Hello all, I’ve been burning the vapor fire for about a month now, last night I loaded around 9:30 maple mixed with some oak with a Moisture content of around 18%, around 10:45 I smell smoke, I got up and went to the basement, no smoke in the air and just a hint of smell, I looked around the entire stove trying to figure out what happened, the computer was on pilot, I noticed there was a small amount of soot on the blower box below the smoke pipe. I checked the draft and it was bouncing between 3-6, when the fire is farther into the burn the draft sits steady at 5. I’m scratching my head on this, did my stove back puff? I’m going to call dale this morning and see what he thinks. Anyone have any ideas?
Did my vapor fire just back puff?
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brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Its possible...it doesn't happen often for me, but once in a great while...of all the different stoves and furnaces I've owned I've not had one that never did it...some more than others for sure! The VF is probably the least of all of them for me. Weird weather conditions can affect things too.
I usually have no issues from our Drolet stove in the LR fireplace, but some weeks back we came home and the chimney had backdrafted once the fire was about done...whole house smelled like a campfire...I HATE that!
I usually have no issues from our Drolet stove in the LR fireplace, but some weeks back we came home and the chimney had backdrafted once the fire was about done...whole house smelled like a campfire...I HATE that!
Ok well that makes me feel better, seemed fine this morning, draft was way more consistent then last nigh, It wasn’t windy here so idk why the draft was all over the place…
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
You may have been able to level the draft out some by grabbing the baro door and holding it steady for a minute? (since it wasn't windy out)
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
Could have. I've had it happen every once in a great while, however, for me, it only really does it when I am pushing it as far as draft. If I run my draft too low (-0.03") it has more of a chance to do it. It very seldom ever does it if I am running a draft above -0.04".
My guess is your draft bouncing around like that won't help things. It may have back-puffed when in a low draft situation.
My guess is your draft bouncing around like that won't help things. It may have back-puffed when in a low draft situation.
Been a while since I originally posted this but my furnace has been back puffing or back drafting a good bit here, not sure why but I’m seeing soot form around the smoke pipe joints and soot on the outside of smoke pipe and on the blower box, draft is sitting at .05. My plan is to take the smoke pipe off tomorrow and see what I can see, might even call dale and ask him what he thinks. Any ideas? I’m really confused, my wood is testing at 16MC but looking at the smoke pipe it seems more than the occasional back puff.
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Whats changed, anything, anything at all?
Wood type, split size or age, loading procedure, new windows, running a vent fan (or dryer) insulation/air sealing, anything like that?
Obviously, the weather has changed, so you are probably loading lighter, or less often for sure, and maybe lower BTU wood?
Are you loading on plenty of coals, or basically a cold start each time?
Wood type, split size or age, loading procedure, new windows, running a vent fan (or dryer) insulation/air sealing, anything like that?
Obviously, the weather has changed, so you are probably loading lighter, or less often for sure, and maybe lower BTU wood?
Are you loading on plenty of coals, or basically a cold start each time?
Cold start, the only thing that has changed is I’m burning poplar now that it’s warmer out, when it was cold I was burning hardwood and never had this issue. It did this a few times early fall when I was burning poplar, this only seems to happen at night when I’m loading on a pile of coals (45-50lbs poplar) after a cold start, my wife says she never smells smoke during the day after I load a smaller 30lbs in the morning on a more aggressive pile of coals. My only thought is it’s the poplar or softer wood. When I walked out of the house this morning I had a nice column of steam coming out of the chimney so it’s still burning clean.
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
Just thinking out loud here. Wonder if you have a negative pressure situation at times in the basement that is not allowing the proper combustion air to reach the firebox.....and when it does, it back puffs. Doesn't explain why it would only happen with poplar though. Although correlation does not mean causation.
sloeffle
Minister of Fire
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
That's what I was wondering too...kinda like uber dry pine...which as you know, they (HM) recommend to change the air settings when you are burning "softwoods"
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
How big are the splits? A softer wood like that, and real dry, will offgas like crazy if the splits are too small...so early on in the burn when the VF is just getting settled in to the whole c-1-c-1 thing, sometimes the fire can almost go out, but the woodgas just keep coming...so then when the VF opens the damper up again, the air hits all that extra woodgas and poof!
Try larger splits, and maybe mixing species, instead of all poplar...
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Wow, yeah that's a big poplar split!
So then maybe try mixing in a lil small stuff on the bottom...try to keep the fire going at the beginning of the c-1-c-1 cycle? I dunno, sometimes it's just trial n error to figure out the sporadic stuff...
JRHAWK9
Minister of Fire
Personally, I have not seen any differences in large vs small splits or hard vs soft woods or any combinations thereof. The only time I have seen (or should say smelled) back puffs are when I was experimenting with really low drafts last winter....like under -0.03" low. Then it would back-puff on occasion, like bren said, during the c-1-c thing. I heated our place solely with cutup soft wood pallets for a couple weeks this past fall. I've loaded on coals with a full firebox of nothing but pallet pieces. So lots of small pieces of soft wood with lots of air gaps between them. LOL It behaved exactly like every other load of wood I have burned. This was with running a draft of around -0.035", where I typically run it when not cold. When cold I bump it up to -0.06".
brenndatomu
Minister of Fire
Wow, mine would need tums and gas x if I tried that!
I’ll try burning hardwood tonight and see if that changes thingsWow, mine would need tums and gas x if I tried that!
Mine back puffed the other day. I know because it spray painted the wall behind the baro with soot and otherwise made a pretty good mess. I wish I could run it without a baro, because that's the one thing I'm not totally comfortable with - a place where things inside the stove pipe can be expelled into the interior of my house. I think it pays to keep the area around at least the back of the stove tidy just in case some burning something comes out, so it doesn't find something to ignite. I saw a picture of a furnace on here a while back and there was all kinds of misc, crap in cardboard boxes being stored under the pipe run and baro. Yikes!
I've had to restrict the pilot air holes on my draft box to cope with my softwood and eliminate the frequent overtemp alarms. I don't know if it would help with your problem, but it might be something to experiment with if other things don't work.
I've had to restrict the pilot air holes on my draft box to cope with my softwood and eliminate the frequent overtemp alarms. I don't know if it would help with your problem, but it might be something to experiment with if other things don't work.
So I burned a load of hardwood and not once did I smell smoke.
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