Russo 2GVT Wood Stove

[manchesternh]

Hi everyone,

My name is Greg and I live in Manchester, NH. We bought a house with a wood stove a few years ago and can't seem to get it working properly. The wood stove is a Russo Wood Stove Manufacturing Corp Model #2GVT. There's a stamp on it that says the product was tested and approved by Russo in 1978. Does anyone have any experience with these?

Our problem is that smoke always seems to back up into the house. This stove has a glass front with a side door. There is actually a half inch gap at the top between the stove itself and the glass. Is this normal? This seems to be where most of the smoke leaves the stove and enters the room. We also get a constant draft from this when the stove isn't in use.

Any advice?

Thanks,
Greg

 

[GKG-MO]

Don't know anything about that particular stove but that gap sounds like a problem. There should be an air adjustment somewhere on the stove to regulate draft and other than that it should be sealed up pretty good. Others may chime in more with more info but "MY" first step would be to measure the opening for the glass and go get a new piece of thermal glass cut.

 

[WOODBUTCHER]

Greg,
Post some pictures if you can. I used to have a Russo stove (but not the one you mentioned) either way a 1/2 inch gap sounds extreme to me. Please describe
your chimney setup (internal/external...masonry/StainlessSteel....estimated height?)

some other questions.....
When was your stove/chimney cleaned last?
Dry wood.... at least split and stacked a year? My little Russo was a son-of-gun to start with sub par wood.

WoodButcher

 

[manchesternh]

OK. I should probably preface this by saying this is the first time I've ever owned a home and this is also the first time I've ever lived in a home with a wood stove. So I'm definitely a novice here.

The wood stove is on a small raised brick area in the corner of my basement. The steel chimney of the wood stove goes up from the stove and then takes a 90 degree turn into the wall. It connects to the masonry chimney which then continues along the outside of the house. I live in a two story home (a little bigger than a Cape). The chimney extends from the basement and runs up to the roof. I would guess the external part of the chimeny is 35+ feet. A friend looked at it once and commented that they thought the chimney didn't look like it extended as high above the roof as it should.

I don't have any idea when the stove/chimney was cleaned last. We just did some tree work at the house this fall and one of the guys who was on the roof looked down the chimney while I shone a flashlight up and he could see through the chimney just fine. The chimney is not capped.

I bought a cord of naked hardwood two summers ago. I've kept it under tarps but the end pieces get wet with snow accumulation.

I've tried to run this thing for the last three winters and I have successfully smoked out my basement several times. There's a small trapdoor in my basement wall just below where the chimney from the stove enters the wall. Someone recommended starting a small fire in there to create a draft before lighting the fire in the wood stove. I've done that a few times this season and it has worked better but not great. It's still really difficult to get that first draft going.

As for the stove itself, it looks like it was actually manufactured so the viewing glass would be set off the actual body of the stove by about half an inch. I'll post some pictures so you can see it within the next day or two.