I have a Hearthstone Homestead freestanding wood stove. Bought in January 2012. Most every time I open the stove door to add wood, I get an initial little puff of smoke back into the room. I have a vaulted ceiling in the room. Ceiling fan is off. The stove draws well. I open the air intake and slightly crack the loading door to clear any smoke before reloading. I also crack a window and open the woodstove door slowly. The only time it does not emit a puff of smoke is when no wood is "burning", but only coals are glowing orange. My question: Is it typical for a wood stove to emit a brief puff of smoke like that if you are feeding a "burning" fire (flames) and not emit a puff when feeding glowing coals? Thank you. I enjoy reading the posts on the forum.
Hearthstone Homestead Reloading Question
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I have a Hearthstone Homestead freestanding wood stove. Bought in January 2012. Most every time I open the stove door to add wood, I get an initial little puff of smoke back into the room. I have a vaulted ceiling in the room. Ceiling fan is off. The stove draws well. I open the air intake and slightly crack the loading door to clear any smoke before reloading. I also crack a window and open the woodstove door slowly. The only time it does not emit a puff of smoke is when no wood is "burning", but only coals are glowing orange. My question: Is it typical for a wood stove to emit a brief puff of smoke like that if you are feeding a "burning" fire (flames) and not emit a puff when feeding glowing coals? Thank you. I enjoy reading the posts on the forum.
swagler85
Minister of Fire
This is a shallow stove. It's design is going to make it more prone to some smoke spillage when the conditions are right. How tall is the flue on the stove?
The total flue/chimney height is about 30 feet above ground. The wood stove flue is one of two 7 inch rectangular flues within a cedar block chimney. Stove pipe is 6 inch and doubled walled. The other flue is dedicated to my oil furnace. Flues and chimney in good shape. It is an outside chimney (no choice). The stove pipe from the wood stove connects to the flue about 6 feet up from the floor of our living room. Chimney height above roof is good and no obstructions.
The stove draws well. It actually attempts to draw the door closed when I have it opened to reload. The puff occurs when I crack the door open at about 4 inches, then stops puffing as the door is opened wider. I open it very slowly.
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i know this sounds to simple but i have a older hearthstone and it does the same thing unless i open it 1 inch then to 2 inch then then 4 then open slow with about 5 seconds between each
I open the door painstakingly slow, but have not tried your method. I will give it a try and keep my fingers crossed. Thanks.
Tried opening the door to reload stove inch by inch with 5 second intervals between each inch, but puff of smoke snuck out on number 4. Opened it ever so slowly each inch.
But... find that if I close the primary air control and just open the door slowly on reload, I have less of a puff.
All in all, if I just wait till there is no smoke in the box and orange coals only, I get virtually no smoke and I can live with that.
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I'm wondering why you would be adding wood when there is already wood burning in the stove? Most folks will not load more wood in until the fire has burned down to coals.
Thanks Dennis. Rookie mistake. I'm new to wood burning. Still learning. Forums are great and I continue to learn a lot. I lurk about everyday.
I have a homestead and i find similar results. What works really well for me is making sure that everything is burned down to coals or a small dying fire before opening the stove. If i have to reload or adjust the load during a burn, making sure that i had placed the wood as far back in the stove seems to work exceptionally well in preventing smoke spillage. Good luck!
Thanks Lukeg199. Yes, I have started loading when all is burned down to coals with success! (tnx backwoods savage) Still if I reload before this, I get a puff back despite putting the wood as far back as it can go, I guess from the other wood that is burning. As begreen commented, it is a "shallow stove" and that was helpful for me to understand what might be a contributing factor.
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