Help!! Horrible back drafting furnace

[Fred61]

How long had it been burning before you opened the door? Was the fire hot and burning long enough to warm the chimney? Did the cobbled up cap fall off?

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[brenndatomu]

it started smoking out the door again when you open it. Not just a light smoke but a kind of blow it in you're face

Its not uncommon to have this happen...one thing that helps is to crack the door, leave it for 30 seconds or so, then slooooowly open the door. If you just walk up and rip the door open while there is active fire still, that will get you smoke in your face on many basement installs...reworking the stovepipe as discussed earlier will help reduce this problem also...

 

[Hunter130]

Its not uncommon to have this happen...one thing that helps is to crack the door, leave it for 30 seconds or so, then slooooowly open the door. If you just walk up and rip the door open while there is active fire still, that will get you smoke in your face on many basement installs...reworking the stovepipe as discussed earlier will help reduce this problem also...

I do open very slowly, generally crack the door for 5-10 seconds then slowly open.. also have tried opening near window and unfortunately same results. And for the other response, it had been burning about an hour. STove is hot as well as chimney pipe. And double checked the T cap, may possibly be getting a very very small amount of air there but certainly no significant amount if any

 

[Lawson111]

Chimney cap installed? If it try removing it. I know it’s not recommended but it may help with your draft. It helped me.

 

[Hunter130]

Nope no chimney stack, however I am thinking of buying one of the vacu stacks to see if maybe that would help improve the draft.

 

[Lawson111]

Try buying a meter that measures draft I’m not sure what they are called but I know someone on here does and there fairly cheap. Maybe something is wrong with the stove and not the chimney. Hopefully not but at least this will help you troubleshoot.

 

[brenndatomu]

Try buying a meter that measures draft I’m not sure what they are called but I know someone on here does and there fairly cheap. Maybe something is wrong with the stove and not the chimney. Hopefully not but at least this will help you troubleshoot.

Manometer.
The Dwyer Mark II model 25 is a popular one with us wood burner types...and fairly inexpensive.
I had some NOS ones for sale, but they are gone now.

 

[laynes69]

You mentioned a fireplace, and also have your blowers on the furnace. If the fireplace is open (should be closed if not using) and your blowers are running on the furnace when you open it, you could have a bad negative pressure on the firebox. Also, when you open the door on the woodfurnace before the fire has burnt down to coals, it will smoke. For us, if I'm loading our furnace and taking my sweet time, I will shut off the blower and not an ounce of smoke will come into the house. However if the blower is running and I don't load in a timely manner, smoke comes out of the furnace.

 

[sloeffle]

For us, if I'm loading our furnace and taking my sweet time, I will shut off the blower and not an ounce of smoke will come into the house. However if the blower is running and I don't load in a timely manner, smoke comes out of the furnace.

I installed a switch on mine because I had the same problem. I always turn the power off to the furnace when loading because I don't want smoke in the house.

 

[brenndatomu]

Yup, mines wired with a plug...I unplug it while loading for the same reason

 

[Marshy]

You have a 1 foot horizontal piece right out the back of the stove. Is that pipe lower or higher than the top of the firebox door opening?

Just like electricity, smoke will follow the path of least resistance.

 

[Fred61]

Lots of good suggestions above from guys with experience but I did want to ask if there are any trees or other roofs in close proximity to the stack that may be higher than the stack outlet. Is the stack at least 2 feet higher than the ridgepole of your house?

 

[Marshy]

Lots of good suggestions above from guys with experience but I did want to ask if there are any trees or other roofs in close proximity to the stack that may be higher than the stack outlet. Is the stack at least 2 feet higher than the ridgepole of your house?

At least this...

 

[maple1]

Sounding like a broken record here - but pictures are worth, like, all kinds of words...

 

[Hunter130]

Yeah, I have at least 4, more like 5 feet over peak and no big trees

 

[Lawson111]

How close do these big trees have to be to affect draft?

 

[Lawson111]

How close do these big trees have to be to affect draft?

This to close?

 

[maple1]

Quite possibly. Wind direction might also play a part but sometimes hard to predict as swirling and weird stuff like that also usually happens.

 

[laynes69]

I would remove the manual damper, your chimney is awfully short, and compounded with the elbows in the flue pipe. While the manual damper may not seem like it's nothing, it is causing a restriction in the system. For every elbow in the system, there's a reduction in draft.

 

[Lawson111]

Quite possibly. Wind direction might also play a part but sometimes hard to predict as swirling and weird stuff like that also usually happens.

When the wind blows from in the direction where the tree would get hit First by the wind so in my instance from the west, the smoke from my chimney ends being pushed low to the ground, like 6 foot off the ground then it with eventually dimisimsh and you can’t see it anymore but I’m wondering if the tree is causing this.

Well just because I have the capability of cutting this tree down. It will be down next weekend and we will see that the verdict is.

 

[Marshy]

When the wind blows from in the direction where the tree would get hit First by the wind so in my instance from the west, the smoke from my chimney ends being pushed low to the ground, like 6 foot off the ground then it with eventually dimisimsh and you can’t see it anymore but I’m wondering if the tree is causing this.

Well just because I have the capability of cutting this tree down. It will be down next weekend and we will see that the verdict is.

Yes, they would have thast effect on the wind/draft. You could try a chimney cap to reduce down draft.

 

[Mrpelletburner]

Did you ever solve the issue?

 

[brenndatomu]

OP has not been around here for almost a month...hopefully @Hunter130 will check back in with an update sometime...