Classic Bay 1200 Freestanding - Smoke in Room

[Rftech53]

All,

I've sent a message to Quadrafire on their Facebook site, but haven't received a reply yet. I could go into a long-winded question, but I guess I'll boil it down to this.

I've had two cases where I was outside, and my smoke alarms went off in the house. I quickly found out that the room where the stove is, was filling with smoke. I do my own maintenance every so many burns. This includes brushing out the exhaust piping, cleaning above the baffles, cleaning out the ash pan, etc. The stove is 4 years old. The authorized installer exhausted the stove by coming up about 1.5 feet from the exhaust port, installing a right angle, and exiting the house wall. All the piping is sealed with that high temp red RTV. If I remember, it's 4" piping. The exhaust north. I have a cold air inlet hose from outside that connects internally at the bottom of the stove.

Normally I have no issues. BUT ... if pellets are left smoldering in the firepot (during an attempted heat cycle), and the exhaust fan times out and shuts off ... should smoke be able to backtrack into the room ... given (I think) that the entire burning system is sealed ...(is it not)?

And / Or ... should there be a natural draw that would take smoke out of the house even if the exhaust fan shuts down?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mt Bob]

A wind,even slight, can affect this,along with type of cap on the flu pipe. Stoves are not air tight. The "woven" gaskets(door,etc) and the combustion motor are not "air tight". Probably the thing to do in your case, is to add a 90 and some vertical pipe.

 

[mtnbiker727]

The Harman manual says if you have at least 3 feet of rise, it will allow for natural draft in case of power outage. I have not personally experienced it, so I can't verify.

You should troubleshoot why your stove fails to light the pellets.

Also try the dollar bill test on your doors to see if they're as tight as they should be.

 

[Rftech53]

The Harman manual says if you have at least 3 feet of rise, it will allow for natural draft in case of power outage. I have not personally experienced it, so I can't verify.

You should troubleshoot why your stove fails to light the pellets.

Also try the dollar bill test on your doors to see if they're as tight as they should be.

I should have added in the original post that the smoke is coming out the back of the stove, and I "think" near the bottom. Obviously, when I run into the room, my first thought is to unplug and replug the AC in to restart the exhaust fan to aid in removing the stinky smoke in the room ... and also to open the sliding glass door in the room and in the dining room next to the stove room.

I do know that the smoke is coming out the rear of the stove. But I can't swear it's near the bottom. But I think it is. The reason for the failed attempts is likely my attempts to lower the initial flame upon the pellets first catching and running for the first few minutes. I know Quadrafire says the flames are only supposed to be a few inches above the pot. But in order for me to get a consistent light, I have to drop in more pellets and that in turn leads to flames that are touching the top of the baffle plates near the top of the door. I really don't think that's a major issue to be honest, but if I take the pellet feed lever down (close it a bit), then I sometimes won't get enough pellets to initially light and make a flame hot enough to tell the fire pot thermocouple to keep the system running.

 

[Washed-Up]

Take an led flashlight and with the room dark, shine it where you think the smoke is coming from, you should be able to narrow it down

 

[mtnbiker727]

I should have added in the original post that the smoke is coming out the back of the stove, and I "think" near the bottom. Obviously, when I run into the room, my first thought is to unplug and replug the AC in to restart the exhaust fan to aid in removing the stinky smoke in the room ... and also to open the sliding glass door in the room and in the dining room next to the stove room.

I do know that the smoke is coming out the rear of the stove. But I can't swear it's near the bottom. But I think it is. The reason for the failed attempts is likely my attempts to lower the initial flame upon the pellets first catching and running for the first few minutes. I know Quadrafire says the flames are only supposed to be a few inches above the pot. But in order for me to get a consistent light, I have to drop in more pellets and that in turn leads to flames that are touching the top of the baffle plates near the top of the door. I really don't think that's a major issue to be honest, but if I take the pellet feed lever down (close it a bit), then I sometimes won't get enough pellets to initially light and make a flame hot enough to tell the fire pot thermocouple to keep the system running.

That sounds complicated. Good luck with that...

 

[maraakate]

Just FYI: You'll never get a consistent flame with the Quads as far as I know. I have a Santa Fe and on startup the flame will be fairly high for a bit. The book even says this is normal behaviour.

When the stove is running it is normal to get some "flare ups" on a Quad. You're really just aiming for a consistent average. On high, for the most part I'll get 4-6 inches out of the fire pot, but sometimes it will dip closer to 1-2 inches, or even 8-10 inches here and there. These aren't tight computer controlled air/fuel mixtures and the pellet sizes are not consistent.

Just get it set to where it's good on average and let it be.

 

[maraakate]

Also if you smell smoke from the back... my guess is from one of these places:

* Where the exhaust meets the stove. You may need to put RTV on it. Which the book states you should do.
* If the exhaust goes to an elbow very early near the back of the stove you may need to wrap some aluminum tape or reseat it properly.
* Very doubtful, but if you have an outside air kit and it's too close to the exhaust outside it's possible some of it could be leeching in there, but heat rises so again very doubtful unless you mounted the intake higher than the exhaust for some reason.

 

[Ssyko]

The air intake on a free standing cb1200 is actually the stove pedestal itself. It can be sealed to the floor and install an oak thus reducing the amount of smoke back flowing into the house.