Backdraft issues

[Jcorcoran01]

Hello all, I installed my wood stove this weekend. It is a Country Stoves ST210, I installed about 5.5 feet of double wall Selkirk stove pipe inside which included 2 45 degree elbows connected to each other to provide enough offset to avoid a joist in the ceiling. The double wall stove pipe connects to a supervent decorator round ceiling support and then 15 ft of supervent class A chimney. All of this is 6 inc diameter the same as the stove. All was fine, I lit a fire Saturday evening after the installation was done then let it go out before bed since this is my first wood stove I am not sure how to do overnight burns yet. Then Sunday morning I woke up and started a fire from a cold stove at about 7 am with an indoor temperature of 65 ( we have propane furnace also) and an outdoor temp of around 35. All went well I was quickly enjoying that glorious wood heat for the entire day Sunday. Again before bed I just let it all burn out. This morning I attempted to start a fire in the cold stove and smoke began to pour out of the open door so I shut the door and smoke came out the vents on the stove. I was thinking that maybe the chimney was just full of cold air and that I just needed enough heat to overcome the cold chimney so I continued trying to get a fire going which eventually I have a couple small pieces burning but all the smoke was just filling house. After a few minutes of this I gave up and quickly got the burning pieces of wood out of the house and the smoke out by opening all the windows to the 4 degree air, my wife and kids were not pleased.

Anyway I am not sure what to do in this situation and am looking for suggestions to make sure this does not happen again. It was quite cold this morning and there was definitely a temperature inversion going on outside. My house is in the mountains with a good view out over a couple valleys which had low cloud cover in them which I am above. Was this just bad timing because of the temp inversion outside? Should I be doing something to warm the stovepipe/ chimney a bit before lighting a fire?

Any advise is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[ShawnLiNY]

You may have an appliance that is reversing draft when stove is cold , this more common in some basement installations or houses with large gaps going to attic ( preheating the single wall for 4-5 min should be enough to establish the correct direction )

 

[begreen]

The temperature inversion might not have helped. How dry is the wood being burnt? How long did it season for? If it is not well seasoned and there is a screen on the chimney cap it may be plugging. Or if a lot of cardboard has been used to start the fire that can plug a screen too.

Is there a screen on the chimney cap?

 

[Jcorcoran01]

The wood being used is dry I can check it with the meter I just bought but this particular wood was stacked and split over a year ago. I bought i to burn outside in my fire pit long before we planned to have a wood stove. It is all lodge pole pine as that's whats most common in my area. There is no screen on the chimney cap, the one I have is this one.

https://www.menards.com/main/heating-cooling/venting/insulated-double-wall-stove-pipe/supervent-reg-6-deluxe-rain-cap-a-vent/jsc6drc/p-1444453714519.htm

We have since been able to get a fire started just fine. I suspect the issue was the inversion outside at this point. For additional information when I first opened the door to the stove this morning I could feel cold air coming in towards me from the stove so coming down the chimney.

ShawnLiNY does it make a difference that it is double wall pipe not single wall? Should I plan to put a space heater on the pipe for a few minutes before starting a fire?

Thanks for the help

 

[spudman99]

Try running a small propane plumbing torch holding the tip in the firebox to heat up the liner first. Let it run for about 2 min or so, this adds clean burning heat pretty quickly. Other way is to use a hair dryer also holding it close to the bypass to add heat to the chimney for 2 min or so. Then start a small kindling fire to see if you have established draft. If not you have less risk of lots of smoke back filling your house. If it works you can let the kindling burn down a bit, then add your regular wood using the normal loading sequence.

 

[kennyp2339]

Seeing all the weather reports, I looks like the Canadians left open the freezer door and you guys got the brunt of it with cold, cold temps, single digits make it hard to a chimney to warm up.
Are you in a lower elevation to related mountains? or is everything fairly even in elevation? Sometimes when cold like that comes screaming in is pools in the lower levels, since its denser then the immediate air around the area it creates a lower pressure (think a cap) takes a bit for the cap to come off, some folk stick with putting a sterno inside the fire box first for 30 min to let the heat poke a air hole and get draft going, other take a chance and first burn a whole clump of crumple news paper then wait for it to burn out and then start a fire.

 

[Jcorcoran01]

I am basically on to of a mountain. My elevation is about 6500 ft and the closest 2 towns both about 15 mile drive from my house are sitting around 4800 ft. This morning I do remember being able to see clouds below us out in the valleys. I am thinking this meant there was a blanket of dense cold air bearing down on us. Once this effect dissipated my wife was able to get a fire started and has been burning all day with no more smoke coming into house even while reloading the stove. I think going forward I will be mindful to notice if I feel a lot of cold air coming in from stove when I first open the door. If I do I will leave door open for a few minutes maybe put a space heater aimed either into firebox for a while or maybe outside of stovepipe. Otherwise I will probably need to get a small propane torch or something like that.


What about a magnet block heater for a vehicle either stove to stove or stove pipe ? Anybody try that before? Just a thought.

Anyway thank you all for the advise I think I at least have a couple things to try.

 

[ShawnLiNY]

J , use spudmans suggestion of a torch in stove ( rather than waste time trying to heat insulated pipe )