Smoke Out The Back of The Woodstock!!!!!!!

[leeave96]

Lit a fire in my fine Woodstock Keystone and my Wife in a certain concerned voice said - there is smoke coming out the back of the stove!

Hard to see where with the rear heat shield as it was funnelling it up to the top side of the stove. Now I have a top flue exit, so first thing I did was to tighten the the rear block off plate a bit and relit the stove - more smoke!

So I crawl down on my belly and have a look-see at the stove and the smoke was coming out around the damper linkage going into the stove. I've got the side door mostly open while I let the kindling catch-up and closed it to get it out of the way while I look further. Suddenly the smoke stops exiting the stove. I thinks to myself - smoke is coming out of the fresh air intake - where the damper linkage is located. Makes sense to me. Close the door and air has to come in the fresh air inlet vs the door.

Learned something new about my stove. If the chimney draft hasn't fully kicked-in and the stove box is full of smoke, and the door is almost wide open, the smoke is going to go where the least draft is located - like a crack in the stove. In this case, it spilled out the fresh air inlet!

The whole thing made for an interesting few minutes - LOL!

Kind of reminded me of the old days firing an old wood kitchen stove and smoke would sometimes come out around the round plates on the stove top.

Anyone else had their Woodstock vent smoke out the fresh air intake?

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Tim IA]

Yep, mine does that on occasion too. Only when the stove is cold and I have the door open..... and then not always either. Usually a slow starting fire where I'm blowing on the flames to try and get it going. I watch for it now so if I see it coming out, I close the door. I've actually had the smoke come out the back and then get sucked in through the open side door. In another month, the stove won't be cold until spring so it won't be an issue any more. Definitely not a big deal.

 

[kayakkeith]

yep -had the same thing happen and know watch what I am doing - usually happens on very cold start up and if I didnt check the draft first

 

[Todd]

I've had it happen with cold starts from both stoves and it's always when the side door is open too much, so I usually just have the door cracked an inch for a couple minutes at start up. I'm thinking if the door is wide open there is too much volume of air going in and not a large enough exit with a smaller 6" exhaust, so the smoke finds another exit.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I'm just lucky. I've never had that problem.

Perhaps burn some newspaper first to warm the flue will help.