persistent "paint" smell from Jotul 3CB

[noelmichele]

We purchased and installed our Jotul (wood burning) some years ago and followed all the instructions we could find for how to "burn" it in; but we still get a smell when we burn it -- which makes us reluctant to use it.

I am putting "paint" smell in quotes, because it reminds us of how it smelled when the stove was new; but of course I can't be sure. Maybe we have damp creosote in the pipe and that's what we are smelling. Would this smell similar? We have had some problems with water leaking down the outside of the stove pipe during windy/rain storms; so I would guess that some water has gotten inside the pipe as well. so I guess another question is what we can do to fix this.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[begreen]

Not sure if this is your issue, but it might be if your chimney pipe is Selkirk. We has a persistent leaky drip from our support box that turned out to what is a seam issue with Selkirk Metalbestos chimney. The fix was to run a thin bead of silicone along the seam to about 3' above the storm collar. That finally stopped the leak. How tall it the flue on this stove?

How hot do you normally get the stove? To investigate the smell I would burn again, with a couple small fires first, letting the stove go out in between. This will help drive out moisture that may have accumulated. Then do a full hot fire that takes the stove top up to 550-600ºF. If the stove hasn't been run for a while there will be dust burning off of it. The next fire after this should also be a full fire. If there is smell then something is not right and should be investigated. Possible suspects would be a leaky flue collar, leaky door gasket, contamination on the stove or stove pipe?