Quadra Fire Santa Fe Smoke at Startup

[Alan]

I visited someone to take a look at his Santa Fe. When I entered the room & the stove had been burning a while, I didn't smell any smoke in the room.

The stove was then shut down, allowed to cool, and restarted. I had noticed that the gasket material on the door only covers the top & sides, not the bottom. I was curious how smoke wouldn't escape if it weren't sealed. Sure enough, when restarting the stove, some smoke escaped. I didn't stay much longer to see how long the smoke smell lingered, but I'm wondering if this is a characteristic of this stove.

Any other user experiences? I'm particularly concerned that with the thermostat tuning the stove on and off, you'd get repeated blasts of startup smoke in the house

Thanks, Alan

 

[stoveguy13]

the stove is under neg preasure and should not be leaking out the front door my guess is that it was coming from the pipe.

 

[moralleper]

After install my santa fe leaked a little smoke as well. I resolved the issue by resealing the exhaust piping. The door is not sealed on the bottom for the Airwash system that keeps the glass clean.

 

[sydney1963]

I always get a smoke smell at start up but goes away in about 5-10 min.

 

[welshcob]

If you want to really puzzle yourself, while your stove is running get down on the floor on the left side of your Santa Fe and look in the crack between the pedestal and the firebox - there's a 3/4 inch HOLE there that seems to look directly into the firepot. Obviously the only thing keeping the smoke inside is the famous negative air pressure - the lack of gasket material on the bottom of the glass is just another place to suck air INTO the burn chamber. It took me a bit to realize that it is not a vaccuum, it's just the suction out the other side caused by the fans that's important.

Anyhow, I do get a faint smoke smell when my Santa Fe starts up - not visible smoke, just a little atmosphere, so to speak. What intrigues me is the various scents I detect in different bags of the same brand of pellets (nearly all so far are Clean Fire from Lowes) - tonight's bag has produced a distinct vanilla smell outside near the vent. Inside the house, the same pellets smelled like cat pee when they first started up. Thankfully, so far this is the only bag in over two tons that has exhibited THAT characteristic.

The four bags of Green Team pellets I got as a trial turned out to have a definite willow smell - if you have ever had the pleasure of cutting up a willow tree, the smell is distinctive and not especially pleasant. But this burning stuff is always interesting!

 

[Raven20]

Mine also does not have a gasket at the bottom of the door.....But I don't have smoke coming out of it...