Backdrafts Blow

[Bugboy]

Last night was the 3rd time this season I had a backdraft while trying to start up a cold stove. Cold chimney and high winds aren't conducive to a good fire with my setup.

How do you guys solve this occassional backdraft problem without smoking up the whole house?

 

[savageactor7]

I think throwing in balls of wadded up newspapers can be a great aid in creating a sustaining draft...then sometimes cracking a window with help too.

 

[Brian VT]

Option 1: Don't let the fire go out !

Option 2: Crack open a window and get some heat up the flue (newspaper, hair dryer, propane torch, etc.)

 

[Bugboy]

I've tried the newspaper and the torch and opening the windows (actually doors, since I live in a "earth home" and don't have any windows that open to the outside of the house) but nothing seems to work. I guess I'll just use the furnace until atmospheric conditions change. Last night it set off the smoke and CO detector. This morning it started up fine.

 

[LLigetfa]

More often than not, a backdrafting chimney is made worse by stack effect in the house and inadequate makeup air. The chimney becomes the source for makeup air. Get the house air properly balanced so that warm room air aids draft.

 

[oconnor]

What is your setup? My guess is - basement stove, 30-40 year old house, exterior flue - I might be totally wrong, but that is a typical recipe for flow reversal in a flue. LLigetfa is right, the issue is likely the house, and the solution (cure vice relief of symptoms) is in how you seal the house. Newspaper, opening windows etc will help the syptoms, but you should look at a holistic approach.

Let us know what you have for a set up and house config (# stories, age, stove and flue location, flue size type height, OAK/No OAK, anything else you think of) and then well do some collective thinking. While you're at it, give the guide to residential wood heat in my signature block a read - it has some sections that cover what you are describing (stack effect/cold hearth).

Fill us in, and we'll fill you up with suggestions.

 

[JotulOwner]

Last night was the 3rd time this season I had a backdraft while trying to start up a cold stove. Cold chimney and high winds aren't conducive to a good fire with my setup.

How do you guys solve this occassional backdraft problem without smoking up the whole house?

I have the same problem from time to time (I have a tee-out connection to an outside SS pipe). I tried newspaper, but, if I close the door, the fire goes out and if I leave it open(even partially), smoke enters the room until the draft is reversed (which takes way too much time in my opinion). My solution was to get one of those little butane stoves and run it for awhile inside the wood stove (with the door open and consistently monitoring how warm it gets, of course). After a few minutes, the strong down draft reverses and I can start a fire without getting smoke in the house.

 

[ControlFreak]

I also get strong downdrafts when my chimney is cold. The only thing that works for me is a very fast fire generated by using camping fuel mixed with sawdust or balled-up toilet paper in a ziplock baggy. Light one corner, leads to a fast fire that initially has no smoke in the event that some of the exhaust ends up in the room before the cold air is pushed out. Once the cold air is pushed out, then it drafts just fine. Before I tried this, I smoked up my house countless numbers of times using normal combustibles like newspaper, wax fire starters, etc. DO NOT DO THIS WITH SOMETHING THAT'S EXPLOSIVE LIKE GASOLINE. The camping fuel is not explosive, that's why they sell it for camping lanterns.

 

[LLigetfa]

A hair dryer was mentioned but a heat gun would probably work better.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I wonder if one of those little Sterno (canned heat) cans would work?

 

[Michael6268]

I have always had pressure problems in my area and if the fire goes out 9 out of 10 times its like and arctic blast coming down my chimney. Tried flash fires, torch etc. Found the old hair dryer works every time. One minute on full blast/heat directed up the flue/baffle entrance and it reverses the flow and i can then light the fire with no smoke or backdraft.