Smoke coming out stove joints?

[Sealcove]

A few times over the life of my Jotul F600, I have observed smoke escaping from various places around the stove box that appear to be near seams. This has happened trying to light a cold stove and not noticing an inversion before starting the fire. Of course the inversion is trying to force the smoke into the house, but sealing the doors does not prevent it (all doors pass dollar bill test perfectly and the smoke does not look to be coming from near the doors).

The only explanations I can think of that would allow this are that the smoke is escaping from the air intake and then migrating in some of the concealed areas of the stove until I see it exit (this seems a bit unlikely), or that that the joints of the stove are not air tight until the stove heats a bit and expands. The stove is clearly tight when hot and I can control my burn perfectly, so I am assuming this is just a stove construction detail that I don't understand.

Is there another explanation?

 

[Nick Mystic]

I have the same stove, which I bought last February. I haven't had the problem you are describing, but as I think about it what comes to mind is the possibility that the stove cement in one or more of your connection points has failed. When I look inside my stove I can see stove cement that oozed out between panels, which lets me know that those sections of the stove have cement to seal their joints. It would be easy enough for one of those joints to come loose and then under the conditions you detailed some smoke could leak out of the stove. As for a repair, if it was my stove the first thing I would try is to locate all the seams where the smoke is escaping and then the next time the stove is cold I would shovel out all the ashes and give the inside of the stove a good vacuuming. Then I would do some research to see what should be done to prep the metal so that stove cement will get the best adhesion. I would apply some cement over the joints where I saw the leaks and see it that helps. Good luck.

 

[Sealcove]

I wondered about that possibility, though it first happened when the stove was almost new. I was also looking at the exploded view of the stove just now and the joints where I have seen smoke would be the cemented ones, so I will take a look to see if sealing that from the inside is possible. Thanks.

 

[mfetcho]

Is your stove hooked up to outside air on the inlet? I saw this happen on occasion with my Quad - Cumberland Gap. I did not have the outside air hooked up and at certain times of the year during a cold start, I would get smoke coming out of the inlet. As soon as I got some heat and got the draft flowing out, it would stop. The smoke appeared to be coming out of seams, but it was moving out of the inlet very slow and flowing around the stove.

 

[Sealcove]

Interesting, I do wonder if the source could be from the inlet as there are some places it could channel that are out of sight. The stove is not hooked up to an outside source, and that would certainly be an easy explanation. Again the issue has only occurred with a cold stove and a strong inversion pushing all of the smoke out of the stove. I am thinking that if the joints had failed that I would not have good burn control over the stove, and that isn't the case.

 

[Ashful]

If you're able to control the fire well, I'm not sure I'd sweat it. It might be frustrating, but it sounds like you already know how to kick-start the draft, in case of an inversion. I will say the cement in the seams of my Jotuls is 20 years old, and still holding strong. If I ever had to disassemble the body of either stove to re-cement them, that might be the day I choose to sell the stove.