I am new to wood burning heat this winter. I had a Fireplace Xtrordinair (Travis) Large Flush mounted wood burning fireplace insert installed in September.
I've had a few issues with it over the winter, first being that the catalytic combuster fell out into the firebox in the middle of a burn of in November.
But the issue that I am having now is smoke or smoke smell coming out from the blower. Most of the time it works fine, but if I leave the blower on high when I go to bed, it sometimes smells of smoke in the living room in the morning, or sometimes I wake up to the fire alarm ringing at 3 in the morning, with or without a smell of smoke. Visible smoke has not been an issue.
Yesterday, I came home from a long day of work to the whole house smelling strongly of smoke. So bad that we opened the doors and ran the attic fan for 10 minutes to try and clear it out, all while it is 35ish degrees out. I had forgotten to turn the fan down to low when I left for work in the morning.
From the times it has happened, I have noticed the following common denominators:
1. The blower is on high
2. The fire is at the end of its burn, as the final coals burn down. Hence while it only happens overnight or while I am gone for the day.
The wood I have been using is mostly seasoned well. Being my first season, I am doing the best I can with what I was able to purchase. Most of it is pretty good, try to set aside splits that appear to need more time to season for next year.
Sorry for the long winded thread, I am just frustrated (and so is my wife) and nervous that there is something wrong with the insert. To my understanding of the design, the blower is supposed to pull air around the box and is not supposed to interact with the air in the firebox. I also would like to be able to go to sleep with the blower on high and not wake up to a smoke alarm.
Has anyone else experienced this? Thank you for your wisdom.
I've had a few issues with it over the winter, first being that the catalytic combuster fell out into the firebox in the middle of a burn of in November.
But the issue that I am having now is smoke or smoke smell coming out from the blower. Most of the time it works fine, but if I leave the blower on high when I go to bed, it sometimes smells of smoke in the living room in the morning, or sometimes I wake up to the fire alarm ringing at 3 in the morning, with or without a smell of smoke. Visible smoke has not been an issue.
Yesterday, I came home from a long day of work to the whole house smelling strongly of smoke. So bad that we opened the doors and ran the attic fan for 10 minutes to try and clear it out, all while it is 35ish degrees out. I had forgotten to turn the fan down to low when I left for work in the morning.
From the times it has happened, I have noticed the following common denominators:
1. The blower is on high
2. The fire is at the end of its burn, as the final coals burn down. Hence while it only happens overnight or while I am gone for the day.
The wood I have been using is mostly seasoned well. Being my first season, I am doing the best I can with what I was able to purchase. Most of it is pretty good, try to set aside splits that appear to need more time to season for next year.
Sorry for the long winded thread, I am just frustrated (and so is my wife) and nervous that there is something wrong with the insert. To my understanding of the design, the blower is supposed to pull air around the box and is not supposed to interact with the air in the firebox. I also would like to be able to go to sleep with the blower on high and not wake up to a smoke alarm.
Has anyone else experienced this? Thank you for your wisdom.
