Newbie with smoke problem

[grstewart2000]

I've been lurking for a few months after buying a used Country Winslow PS40 (used 1 season). It was just installed and has been run around 15 hours since install. I've learned alot from this board so I thank all that participate in this!

My problem is this: When starting, I see smoke (turning off lights with a flashlight) at the adapter only(between stove and vent). This occurs at the initial start and then smoke visually disappears but I can continually smell it when I go behind the stove. My room still smells like smoke 5.5 hours later though I can't see it. The CO2 detector next to it has not gone off either.

The corner installation vent set up is this: Stove out to T, up 5', 90 angle, 1' to thimble in wall, 1.5'outside , 90 degree angle pointing down.

Attempted fix: Hi temp silicone around all joints and aluminum tape around adapter joint and I cleaned all flu vents and removed ash.The adapter has been wrapped by me, then by the "expert". I also siliconed the combustion blower.

I've had two different "experts" here and they say that it's airtight yet I still see the smoke coming out from and smell it where the tape is.
Is this smoke and smell of exhaust a part of owning a pellet stove? Help!!

 

[Wet1]

It sounds to me like you still have an exhaust leak somewhere.

On one of my stoves I have no odor at all. The other stove does smell like smoke when it's running. I have traced the problem down to a 90* elbow in my Simpson Dura Vent pipe. I can see minute traces of black residue at the seems in the elbow itself (not the joints). I have a call into Simpson to see what they want to do about it (I'd like them to send me a replacement elbow).

What you might want to do is get one of those hand held smoke generators and place some smoke around your exhaust and see if you can trace the leak that way. Now that I'm thinking about it, with the stove running at a low temp, spraying soapy water around all the joints and seems might help as well... just look for bubbles to form. Make sure you wipe it all down when you're done... I don't know that this will work, but I would think it would since the exhaust is positively pressurized.

Good luck.

 

[Rattlesnake]

If you used silicone on all of the joints around the stove vent, you should be able to see a black film forming on the silicone around any smoke leaks. On mine, I could smell it, but couldn't see it no matter how much I looked. Took all the tape off, found two very small spots where silicone was black. Cut it out, re-caulked and re-taped. Success. Good luck.

 

[slls]

Seal the first pipe to the adapter on the inside real good with high temp silicone, if not it will leak out the adapter air gap.

 

[grstewart2000]

I talked to the last expert again tonight and he thinks that the combustion blower is not cranking at a high enough speed to get the smoke out the vent. Needs to be cleaned or is defective. He based that on the amount of ash in the flu vents that I removed and the fact that no smoke can be seen. Wants me to take the stove off the vent, tap the blower with a screwdriver, put shopvac hose in tube, turn stove on and suck ash out of blower.