Smell won't go away on new stove

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Running high for 15 minutes won't really do much if anything for you burn poorly the rest of the time. This is old school advice. Not a bad idea though.

In general 700-800 should be the max temp for a steel stove. Most of the Travis manuals mention glowing is a sign of overfire and voids the warranty. I found the parts in the baffle would glow almost every time it ran on high for any length of time.
 
Can you explain what you mean by this?
This isn't really applicable with an EPA stove. With properly seasoned wood you shouldn't have a "dirty" chimney. If you fire up each load of wood to the point that you have good secondary combustion then ruduce the primary air, then there would no reason to run on high for 15 minutes a day.

15 minutes a day on high would do absolutely nothing to help your chimney stay clean if you are burning the stove improperly or with under seasoned wood for the other 23 hours and 45 minutes.
 
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It's the idea that burning hot for 15 min each time burns out the cresote. What I believe he's saying is if you burn it hot for 15 min and then turn your stove down and let the wood just smolder that 15 min is not going to make a difference.
 
Gotcha, thanks. I'm planning on burning it pretty hot this weekend. We'll see what effect that has and I'll let you know. Thanks again for the help.
 
I burned for a few hours today, and of course the smell returned. I kept it at a pretty consistent 650 (max temp) on the stovetop.

I can only describe the smell as a bit of a "sweet" smell. The smell was given off the entire time the stove was above about 550.

When I went outside I got a bit of a whiff of a similar smell. So, I climbed on the roof to smell what was coming out of the stovepipe. I would say that smell is somewhat similar to what we're smelling in the house (although a bit "smokier" from the pipe).

Is it possible that the stove could be spilling some smoke out of the top of the stove? It is the step top model of the 3100, if that makes a difference. I typically smell the smell coming off of the top of the stove. If you're wondering if this smell is coming out when I open the door, the answer is no. It is produced the entire time the stove is burning, even if I have the door closed for several hours.

I'm near my whits end, I just want to figure this out and enjoy our new stove! Any thoughts are appreciated as always.
 
Doesn't look like any at the flue collar. There was a caulking used where the flue goes into the wall. I do know the caulk there does smell, but I don't think that's the issue. That area doesn't get very hot (maybe 100F). They used it on the outside as well. You can smell it if you put your nose right to it.
Maybe something will show up if you can post a picture of the installation starting with the stove, then the flue collar, then the connection at the thimble where it goes through the wall
 
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Well from pictures only thing I can see is the is the caulking at the wall but smelling outside is kind of ruling that out. The pipe seems to be graying pretty quick. I've only used supervent. Maybe that's another brand and that's normal for the brand. How much paint did they use and did they put any paint on exterior chimney. Normally paint curing smell goes away after you hit that temperature. So say you hit 500 then it went away then when you hit 600 you might get a faint smell again. What's the set up look like from outside?
 
What does the installer say, has he been back and used his smellomometer to advise you or help you out. Can the selling stove dealer help you with their experience and knowledge on their product. That's why they make profit on the stoves and flue pipe they sell.

Congrats, beautiful looking stove you have there.
 
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Looks like silicone was used at the outside edge of the wall thimble but that should stay cool enough to not be an issue unless the product was defective.
 
Looking at the online manual you can see below the steel stove top that there are air tubes, a 2 piece baffle board covered by a additional ceramic blanket, could there possibly be a foreign object or something stuck in there, could the air tubes or baffle board have accidently been been coated with something, lastly could a bird, bat, mouse, squirrel, martin or raccoon have slid their way down the chimney there somehow, just trying to eliminate possibilities here as we have had 2 birds and one huge bat move completely down the chimney and nest at the top of our stove, fortunately it was late summer and early fall and we could hear them in there and we were able to remove them before BarBQ'ing them.
 
Tube stoves are a different animal if you leave the air open all the way which is high it will certainly overheat
 
BK stoves are catalytic and they have thermostatic regulation that prevents overfiring according to posts in the BK operation thread.
 
So why would a bk be any different. What am I missing here.


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Because a BK has a thermostatic control that regulates the maximum output. It prevents the stove from overheating. Non-cats will very easily overfire if left unattended on high. With a load of dry wood and plenty of air it can be a volatile situation. The temperature will continue to climb to and beyond safe temps very quickly.
 
Well really that would be brand specific somewhat like it is in cat stoves too.

I know my newer PE summit thermostatically regulates some air through the ebt2 tech and it will get super super hot if left on high but won't dramatically overfire.

Ask me how I know? Lol.

OP could I bother you for a pic showing the stove and the whole connecting pipe?
 
Well really that would be brand specific somewhat like it is in cat stoves too.

I know my newer PE summit thermostatically regulates some air through the ebt2 tech and it will get super super hot if left on high but won't dramatically overfire.

Ask me how I know? Lol.

OP could I bother you for a pic showing the stove and the whole connecting pipe?
Doesn't that just regulate secondary air?
 
I'm not saying it functions at all like a thermostatically controlled stove, and I wouldn't depend on it in anyway. Also obviously everyone's setup/chimney is different which is a factor but for me my stove/setup is almost fool proof in that I have left the stove on high for probably 45min after loading right up. Got outside and then someone stopped by and we visited outside for awhile before the light bulb came on. It was overfiring but nothing seemed to be glowing and I simply turned the air down and it slowly crept down from 850+ stovetop and my auber ring thermocouple on the outside of single wall connecting pipe 12"s above the collar was in the 750 range.

Not much for curing smells left after that run I think. But the stove is fine and my home is too.
 
Doesn't that just regulate secondary air?

Yes. But without as robust secondaries I don't feel the stove gets as hot. So I figure it closing some supply when overheated helps limit overfiring as compared to secondary stoves that don't do this.
 
Also have to correct myself. Was just reading about it again and the ebt2 isn't temperature controlled it's regulated by draft. Which is driven by temperature, but the ebt2 itself is not thermostatically controlled.
 
Yes. The ebt2 is essentially a barometric draft regulator on the secondary air supply.
 
I ran it around 650-700 for most of last Sunday. It did smell again, but it seemed that as the day went on, the smell seemed to diminish somewhat. I haven't fired it up since then, but am planning on again this weekend. I'll let you all know what happens.

What does the installer say, has he been back and used his smellomometer to advise you or help you out. Can the selling stove dealer help you with their experience and knowledge on their product. That's why they make profit on the stoves and flue pipe they sell.

Congrats, beautiful looking stove you have there.

I'm planning on getting them out here if it doesn't resolve itself soon.

Looking at the online manual you can see below the steel stove top that there are air tubes, a 2 piece baffle board covered by a additional ceramic blanket, could there possibly be a foreign object or something stuck in there, could the air tubes or baffle board have accidently been been coated with something, lastly could a bird, bat, mouse, squirrel, martin or raccoon have slid their way down the chimney there somehow, just trying to eliminate possibilities here as we have had 2 birds and one huge bat move completely down the chimney and nest at the top of our stove, fortunately it was late summer and early fall and we could hear them in there and we were able to remove them before BarBQ'ing them.

I haven't looked in the top (difficult to do), but even if there was something in there, that smell should theoretically be trapped in the firebox and go out with the smoke, correct? I'm not quite sure exactly how the top there is constructed, but it should be sealed so as not to let gases into the house. I'm assuming anyways :)
 
Ok, time for an update. I burned again today, and alas, the smell is back just as strong as ever. I have already placed an email to my installer and am hoping to get them out. If burning near 700 for as many hours as I did didn't solve it, then I don't know what will. To say I'm frustrated is an understatement.

On another issue, while I have them out I'm going to ask about the noises the stove makes. I haven't mentioned it to this point because the smell was far more concerning to me. Please take a look at the following video and let me know if these cracking/creaking noises are normal. First, some extra info:
- The noises are there for most of the duration of the burn, so I don't think they're the normal expansion/contraction noises.
- They seem more common and frequent if I have some of the air intakes open
- They seem to be related to airflow. Often when I open the door, close the door, change one of the airflow knobs, etc, that drastically changes the amount of noise.



You can see in the video the huge change in knocking when I sealed the door shut (at the start of the video, the door was slightly open, then I locked it down). Even without the fire getting bigger/smaller in that short time (and thus, this shouldn't just be expansion/contraction), the amount of noise drastically increased.

I'm assuming when they come out, they're going to tell me these noises are perfectly normal and will explain it by saying it's expansion/contraction. So, I guess my main question is, is that true?

Thanks again all.