I have the 30, which I love(once it is warmed up). I have about 30 feet of Class A from the thimble up and live on the top a pretty sizeable hill with consistent winds. I ALWAYS have significant downdraft problems, I have to run a propane torch in the box for about 5 minutes to get the heat rising so that I don't fill the house with smoke, but that doesn't work most times. I am at a loss with how to start a fire without filling my house with smoke. Best case scenario, I get 5-10 seconds of smoke rolling in before the heat in the box starts the upward draft process. Worst case, I warm the box with my torch, the smoke inevitably fills the room and the detectors go off. Closing the door only exacerbates the problem as the box fills with smoke, kills the fire and kindling and the smokes comes out of the secondary intake and fills the room anyway.
Also, my secondaries rarely consume all the smoke, as they seem to fly out of the box. I see videos of other's secondaries being a slow roll through the tubes along the box ceiling and mine does not even go through the tubes half the time as it literally flies out of the box and up the flue. This is with the primary air shut down as well. Also, I notice air being sucked into the box through the ash pan port. I have re-seated the thing(I never use the ash pan).
Do I need a damper? I love this stove, but fear I have an extreme downdraft. In the winter, once I am burning 24/7, it won't be as bad because the stove will stay warm. However, this fiasco is something I have to solve before the fire alarms wake up the baby one more time.
Help me, please.
Also, my secondaries rarely consume all the smoke, as they seem to fly out of the box. I see videos of other's secondaries being a slow roll through the tubes along the box ceiling and mine does not even go through the tubes half the time as it literally flies out of the box and up the flue. This is with the primary air shut down as well. Also, I notice air being sucked into the box through the ash pan port. I have re-seated the thing(I never use the ash pan).
Do I need a damper? I love this stove, but fear I have an extreme downdraft. In the winter, once I am burning 24/7, it won't be as bad because the stove will stay warm. However, this fiasco is something I have to solve before the fire alarms wake up the baby one more time.
Help me, please.