outside.

 

[begreen]

Tell us a bit about the installation. Describe the flue path in detail from stove top to chimney cap, including turns in the smoke path and flue size in the chimney plus the chimney height.