HELP!! OUR STOVE IS TRYING TO KILL US!!

[raynan]

Our cabin in the Uintah Mtns of northen Utah is heated by a 1980's era Washington Stove Works wood/coal stove. It works fine the first two or three days, and then the cabin fills with smoke and there's no way to build any more fires. We've had the chimney cleaned, and it didn't help. It draws fine for the first few days, this only happens after it's been used for a while.

The pipe is about 18' high, including about 2' above the roof, but just barely over the peak of the roof. Coming out of the top of the stove is a 4' section of single wall pipe, then 2' of triple wall that goes thru the floor to the loft, then 5' of double wall, then 5' of triple wall to the interior ceiling. The altitude on the north slope of the cabin is about 8500'. Thanks a ton for your help.

 

[restorer]

Our cabin in the Uintah Mtns of northen Utah is heated by a 1980's era Washington Stove Works wood/coal stove. It works fine the first two or three days, and then the cabin fills with smoke and there's no way to build any more fires. We've had the chimney cleaned, and it didn't help. It draws fine for the first few days, this only happens after it's been used for a while.

Greetings, welcome to the forum. Will you give some more information about the chimney, especially. It will also help to let us know how high your cabin is. Altitude has a bearing on draft. Heighth, size of chimney, or pipe, bends horisontal runs, etc can affect your flue. Also, when you say it's fine for two or three days, what happens? Does the quality of your fire or heat output slowly decline, or is it sudden. The folks here are very good about diagnosing and giving very good answers, but you need to clarify first.

I assume you're not at the cabin, if you are, great WiFi connection. If you're somewhere else in Utah/Wyo, good luck with the next week's weather.

 

[velvetfoot]

I have a theory. Maybe you are running out of air. Would it draft better when it starts smoking if a window is cracked open?

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Are you burning it wide open or dampering it down? If you damper it to fast then you can plug your cap. Have you checked the cap. It only takes one fire to clog the screen.

 

[babalu87]

I have a theory. Maybe you are running out of air. Would it draft better when it starts smoking if a window is cracked open?

Man, if his CABIN is that tight my house is jealous

 

[wahoowad]

Is this a vacation/weekend cabin, or do you live in it all the time?

if it burns good for a couple days then I can only imagine your equipment is OK. Perhaps something changes in your routine.

Is it possible that his home dynamics change after taking a couple days to aborb the heat generated by the stove?

HAHA - I just make stuff up as I go along!

 

[Andre B.]

Our cabin in the Uintah Mtns of northen Utah is heated by a 1980's era Washington Stove Works wood/coal stove. It works fine the first two or three days, and then the cabin fills with smoke and there's no way to build any more fires. We've had the chimney cleaned, and it didn't help. It draws fine for the first few days, this only happens after it's been used for a while.

You say it works fine for the first few days and cleaning the chimney does not help.

So what do you do to get it to work for another few days?
Or was the first few days a one time thing and it still does not work?

 

[velvetfoot]

I have a theory. Maybe you are running out of air. Would it draft better when it starts smoking if a window is cracked open?

Man, if his CABIN is that tight my house is jealous

Maybe, since the place could be small.
Wouldn't take much of an experiment to open a window a little when it happens.