Smoking! Help!

[milkman2010]

We started using a wood oil furnace in a recently purchased home. But we are getting a lot of smoke. I think part of the problem is the forced draft fan above the fire door. It's not working correctly. When it works it creates a curtain of air that keeps the smoke in the box. Now, whenever we start a fire or add wood to a fire we get smoke.

What are the causes and solutions to this problem? Any input would be greatly welcomed! Thanks!

Ethan

 

[webie]

Check all of your chimney and pipeing to the chimney for restrictions. If its been sitting for awhile you can have creasote dry and flake off and block or partially block the chimney causing little to no draft . That condition can result in very poor exhaust pull causing your furnace to smoke inside your home rather than it being pulled outside . There are other things that can cause your problem but I would check that first . 90 % of the time thats the cause .
Also do you have a manual damper make sure its wide open and if you have a barometric draft make sure its not stuck wide open .

 

[GENECOP]

Ethan, beyond just asking here you really need to get someone out to your place that knows what they are looking at...these burners while good at saving money are not worth risking the safety of you and your family, Flue pipe is the starting place...

 

[laynes69]

If you check your chimney and things are clean, a cold chimney can sometimes take a little coaxing to start a draft. A hair dryer in the flue can sometimes be enough to get things going. Also if your reloading, waiting till the fire has burned down to a bed of coals will help prevent smoking when opening the door. If your chimney has a blockage, a forced draft will just make things worse. What furnace are you using? If there's a heat exchanger, check it also.

 

[Rory]

Do you have the fan on when your door is open? Most designs allow the smoke to escape naturally with the door open, then we turn the fan on after closing the door and the "bypass damper".