need a good smoke producer for leakage testing

[orangecrushcj7]

Hi All,
I was hoping some of you may have some good ideas for something safe to put in my pellet stove that will smolder and produce a lot of smoke to test the vent pipe for leakage. It is an up then out design, so i have a cleanout tee and 90 elbow on the inside of the house. whenever i clean out the vent pipe, for a few days afterward i get a smokey smell when the stove idles. I imagine the ash fills in the pin holes after a few days of burning, because the smell goes away after that. I have tried green pine needles, but that only works for about 10 seconds before they ignite. I have the lights out in the room, and try to find the smoke with a flashlight, but it proves fruitless. and yes, I siliconed the joints when putting them together. I have a feeling it is the joints in the T or 90.

 

[scarter2]

The guy that installed my stove just put a big handful of pellets in the burnpot. They smoked for quite a while before enough air got to them to ignite...

 

[Wet1]

Two tricks that have worked for me... 1) The nose knows. Sniffing the joints will usually lead you to the culprit. 2) Soapy water. Just like finding a leak in a tire, spray some soapy water around the joints (don't do it when the stove is real hot, just warm). The leaking joint will create bubbles where it's leaking since the vent pipe is slightly pressurized. Wipe clean when done. This can also be done with the stove cold (no fire) and by blocking off the exhaust (as Pook suggested) to create even more back pressure. I wouldn't recommend blocking the exhaust when the stove is burning...

 

[orangecrushcj7]

Two tricks that have worked for me... 1) The nose knows. Sniffing the joints will usually lead you to the culprit. 2) Soapy water. Just like finding a leak in a tire, spray some soapy water around the joints (don't do it when the stove is real hot, just warm). The leaking joint will create bubbles where it's leaking since the vent pipe is slightly pressurized. Wipe clean when done. This can also be done with the stove cold (no fire) and by blocking off the exhaust (as Pook suggested) to create even more back pressure. I wouldn't recommend blocking the exhaust when the stove is burning...

Hmm good ideas.. right now he stove pipe is luke warm to the touch, so it might be a good trime to try the soapy water spray... if not i'll have to try the blocked vent after my next shut down.

 

[OU812]

Use Pennington pellets! jk try burning some sage in your stove. A lot of health food stores carry it. It smells good and makes lots of smoke.

 

[BadDad320]

Michael Phelps may be available................

 

[Alan]

Try using Condar smoke pellets...great for testing for leaks.

 

[orangecrushcj7]

Are these Condar smoke pellets a real thing, or another lousy brand of pellets, a la Pennington?

 

[Alan]

They are smoke pellets...about 1 inch in diameter & 3/4 inch thick.

With no pellets in the stove, I put two smoke pellets in the burn pot, lit them with a match & closed the stove door. LOTS of smoke will be produced & will fill up the stove. I then turned on the stove to get the exhaust system blower to start up & looked for leaks in the exhaust piping...and easily saw it leaking out the Duravent elbow. You'll get much more smoke that the regular smoke that comes from a normal pellet startup.

 

[orangecrushcj7]

sweet, thats exactly what I need. Where can I get them?

 

[greggo730]

If any of the above dosent work.Your local HVAC supply house should carry smoke candles.Should work for testing leaks.

Greg

 

[Alan]

I got them from my installer & don't know where he got them from. The company web site is www.condar.com but I don't see the pellets on their site. You might try calling them up. Who knows, for shipping/safety reasons, perhaps they aren't sold any more???

 

[hoverfly]

Smoke bombs for killing ground hogs and such. Should be able to find them at your local hardware store.

 

[orangecrushcj7]

is that safe in a pellet stove? i suppose if i just run it without pellets, it would be ok.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

check the bottom of the TEE , ive seen them leak between the inner "cup" and the outer shell , pull the tee, remove the insulator rope, and look through the bottom between the inner and outer walls , see daylight , pump the space full of 500 rtv , let it set and reinstall. i had to do that with my own pipe when i first installed it , havent had a leak since

 

[TomPajak]

burn some incense sticks..that will smoke up and smell cinamonnny fresh..
easy to tell if you have a leak

 

[hoverfly]

is that safe in a pellet stove? i suppose if i just run it without pellets, it would be ok.

Come to think of it you should be able to find smoke bombs for actual HVAC use at you local whole salers for contractors. There used to locate cracks in heat exchangers.