Can someone help a totally new to furnaces

[Garychoffmann]

Hello, I hope you guys don't mind answering questions for me. My girlfriend just bought a house with an older firechief fc700. She had the chimney cleaned and the furnace was supposed to be inspected also. It needed a new pipe from the furnace to the chimney. 800 bucks later I download the firechief manual and read it. So we start a fire and the pipe from the furnace to the chimney immediately starts pouring smoke out of every joint. So I quickly stop the forced air fan and push the rod in to extinguish the fire. Tried calling the guy who installed the pipe to see if there is something I don't know about. I can't get a call back or an answer so I have come to you guys.

That chimney pipe can't be supposed to emit that much smoke to the interior of the house right? I don't believe the chimney has a flue and it was just cleaned. Does anyone have a firechief and can lend some help? Thanks so much and I hope someone can help me.

 

[garmford]

Sounds like they installed a brand new stove pipe. That stove pipe may smoke and emit a nasty smell during the first firing. Perhaps this is what you experienced.

 

[Garychoffmann]

Thank you for your reply. It emitted enough smoke to lower visibility. It was only lit for about 2-3 minutes and the pipe was still cold to the touch. The kindling was the only thing that had burned. It was rolled up newspaper. The smoke came out of every joint of the pipe where it was screwed together.

 

[Dmriggs]

Is the chimney on the interior or an exterior wall? Sounds like the flue is really cold and cold air goes down by convection. If there is a damper anywhere in the pipe, make sure it is fully open and try building a small fire again with some paper. It may smoke for a few minutes but, should clear up as the heat finds its way up the flue and creates a draft. If it clears up, I would slowly add a few small pieces of wood until you have an established fire. Add more wood as needed but.....make darn sure you read that manual first and understand all of the controls and their function! The drier the wood the better and cleaner the burn. Also, cold DAMP air, will cause smoke to roll back down a chimney, until the flue warms up.

 

[Dmriggs]

Is the chimney on the interior or an exterior wall? Sounds like the flue is really cold and cold air goes down by convection. If there is a damper anywhere in the pipe, make sure it is fully open and try building a small fire again with some paper. It may smoke for a few minutes but, should clear up as the heat finds its way up the flue and creates a draft. If it clears up, I would slowly add a few small pieces of wood until you have an established fire. Add more wood as needed but.....make darn sure you read that manual first and understand all of the controls and their function! The drier the wood the better and cleaner the burn. Also, cold DAMP air, will cause smoke to roll back down a chimney, until the flue warms up.

Also, I wouldn't try using the force draft fan until the chimney warms a bit from that small hot fire I mentioned. Its like blowing air against a wall until the flue warms up a bit.

 

[velvetfoot]

It was inspected, so the chimney should be clear, but it would be good to double check. It sounds to me that there is downdraft in the chimney when things are stone cold. When you stick your hand in the cold furnace can you feel cool air coming down the chimney? That would be downdraft. Cracking open a window and warming up the flue, like with several pages of burning crumpled up (not rolled) newspaper could help to get the air flow going in the right direction. If downdraft is the issue, not letting the furnace get stone cold might be the key.

 

[Garychoffmann]

Thank you guys. I will try that and report back. I really appreciate you taking the time to reply to my thread

 

[maple1]

Not that it matters much, but $800 sounds pretty steep for a stove pipe hookup.

Pictures always help in trying to get some help too.

Good luck!

 

[stee6043]

Just out of curiosity what is the configuration of the stove pipe? Does it come out of the stove horizontal and then go vertical? As mentioned above a cold flue sounds probably but it'll surely be compounded if you've got a few twists and turns in your pipe routing.

 

[Garychoffmann]

 

[Garychoffmann]

That is the new stove pipe. It was 800 for the cleaning and the stove pipe. I thought it was steep also. But, when messing with fire indoors I trust a professional since I don't have previous experience with wood burning furnaces. Thanks again guys. I'm going to try a small fire later to heat it up and get it running.

 

[Garychoffmann]

Someone had suggested flue tape on the joints. Is that something I should do.

 

[stee6043]

I'm not a chimney expert but I feel like something is unusual with that joint before the turn into the wall. It seems like the flange should be on the exterior, not interior. But I could be way off.

I've used 3M high temp tape with some success. It's not a bad idea.

Do you have a cleanout/tee in the back of your furnace? You're going to have ash buildup in this section of chimney. If your guy didn't suggest a tee I'd question his desire to come back out and get more cash later in the season.

 

[Lcback]

I have had a similar situation twice. Once was a clogged chimney. Once was because it was the first fire of the year, not very cold out, and just general down drafting.
Now for a fire from a cold start I open the furnace door for a while since the basement is warmer it helps to get air moving in the right direction. Then I use some fire starters that are mostly sappy wood from the store. Put one of those surrounded by a bunch of kindling gets things rolling hot and up. Also I buy Rutland furnace cement and seal my pipe joints with it. I really like the stuff. It has been suggested to me to try a hot air gun in the furnace to get it hot without any smoke. And honestly seems like a good idea. I plan to buy one from harbor freight. A buddy starts his charcoal with no paper just hot air gun from HF on the charcoal.
Last tip you will hear here all the time. Make sure your wood is dry! My first year with wood I was always having draft problems, and chimney issues. Could never get a fire to start. Seemed every time the fire died down I was in trouble to get it going again. Now that I have dry wood it's no issue. A little kindling and dry wood lights easy peasy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Lcback]

I forgot to mention. You were correct to shut it down. If you get smoke coming out the wrong way it will take a long time to get going correctly. Long enough that you will smoke out your house. Trust me. I have done it first hand more then I care to talk about. The new pipe will have a weird smell. But I have replaced black stove pipe twice and never actually saw the material burning off. Just smelled it. If I can see the smoke it's smoke.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Garychoffmann]

Thanks guys. I have a fire going. Smoke has died down a lot. Good free flow out of the top of the chimney now..... But, how long until the blower normally kicks on. I'm waiting for it to happen. Anything I should check? Limit switch looks to be correct

 

[brenndatomu]

Thanks guys. I have a fire going. Smoke has died down a lot. Good free flow out of the top of the chimney now..... But, how long until the blower normally kicks on. I'm waiting for it to happen. Anything I should check? Limit switch looks to be correct

Depends on how big of a fire you made and how dry the wood is...sometimes it can take a while if you are starting from cold.
If you have trouble with a down draft on cold startup again, open the door and blow a hair dryer in there for a while...that should get the cold air in the chimney moving up without risking smoking the house up. One way to check which way the draft is going is to strike a match in the loading door opening and see which way the smoke/flame goes...if it goes the right way then just drop that match on the kindlin!
Also, the house may have a negative pressure in the basement, try cracking a nearby window open if you have draft issues to see if it helps, if it does you need an Outside Air Kit (OAK)