I have a Lopi Republic 1750 that's about 6 years old. It started last year emitting light smoke out from under it when lighting it. It was coming out of the square opening in the bottom of the stove. It always would stop once the draft got going but it never did this in the past. I fired it up for the first time this year and did the same thing. I took all the firebrick out of and gave it a good cleaning and inspected the stove and saw no issues. It doesn't do this every time but more times than not. Any thoughts??
Lopi smoke spill. Whats causing this?
- Thread starter Firefighter4634
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Is your chimney clean? How about the cap? Does this only happen when it’s warm, or does it happen when it’s cold too?
Yea the chimney is clean as is the cap. I don't recall from last year but it may only happen when it's relatively warm outside but I can't say for sure.
Ok. Chimneys don’t pull as hard when it’s warm outside. It may take a bit of time to get the chimney pulling. You can preheat the chimney with a torch or by lighting some quick burning newspaper before starting the fire.
Reverse draft is not uncommon when lighting the stove for the season from a cold start.
Last edited:
ilovedougfir
Member
I have a Lopi 1750 insert.... I always use a torch to light a small piece of kindling to make sure it drafts up.... about 10% of the time it does not. When it does not draft up I open a window or two and let the torch run in the box for a minute or so until I get a flow going up. The first year I had the 1750 I smoked out my living room pretty good a few times (much to my wife's dismay). Opening a window I found was key.
Note: I have a monster 35' chimney tube and live in Seattle where it really is not all that cold (relatively).
Note: I have a monster 35' chimney tube and live in Seattle where it really is not all that cold (relatively).
If opening the window corrected the problem, look to see if you have negative draft from kitchen/bath fans or a furnace. Wet wood or a dirty chimney can also be culprits.
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