Wood Stove woes...

[littlesmokey]

I have only two questions, how did you get that picture so clear and detailed? And can you give us all lessons? I can almost see a run in the paint. That is without a doubt the best picture I have seen on this forum, and one of the best on any newslist.

Almost lost track of the thread.

ls

Holy big picture....

So the stove has a angled ceramic plate above the fire chamber that sits low in the back and high at the door. There is a 2 1/2" air gap at the front where the smoke heat and gases turn up and head back to the flue. This is the re-burn chamber. It has air passages that direct heated gases back into the fire chamber for buring.

So when I first light off the stove...all the heat and smoke is directed to the front of the stove. With the door open...it comes right into the room as thats the path of least resistance. With the door closed...smoke still leaks out the air inlets above the door. Enough to smoke out the room VERY WELL until the hot air pushes the cold air plug up and out.

The stove is made by vermont castings. Sold under the Century name at Lowes. Its a great stove...Like my original post said though...I just need to figure out how to preheat with out smoking the home out. I dont mind a little...but when cant breath...nah...thats more than anyone would want inside their home.

 

[littlesmokey]

I agree completely. There is a pressure issue that can be very difficult to overcome, if you are not aware of it's cause. That bathroom fan, the stove hood, a cracked bedroom window, a hot firing gas waterheater, the furnace beating you to the punch. If your home is tight it is tough.

My neighbor has a super insulated and airtight home, but he knows the issues. He has solved the stove problem by having a gated vent from outside to the rear of the stove, it uses a blast gate to open and close (like on a dust collector), opened as he lights the stove. He has a thirty plus foot stack, when it's cold, he uses a small electric box heater, set inside and closed door to the cord, but all inlets open. It takes about ten minutes to reverse. He sets the heater on his ready fire. He prefers top down, so it's easy to pull the heater light the paper and close the door. Starts right up.

With my leaky place and no aversion to the smell, I have no issues.

This is a typical pressure problem in a 2 story house. Air is at a high pressure (relative to outside) up high in the house and low pressure low in the house. Bumping the draft as described in previous posts will certainly work, in most cases. But the root of the problem is the pressure. That can be solved VERY easily buy opening a window in the room for a minute or two while you start your firelighter or paper. This will be the preffered path for the pressure differential and "balance" the stove and flue to the outside pressure. An open window upstairs can be a HUGE factor in this and should be shut before attempting to start a fire in the downstairs stove. And yes they are certainly connected even in huge houses.

I was at a house recently that required the window to be open for a solid 5 minutes before you could shut it. It wasnt until after the draft was bumped that I asked the windows open upstairs question. Doh.

Stove Boy

 

[stoveguy2esw]

super cedars or a wax and sawdust type firestarter, set it in the stove light it and close the door til barely a crack , open the damper, these things produce much more heat with little or no smoke, once you have weather to do so maybe look at building a chase arounds the exposed chimney to help hold heat when its burning and in between loads so that the flue temp stays just a shade above the outdoor temp this will help immensely with draw. problem with chimney temps and outside temps being equal is that there is no movement up , and any (repeat any) negative pressure in the house will result in downdrafting. the flue must be at a bare minimum a few degrees higher than the outside in temp to hold a standby draw. that why the hairdryer works , it doesnt warm the flue much , but only a few degrees will suffice. any heat source into the flue will do.

 

[babalu87]

Leave the door open

If the smell of burning wood is that bothersome you may want to look into other options.

With a significant downdraft that doesn't do &^$% And it burning paper, not wood. I love the smell of burnig wood. smoldering NP WREAKS

Oz has spoken............... even if I cant understand it?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

or.. you can mostly correct the problem by building a insulated chase around the exterior pipe, also install a damper in line with the pipe to help slow the draft down when the flue gets to hot. The colder the outdoor temp is the harder the stove will be to start, but also once its started, the harder the draft will be. If your not carefull you can over draft a stove on 8" pipe installed on the exterior when the weather turns real cold.

 

[squngel]

I have the same stove but not the evil outside chimney setup. I'm nuts about the stove, but am wondering how in the heck I'm going to clean out the flue, since debris will just fall into the secondary burn chamber??? Did you get any recommendations on how to do this? I can't think of a way except for un-bolting the flue above the stove & sliding it up, sticking a pan under it or something.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

your first section of pipe should be a telescope if its double wall, or a slip joint up at the top if its single wall. Slide up the pipe and rubberband a plastic grocery bag around the bottom.

 

[squngel]

it's a telescope, and thanks!

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

anytime

 

[Gooserider]

SOME stoves allow you to remove the secondary combustion guts so that the flue has a straight shot into the firebox - in that case take the guts out, keep the stove door closed and just brush into the box, makes a great way to contain the crud so you can shovel it out later and put the guts back...


Gooserider

 

[velvetfoot]

I too have this problem even with an insulated exterior chase.
I crack open an adjacent window and use newspaper.

 

[James04]

Holy big picture....

So the stove has a angled ceramic plate above the fire chamber that sits low in the back and high at the door. There is a 2 1/2" air gap at the front where the smoke heat and gases turn up and head back to the flue. This is the re-burn chamber. It has air passages that direct heated gases back into the fire chamber for buring.

So when I first light off the stove...all the heat and smoke is directed to the front of the stove. With the door open...it comes right into the room as thats the path of least resistance. With the door closed...smoke still leaks out the air inlets above the door. Enough to smoke out the room VERY WELL until the hot air pushes the cold air plug up and out.

The stove is made by vermont castings. Sold under the Century name at Lowes. Its a great stove...Like my original post said though...I just need to figure out how to preheat with out smoking the home out. I dont mind a little...but when cant breath...nah...thats more than anyone would want inside their home.

I am sure there are still many wondering how you where able to post such a large clear photo of this stove. Will you please Please share with us how you did it.

James

 

[Andre B.]

Looks like just a link to an offsight picture. Just remove the spaces in the img tags.
[i m g]http://www.nationalhomecomfort.com/elements/uploads/pages/highres_275.jpg[/i m g]

 

[James04]

Web,

Is the key to have another web site "host the image". Some of the images posted here on the hearth are so small that it is hard to make out the details. Is it possible to include how to post such images in the tutorials? Forgive me if it has already been done.

James

 

[begreen]

I much prefer smaller thumbnail images that I can click on to see the bigger pictures.

 

[James04]

I do not disagree with that. However it seems that a majority of the thumb nails when clicked on reveal an image the same size as the thumb nail or just slightly larger.

James

 

[CountryGal]

There was a great video posted here last week that you should show your wife. It shows how to build a top-down as well. I don't have the link unfortunately, but hopefully someone will.