Smell from Broseley Hercules

[genevive]

Hi all, I am writing in the hope that someone can give me some inspiration or help with my multi fuel boiler stove.

I fitted a Broseley Hercules a few years back and have had a lot of complaints from one neighbour about the smell of the stove. In fairness the smell from the chimney to me is not consistent with what I have in the grate. If for example I put coal on the fire you get the white smoke from the coal lighting but as well as the smell of the coal burning there is like a hard acidy type smell. Similarly if I cut up old wooden pallets and burn them you get the same acidy type smell rather than just the smell of burning timber. Originally I rolled up a piece of mild steel 8 inches in diameter and about 2 feet long to connect the stove outlet to the existing earthenware chimney, but later changed to a double skin flexible liner which starts at the stove and goes all the way to the top of the chimney.

What I'm wondering is if I should have a section of vitrous enamel installed straight after the stove and if so if this would make any differene ti the smell, any advice would be much appreciated

I have encloseda link to a company selling the same stove so you can see what it is

Many thanks

http://www.qualitystoves.co.uk/broseley-hercules-multifuel-boiler-stove-p-201.html

 

[tcassavaugh]

i saw this post late last night and i thought someone might have replied by now. then again, it is for wood stoves and fireplaces. have you tried the boiler room, one of the other forum areas at https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewforum/21/ or by choosing forums here on the bottom of the page, above the advertisement banner....it should take you back to a listing of the various forums. Sorry not familiar with burning coal but you might try the boiler room or i there might be and alternative fuel room also. good luck

cass

 

[Jags]

I believe that you are dealing with the chemical smell of a nearly complete combustion. Nothing left in the smoke to smell like "smoke", just the stuff that is unburnable - and that will often smell of "chemical". If my theory holds true, there won't be much difference from fuel types vs. smells.

It is rare that I smell any exhaust at my place (it goes UP and AWAY), but on that rare occasion when the wind brings it back down, I will smell that smell if I am outside. It does not have the "pleasant" smell of a wood fire.

And welcome to the forum.

 

[begreen]

I don't think changing the piping is going to do anything about the smell. This could be from burning a too cool fire or it may just be that the chimney top is low and the prevailing winds are blowing smoke over toward neighbors. You might observe if the problem is worse when there is a low pressure system in the region. During those times, smoke can go down after it leaves the chimney. If this is the case, perhaps a chimney pot extension might help? You could also try burning a hotter fire. The boiler is going to scavenge heat, cooling down the fire and flue gases. Or you might try to see if there is a cleaner burning condense briquette fuel available in your area.

 

[Jags]

Okay BG - now we just confused the poor OP. :lol:

BG - too cool
Jags - real hot.

I find it suspicious that when actual wood is burned - there is a chemical smell and not a wood smoke smell. Maybe it is smoldering to the point of "acrid"? Could be.

Genevive - you got any kind of burn temp readings that could help us?

 

[begreen]

There are too many unknowns at this point. Could be the wood is not quite dry or it could be soft (lignite) coal. Hard to say. Normally the aroma from a coal fire is distinctly different from a wood fire.

 

[genevive]

Thanks for the replies folks, very very much appreciated

I think the problem could be to do with the fire being too cold i.e the boiler sucking all the heat away and preventing the gasses from being burned off, but I'm no expert on solid fuel fires,

I will try and get something to measure the temperature of the stove in different places to see if this sheds any more light on the problem

Its really cracking me up, I had thought of all sorts of things to try from putting tree sap in the fire to try and encourage a more wood burning small to putting a Y into the chimney flue near the top in the roof space of the house and fitting an electric fan to blow air into the stack to dilute the flue gas

I'd love to get to the bottom of this one, I am seriously considering putting in a gassification boiler and storage tank at a cost of about 10000 dollars to get away from the issue, but imagine if I went to all that expense and still had the problem! We have a young family and mortgage and I can think of a lot of other things that we could do with spending that sort of money on!

Anyway thanks for taking the time to reply, cheers