Help with sudden draft issues!!

[Alida]

We have a brand new Pioneer princess wood cookstove. That we use for both heating and cooking in our off-grid yurt. Up until this week we have been happily burning and cooking on it with no issues. We are in New Hampshire and are having a weird warm weather spell so maybe pressure changes or wind direction as well? To operate our stove from a cold start we open the back draft, put the side temp knob to high which is full open and slide the damper to open. This has always worked for us. This week we have suddenly been having problems with smoke leaking using the same setup and wood that we have been using with no problems. My husband has just cleaned the pipe and the stove to make sure that there is not buildup. There was minimal creosote thus no blockages. When we start the fire now if we even crack the side temp knob even a tiny bit smoke leaks out of the top plates. If we open the ash door same thing. it was also leaking out of the back pipe as well but my husband put stove cement on it to see if that helps but now it leaks from the plates on the stove top. We have no other form of heat and we have 5 kids so we need help desperately to figure out what is wrong and how to correct the problem. Now once we get the stovetop up to 500 i can crack the side knob and not have a smoke issue and it stays fine until the temp drops below 500 when reloading at night if we sleep past the prime point. This has never been an issue before and we are baffled as to the cause and how to remedy it.

Right now it is still in the 40-50 degree weather outside if that has anything to do with what could be causing this.

also for reference we have black single wall pipe with two flex elbows at 45 degree going into a duravent triple wall that is about 2' about the roof line

Thanks so much in advance!

 

[brad wilton]

Most probably the temps.wait a few days temp is going to drop see how it goes then.

 

[begreen]

Mild temperatures + a short chimney would be my guess.

 

[blades]

Flue made even shorter by the 2 elbows

 

[Warm_in_NH]

In central NH it's been a warmer damp heavy air mass. I haven't tried to burn lately but I'm pretty sure I would have some issues and that's with a smaller stove (mass wise) and a longer stack.
My money is on atmospheric conditions. Some days just aren't good burning days.

 

[jatoxico]

Like to know how long you've been using the stove and if you have been able to burn in warmer temps before. Even though the pipe was cleaned double check to make sure the cap is clear, that's a problem spot.

 

[begreen]

Can you post a picture of the interior hookup and an exterior shot of the chimney?

 

[Alida]

 

[begreen]

Looks good on the inside. Outside chimney could use another 2-3 ft. added to improve draft. Also make sure the clean out cap on the bottom of the tee is snug and not leaking air. In the meantime use very dry kindling + wood and give the stove and chimney a longer time to warm up before changing the air control slider. Cooler weather should help improve draft.

 

[tcassavaugh]

Like to know how long you've been using the stove and if you have been able to burn in warmer temps before. .....

i suspect since they use it also for a cook stove, its been used in warmer temps. i too think it is likely the warmer dense air. begreen's comment about using dry kindling and let it get hotter is good advice. the quicker you can warm up the box and chimney, the quicker the draft establish and start pulling. i also thought another section of chimney might help.

 

[jatoxico]

i suspect since they use it also for a cook stove, its been used in warmer temps

Yeah its just that they said it was new, actually brand new, so wondering what the experience has been.

 

[tcassavaugh]

yeah jatoxico, they also said they've been burning on it and cooking on it with no issues. i suspect its been more for cooking than heat. although, i know it has been cold in some areas. i'll bet as the weather turns, so will the draft.

 

[jatoxico]

yeah jatoxico, they also said they've been burning on it and cooking on it with no issues. i suspect its been more for cooking than heat. although, i know it has been cold in some areas. i'll bet as the weather turns, so will the draft.

Good and I'd like to know how long they've been using it.

 

[Alida]

Good and I'd like to know how long they've been using it.

We cook on it too thus why we are firing it up on a 50 degree day we started using it in October and have been using it daily since then. It has only been the last few days that we've been having this issue. My husband double checked the cap under the tee and the top cap. We unfortunately can't add any more length right now as we don't have a way of getting up higher. We did go higher than nfpa recommendations though.

It's just so bizarre that without changing anything that we'd all of a sudden have crazy draft issues.

Do you all have idea why there would be such a dramatic difference between the back draft knob and the side ait inlet (temp knob)?

We have had high humidity, lots of fog and warmer weather as I said.

 

[huauqui]

You might try taking the top cook plates off and making sure you don't have an ash build up on top of the oven or under the oven that could be inhibiting the air flows around the inside of the box. This was fairly common under routine use for us and only takes a couple minutes to clean out. If you did this when the chimney was cleaned just ignore me. Cookstoves with ovens and the like have some convoluted airflows inside to warm everything up which can give fits until you figure out where to look and clean then they are easy peasy. Best of luck and let us know what you find. We had to do this regularly in our cook stove but it became routine after just a few months adaptation and we soon knew what to look for and where to lift a disk out to check the trouble spots.

PS Love the yurt, I have always thought it would be great to have one of these.

 

[jatoxico]

We cook on it too thus why we are firing it up on a 50 degree day

Thanks Alida I understood that, the reason I was asking was to find out how many times you've burned successfully in warmer weather. If you've been burning for a couple months and you're sure the flue/cap is clean I wonder if your wood supply has changed much since you first started.

Wet wood can be tough to start and get going hot which is needed to get draft going especially in the warmer weather. Was there much ash/creosote in the flue when you cleaned it?

As far as how to proceed the already suggested smaller splits and an airy fire will help. If the wood has recently been split check your flue often (dry wood has been split and stacked in a good location for a year or more). With wet wood folks have clogged their flue in surprisingly short periods of time.

 

[Alida]

There was very little build-up in the flue. The wood we are using is the same that we have been burning. My husband is a bit of a safety nut so he checks and cleans the flue pretty often. Not sure how we are going to be able to clean the inside pipe though when the temps drop here soon. We do clean the inside of our stove every two weeks or so ourd came with a scraping tool and prots we unscrew to access all around the oven.

Our current stack is semi-seasoned unfortunately. We just moved to NH this past April and the trees we cleared for the yurt won't be seasoned and ready till next season so we bought wood this year. We do have 2 cord fully seasoned oak that we were saving for the coldest months that are coming up quickly on us.

 

[brad wilton]

How long was oak seasoned,need two years css before ready to burn.you don't want to find out at -30 the wood won't burn.

 

[Alida]

Well it's 20 out now, low of 17 tonight and still having the same issues unfortunately. The wood is the same wood we have been using with no problems before and to our knowledge nothing in our setup has changed at all which makes this so frustrating.

 

[Warm_in_NH]

Hmmmm. Can you get a good line of sight on the cap, make sure it's not obstructed with anything? Also as BG mentioned, make sure the "T" clean out is on tight on the bottom. Maybe pull it off and make sure you can see a good amount of daylight straight up and through the pipe.
Also, I notice on my stacks, sometimes the plastic will funnel the water into a certain spot so a 3' section of my stack gets soaked every time it rains until I fix it, any chance you got into a wet section of wood, or another row that was less exposed to air and sun, dried less.
Fire needs fuel and air, so if there's a problem with the fire, it's gotta be one of two things. Try some 2 x 4 scraps or pieces of pallet to get it going good and hot fast, maybe pre-heat near the smoke exhaust with a news paper torch, and establish the draft, if super dry wood doesn't work, I'd search for an obstruction.

 

[brad wilton]

Hi alida, is this a problem your having on a cold start or when temperature starts to drop on stove if so when starting preheat flue to get a good draw going and when throwing in more wood open air to heat flue a bit before puting wood in might be drafting poor ,try and see? Just thought of something it's been a lot wetter than usual around here might be that your wood has absorbed moisture and has become harder to get burning?what he said lol to slow

 

[begreen]

Well it's 20 out now, low of 17 tonight and still having the same issues unfortunately. The wood is the same wood we have been using with no problems before and to our knowledge nothing in our setup has changed at all which makes this so frustrating.

At that temp it should be working fine. Carefully recheck the bypass operation. If it's not opening and diverting the wood smoke directly up the flue then starting the stove will be challenging.

 

[jatoxico]

Also if the the pipe was cleaned from the T up, was the pipe from the stove to the wall connector cleaned?

 

[Alida]

Yes the entire pipe inside and out was scrubbed clean

 

[Warm_in_NH]

Is it burning okay now? Or are unable to run it?