fellow quadra fire owners...

[Dustin]

I have a quad 4100i. And this thing is a smoke puker.

Everytime the door is opened, I get smoke in the room. My draft is great, and the chimney is clean....I can't figure it out!


I have a few other complaints about this stove, but I will save those for later...

 

[Sleepy]

Don't know about the 4100, but I do not have any problem with my 5700. Are you opening the door too fast?

Like many quads, mine has a 2-stage latch. I open it slightly (first stage), wait a couple of seconds, and open the door fully.

I think I could get smoke in the room if I opened the door all at once.

 

[begreen]

Is the upstairs stove running when this happens? Could it be there is negative pressure in the basement?

 

[savageactor7]

If your chimney is clean and you have a good draft there may be something to that negative pressure thing.

It's against code to run 2 stoves in the same flu here but back 30 years ago we did anyway and they both ran fine. But at the time you could see daylight threw our field stone foundation. Perhaps you could try cracking a window where the quad 4100i is running and observe any changes in the draft? Good luck and Merry Christmas.

 

[Stevebass4]

qf 2100i - smoke is not an issue when i open the door

 

[awoodman]

How long have you had the stove? I can tell when mine is beginning to act up. But my stack is no more than 12' tall and is a straight shot.
Every one has covered the basics. Ma-by a gust of wind could cause a reverse flow temporarily.
This stove heats up 2000 sq. foot and keeps the temp around 70 and the furnace never kicks on.

 

[Todd]

Check your chimney cap?

 

[Dustin]

Yup, I have taken care of all the basics. The stove has done it from day one and I can't figure it out...

I leave the door open a crack to get things going before I open it all the way, but still the smoke pours out. I'm wondering if this is just a 4100I thing?


Not to mention the door latch is cheap and flimsy and requires oil (I have already read the other thread on this ) and the glass gaskets like to fail...


Whew, okay now I feel better. Had to vent that.

Other then some issues, it's a pretty stove! But next time I think i'll go for function, versus pretty. PE anyone?

 

[savageactor7]

^Next time the stove goes cold look right above the door and be sure that fire proof fiber board is pushed all the way forward (toward the back of the stove as possible). If you took that out for cleaning perhaps it isn't replaced correctly. Ehh!... worth a look anyway since that smoke leak has to be locked down somehow.

 

[LLigetfa]

Everytime the door is opened, I get smoke in the room. My draft is great...

That, on the surface appears to be a contradiction. The measure of a good draft is how much air flows up the flue when the door is opened. Great draft should mean no smoke into the room unless you have an OAK and a pressure deficit due to stack effect. If the home makes a better stack than the flue, you don't have great draft.

With a pressure deficit, an OAK can actually push smoke into the room as it tries to supply the makeup air to the house. Cracking open a window near the hearth will tell you if you have a pressure deficit by the amount of inrush there is. If the OAK pushes smoke in, you need to first open the air to establish a draft but then close the air just before you open the stove door.

One entire Winter I was fighting a pressure deficit issue and eventually tracked it down to a clogged intake on my HRV. The HRV was sucking out the usual amount of air but the makeup air was not getting back in. It was as if the clothes dryer was always on sucking air out of the house. To add insult to injury, the wife kept opening the upstairs bedroom window to let in fresh air that the HRV was not providing. That just worstened the deficit by adding stack effect. I kept blaming her for the smoke problems. Boy, did I ever kick myself when I found the clogged intake come Spring. It had clogged completely with cotton fluff from the Poplar trees.