I was unable to zoom in the cap today (I should be able to do so tomorrow but sadly I will have to use the camera for this as I could not locate any binoculars in the house) So I still don't know the condition of the cap.
Like BG said - check the cap, it could be clogged, also I know no one wants to here this but if the cap is not clogged then I would blame the wood supply.
We are new to wood stoves and learning this as we go along but I am pretty confident the wood is not the problem here. We are checking every piece that goes into that stove. And using small pieces to help oxygen get in there (I read that this could potentially cause an overfire but there is nowhere near enough air moving through there for that) That we check in the middle.
Is there a fan or clothes dryer running? Have you tried cracking a window or door? With the recent cold temps in our area it should draft better. My insert is more likely to puff smoke if I have the bathroom fan or the dryer running. Opening the back door just a crack seems to solve that issue.
Happens regardless if the dryer is on or not (They do a single wash per day) only fan is the overhead blowing downward. Turning it off did nothing to help the burn (Tired that the first time we had issues)
The only bathroom fan is upstairs in the bathroom. But the insulation between the rooms means it could be 20 degress colder so I doubt air is moving through anywhere near enough to compete with a hot fire in the stove. And the fan is broken anyway so we never have it on.
We have tried opening doors. Has no effect on the fire but we do it anyway to get the smoke out of the house (Ruining the point of running a fire stove in the first place)
Is this only an issue on start up? Are you trying to warm/clear the flue with a newspaper prior to start up? I do not believe the Rainer has a bypass damper. I would suggest you try the top down method of starting up your stove see if problem is improved. Many threads and videos on this process.
No it is an issue through the entire burn. We have tried the top down method and it does work if the outside is warm. In the 30s or below tho the lack of draft just puts the fire out and we have been forced by that issue to light it with large amounts of lightly balled newspaper and lots of very small pieces to push hot air up as soon as possible. And even then yesterday it failed causing the stove to fill with smoke before I could finally get enough of it lit to light to start the fire. Filling the house with smoke because the smoke refused to go up the flue.
If we could get this problem fixed. We would go back to top down. It seems like a far superior and environmentally friendly way to get the stove going with little effort.
sorry you're having problems. i don't think the small gaps in the pipe are causing the problem. normally, they aren't the issue but a symptom of another one. looking at the soot on the connector pipe, i'll bet the chimney from the ceiling connector to the cap is harboring the problem. how does it run with the door open a bit. when was the last time you cleaned it...i clean mine from the bottom up using a trash bag with a small hole for the rod. i use painters tape to tape it to the connector and collect the soot. the cap, mentioned earlier is also a good culprit. that would be one of the first things i check. also, just a thought, are your air vents unobstructed. they seldom become obstructed but it might be worth checking. the way the smoke came up between the pipe in the latter portion of the video makes me think that you have a blockage up top somewhere. good luck
When we opened the door to load wood. The fire would improve greatly. But we cant open it at all unless we want a house full of smoke. Which prefers the house to the flue.
We had it cleaned less than a month ago and the so called sweep said it looked fine and blamed the cold weather for our issues. That is utter bullcrap as he did not bother to climb up and physically check the cap and if "cold weather" was an issue. How do people run these stoves at all when it is -20 outside?
Trouble is the pitch on the roof is steep and I doubt it would be safe for me to climb up there and check myself. Any ideas?
Looks like the same symptoms I get if cap is plugged. All things equal it should draft better as it gets colder. I know if we get several weeks of humid inversion still air my cap will plug sometimes. regardless if you just cleaned it I would run a brush again and make sure that cap is clean. I use binoculars like begreen suggested because I have a tall chimney and hate getting up there, I clean from the bottom up with a sooteater. Based on your video at that stage of burn the wood should be dried out and not smoking like that if air is open.
To be honest we are noobs and do not know how to clean the flue ourselves yet. Something I had planned to learn before next winter.
Are you saying we can clean that cap from the inside?
I agree with everybody else. Seems odd that it gets WORSE when it gets colder. Is it possible you're running the central heat to make up for the colder temps? If it's on during startup, and the draft is already marginal, you could get spillage.
No central air. Just some electric heaters.
you should be able to pull that pipe between the stove and cealing without much trouble. you should be able to look up the chimney and see what its like. if its full of crap, its your chimney pipe, not the interior pipe and a good reaming should fix the problem with little to no cost.......just a thought.
We are noobs to any of this. If we can pull that out. Any info on how to do that without causing damage and potentially voiding the stove's warranty?
