Smoke coming out of air intake??

[freddy]

I have noticed recently during intitial start up that smoke is coming out of the air intake. I saw a little bit coming out of the bottom and going up and into the stove as I leave the door open a tad. I pulled the bottom plate off and saw that the intake was full of smoke. I closed the stove door and it was sucked back up into the stove. I only see this during start up so I am not too concerned but it is odd. I did recently seal off an old outside air opening for the old fireplace before I had the insert installed so perhaps that has something to do with it?? I do not live in an airtight home either. Is this something I should be more concerned about? It is connected to a 25 ft. liner.

Thanks!

 

[Holiday]

Some people have to crack a window for cold start up to help the draft. The outside air from the fireplace may have been doing this for you.Also if it's a recent thing have you checked the chimney and cap to make sure it's not developing a blockage anywhere? Sometimes the cap on top could get plugged.

This happened to me once when I had the clothes dryer running and went to start a fire.

 

[freddy]

Some people have to crack a window for cold start up to help the draft. The outside air from the fireplace may have been doing this for you.Also if it's a recent thing have you checked the chimney and cap to make sure it's not developing a blockage anywhere? Sometimes the cap on top could get plugged.

Thank you.

This is a new install and I did check the cap on top recently because is wasn't secured properly. I had to seal it to the old chimney liner as I did not want any openings. It is just hard to imagine that air could be coming downwards that far??

 

[Heatsource]

oops, wrong thread

 

[mellow]

Until your liner gets warmed up you could have a reverse draft, next time try running a hair drier pointed up your liner if possible to start a good draft.

 

[mfetcho]

I saw this happen in my old house depending on the season. As soon as the flue warms up it goes the other direction. It was always worse in the Spring. I used more paper to start the fire to get quick heat up the flue.

 

[BKInsert]

Assuming the installation is good and the liner is not blocked it is most likely a draft issue, and it sounds like it from your description. It used to happen to me with the Quadrafire I had, and my house is not airtight either.
What works for me on a cold start is I first open the stove door and put my hand inside the firebox, if it is a draft problem I can immediately feel the cold air coming down on my hand. What I do then is open a nearby window a crack, fold 1 large newspaper page and light it in the firebox right under where the air is going up into the chimney. You want the warm air to push the cold air up. I then let the paper catch good and then leave the door a crack open and let the paper burn all the way. It usually works for me this way, but sometimes when it is very cold and windy outside some smoke still comes in and I need to play with the stove door, close it all the way and then open a crack to let the burning paper flame good.
My chimney is short, ~15ft, and I have way too many trees around the house so the draft situation is not ideal to say the least…