quad isle royale problem

[jack_90125]

well went to do the initial burn threw some sticks in and opened both intakes closed the door and fire went out. relit left door open a bit and got smoke galore pouring out.
no matter what nothing but smoke. open doors all the way and finally subsided till close the door and flame goes out.
yes dry wood and looks like the smoke dragon is going back if I cannot figure out what is going on.
any tips from royale owners?
thanks

 

[webby3650]

It sounds like your chimney is clogged. What type of chimney do you have? Something is stopping it up. Either a nest of some sort, or multiple 90's on a "warm" day.

 

[Johnpolk]

If I had to guess I'd say its warm so you have poor draft. Sometimes in the fall when I want a fire and its too warm ill get a little smoke back puffing into the house. I have to leave the door cracked for a few minutes to get it good and hot so it starts to draft. Could try more kindling and small stuff also.

 

[BrotherBart]

Happens every year here with people going from pre-EPA stoves to EPA stoves. EPA stoves require a stronger draft due to the longer path for primary air to get to the fire. Trust me, get that flue good and hot before closing the door all the way and it will do fine. How do you know the flue is warmed up enough? When the smoke is being pulled out of the stove, close it.

Just takes the door cracked open a little bit till the flue heats up. If the wood is really dry and not cut last April or May.

 

[lumbering on]

This would happen to us on warmer days especially if we also had a bathroom fan, the kitchen range fan, or the dryer running.

 

[northwinds]

Sounds like a chimney issue, not a stove issue. Can you tells us about your chimney (length, bends) and when it was last cleaned?

 

[teutonicking]

well went to do the initial burn threw some sticks in and opened both intakes closed the door and fire went out. relit left door open a bit and got smoke galore pouring out.
no matter what nothing but smoke. open doors all the way and finally subsided till close the door and flame goes out.
yes dry wood and looks like the smoke dragon is going back if I cannot figure out what is going on.
any tips from royale owners?
thanks

Try pointing a hair dryer up the flue for 2 minutes. That will establish the draft, then light the fire.

 

[northwinds]

I see from one of your old posts that your chimney is 21 feet. That should be long enough. Does it have any bends, horizontal lengths? Cleaned after last season?
The only other thing I can think of is that it hasn't been that cold lately, as others note. Leave that old smoke dragon alone! We'll get this figured out.

 

[begreen]

Also, check the chimney cap screen to make sure that it isn't starting to clog up. This happened to me for the first time last fall. It was my fault. I had been burning some semi-seasoned soft maple uglies and some punky poplar in my early season fires. Cleaned the chimney and cap in November and we were good to go. I stopped burning from the maple stack last season. Will start on it this fall.

 

[Jags]

Stack temp not high enough, poor wood or negative draft. I would bet cash on one or more of those 3 things causing this issue

 

[jack_90125]

well got roped into vehicle repair today so did not get to do anything about the stove.
the chimney is straight up no bends.cleaned when the stove was put in less than a coffee can of stuff came out of it.going to go up on the roof this week and recheck the chimney.for some reason the stove has to much of a bend needed to get the sooteater up from the bottom.
it is 6 inch pipe to the thimble then 8 inch to the top. i am leaning to a clog also as it does not make sense. and cannot think what could clog it as the 6 inch is new and the upper is just over a year. do not think birds build nests in the fall but i am not a birdologist either.
the wood is almost 3 years old stacked . I know the old stove did not have any issues for draft and that had 2 45s on it.
just really took me by surprise at just how much smoke.
thanks for the replies and knowledge. have to figure it out tho as no one is happy at this point.
since you have a royale do not where i can check the startup air lever and the primary air lever to see if the y are actually opening and closing? is there a way to check that as it really does not feel like something is moving outside the levers themselves.
thanks

I see from one of your old posts that your chimney is 21 feet. That should be long enough. Does it have any bends, horizontal lengths? Cleaned after last season?
The only other thing I can think of is that it hasn't been that cold lately, as others note. Leave that old smoke dragon alone! We'll get this figured out.

 

[northwinds]

since you have a royale do not where i can check the startup air lever and the primary air lever to see if the y are actually opening and closing? is there a way to check that as it really does not feel like something is moving outside the levers themselves.
thanks

There's a couple of guys here who've taken their stoves apart and put them back together. I don't have the specific answer to your question.

I can say that for starting a new fire in a cold stove, the start up air should be pushed all the way in and the primary air control should be slid all of the way
to the left. Keep the start up air pushed in until the fire is established (10-15 minutes) and don't start to move the primary air control to the right until the stovetop
hits 500.

When I operate the start up air control, I can feel some resistance. When I move the primary air back and forth, there is just a little bit of play back and forth and then
you can feel something inside moving besides the lever.

Hope this helps some. There should be more mechanically minded folks with this stove along soon. I've never had smoke come out of my stove in the way you've
described.

 

[Johnpolk]

You should be able to see the start up air opening and closing in the back of the stove as you push and pull the lever. I'm not sure about the primary air

 

[jack_90125]

any specific place i just played with it and did not see anything move or look like any thing was moving.
thanks

You should be able to see the start up air opening and closing in the back of the stove as you push and pull the lever. I'm not sure about the primary air

 

[Johnpolk]

When you move the lever on the right, it should push in and out. While you're doing that if you look in the back of the stove there are two holes. You should be able to see the holes opening and closing as you work that lever. Also if you do it while a fire is burning you will see a dramatic change in the fire behavior because you're introducing a lot of air

 

[jack_90125]

thanks for that! yeah it looks like it opens about a 1/16th of an inch. that about right.so at least it does something.not lighting the stove for a bit again till i get it all checked out. as the house still smells and no happy campers in the house.
thanks again.

When you move the lever on the right, it should push in and out. While you're doing that if you look in the back of the stove there are two holes. You should be able to see the holes opening and closing as you work that lever. Also if you do it while a fire is burning you will see a dramatic change in the fire behavior because you're introducing a lot of air

 

[Jags]

That IR is an easy breathing stove. I revert to my post above.

 

[Johnpolk]

Sounds about right. If we have a fire this time a year we leave door cracked until we get a good fire and draft going. I bet that's your problem. You'll love the stove once you get used tonit