Smoke coming out of my stove door.

[ianb42]

Im very new to wood burning stoves. I just had one installed yesterday.

I can get a decent fire going, but everytime i open the door to add more wood the smoke pours out. Is there anything I can do to fix this?

 

[offroadaudio]

Try not opening it until the fire has burned down to just a hot bed of coals - this should take 3 - 8 hours depending on the stove you have and the wood used.
Then load her up tight again and burn it down. The coals do not really smoke, so you can load up without a problem.
This assumes proper chimney and draft situation - if you are getting a lot of smoke, you could have an installation problem.
The good folks on here can give you some real specifics if we know the stove type, chimney type, height, liner, insulation etc....

 

[begreen]

Open the air control first, wait a little bit, then open the door slowly. That often helps.

What stove model is this and can you describe the flue system that the stove is connected to? Sometimes that is a place that can be improved.

 

[ianb42]

The stove is a Flame X.T.D. 1.5. http://www.flame-intl.com/product.aspx?CategoId=1&Id=398

I have 6" double wall pipe coming up from the stove to the ceiling, and 6" stainless steel chimney, about 5 feet high from where it comes from the roof.

It was installed by a professional. I would hope he installed it right with the correct parts.

 

[RedRanger]

Okay, I will confess to having taken my "stupid pills" one day last week. I could still see smoke swirling around in the firebox, and instead of just having the patience to wait for the fire to really get going--I just had to open the door and add more wood.

Prettry much what you would expect, swirling smoke is gonna look for the closest exit, and that was the insert door.

So sure, make certain the draft is fully open.

Open door slowly.

And keep it Shut-if you see swirling smoke inside the firebox. :red:

 

[begreen]

I was just looking at that stove. What would you estimate as the total length of the flue from the stove to the cap? 11 ft?

 

[ianb42]

I would say 11 feet is about what I have.

My main problem is I cant seem to get a good hot fire going. It doesnt seem to have much air flow even with it open all the way. So when I try to crack the door an inch or two just to get it going a little smoke comes in.

 

[begreen]

The minimum flue recommended for this stove is 12 ft. I would go a bit more. It will require a roof brace to be added, but I would consider adding 2-4 feet of pipe up top. It can make a world of difference in stove behavior. But first, let's discuss the wood.

Seasoned wood is critical to successful burning. Can you describe the wood you are trying to burn? How thick are the splits? Are they very heavy? If the wood is not well seasoned, it's going to be a bear to get started and even then it's performance will be lackluster. Try picking up a couple bundles of dry firewood from the local grocery or hardware store to see if that performs a lot better.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree on the wood. It is a very common mistake for new wood burners to just get firewood and try to run a stove. Burning less than properly seasoned wood is like adding water to your gas tank and wondering why the engine doesn't run as it should.

You might also try cracking a window for a short period of time along with adding more chimney as BeGreen suggests.