Bad smell coming from Santa Fe stove

[sven]

Hey all, this is my first time here and I'm hoping I'm not repeating a thread but I couldn't find one on my issue:

My Quadrafire Santa Fe freestanding stove is just over 3 years old. I've mostly been burning Golden Fire pellets especially this year. A week ago I noticed the glass and interior had become glazed with very hard dark ash that's difficult to scrape off. I cleaned everything as best as I could. I even took the brick wall out and cleaned behind and on the upper tubes.

Last night the stove started smelling like exhaust mixed with an slight electrical smell. The blower is now making a little noise as it works.

I am perplexed at what these two issue are caused by. The stove is cleaned regularly and I only use good pellets. If someone could help me figure out what the black glazing is and why I have an exhaust/electrical smell I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks

 

[Stevekng]

What kind of exhaust? Car, diesel, wood? Pictures would help too.

 

[Former Farmer]

Is it possible that your combustion fan is starting to go?

 

[tjnamtiw]

Your comment about you 'even took the brick wall out and cleaned the tubes' makes me wonder how well you are cleaning the stove. You should be taking those back plates off EVERY time you clean. Have you ever cleaned in the area where the combustion fan is located? It could be so clogged with ash that it can't draw enough air and you are sooting up and maybe even coating things with creosote because the flame isn't hot enough. It sounds like creosote from your description. Have you cleaned the exhaust path/piping too?
You could very well be burning out your combustion fan by stalling it out with soot buildup.

 

[sven]

Thanks for the quick responses everyone. To answer Stevekng: wood exhaust. And to elaborate for tjnamtiw: Every year I clean the entire unit to included the exhaust piping. Since this winter in CA has been more like spring I have hardly been burning like I usually would. Thats why I was surprised to have to tear into it as much as I did as soon as I did. When I did clean behind the bricks this time there was minimal ash, since I had just done it a month ago.

I found the problem to be this: The black glazing I believe is creosote, thanks tjnamtiw. This was likely caused by the stove only running minimally and not getting up to full temperature partly due to the convection fan having some fuzz stuck in in. One side of the blower had sucked up a good amount of floor lint and I believe this was causing it to not suck enough air. After cleaning out the lint the blower noise I heard before was gone and the stove got much hotter. I then cranked it all the way up for several hours and let the creosote burn off. Everything seems to be working normal now.

Thanks again for the responses.

 

[tjnamtiw]

I was running the castile on low for three days in a row and when I cleaned it, I found the left side tubes were also coated with creosote. Never saw that before. These pellets I'm burning now are the same brand as the last two years but it says 'Oak' instead of hardwood and they are much denser since I only get 2 1/2 buckets per bag instead of the usual 3. Had to close the gates all the way too or it would overfire on HIGH. On the Sante Fe, the gate wouldn''t close all the way so I had to run the hopper dry and then back way off on the screw that is in the slot down at the gate.

 

[sven]

I've never had this problem before but I'm guessing its the warm weather. I typically fire the stove up in October/November and it doesn't shut off until April except for the daily cleaning. I don't know what the weather has been like over there but here we've been in the low 60's in the day and the 40's at night. We're actually in an official drought in my county.

 

[rona]

With the warm weather you get a lot of idling or running at a low temp. This will cause your stove to run rich like a lawn mower with the choke on. Most stoves will do this regardless of brand. They run a lot cleaner when they have to produce more heat.

 

[thedak]

bird turd in the motor I bet

 

[tjnamtiw]

bird turd in the motor I bet

Or a dead mouse or bat... Crawled in the OAK. I have triple wire mesh and hardware cloth in my cleanout for my insert.

 

[reallyte]

I had a startling divebomb into my exhaust motor. It smelled of roast bird for a while...