Smoke from damper area. (rookie)

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J

jotulnj

New Member
Dec 3, 2023
8
New jersey
Hey everyone so this is my first experience with a wood stove.
I installed the stove today. The pipes sealed great with no smoke.
I started with small kindling for about 15 minutes then moved to logs that were about 13 long and 4 in diameter.

Long story short no matter what I did with the main damper or air adjustment on the front door smoke came from the area above the damper toggle. Which started filling my small 600sqft area with smoke.

any info will be greatly appreciated!! thank you!

jotul 2.jpg jotul1.jpg jotul 3.jpg
 
Might be negative pressure. What is the stove connecting to, a metal 6" chimney or masonry chimney with a tile liner? How high is the chimney from the connection point? Is this a basement install?

Also, is the stove used or brand new?
 
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The corner clearances look a bit close, espeically if the pipe is single wall, though it might be the photo. What is the corner clearance to the grey brick? What is behind the brick?
 
Last edited:
begreen said:
Might be negative pressure. What is the stove connecting to, a metal 6" chimney or masonry chimney with a tile liner? How high is the chimney from the connection point? Is this a basement install?

Also, is the stove used or brand new?
Click to expand...
thats the back of the house. we just bought it. it had a giant vermont stove but we replaced with the smaller used jotul. and No it is on a the main floor

jotul4.jpg
 
begreen said:
The corner clearances look a bit close, espeically if the pipe is single wall, though it might be the photo. What is the corner clearance to the grey brick? What is behind the brick?
Click to expand...
its 16 inches from the corner to the tile. The wall is cement board then tile.
 
I'll leave the clearances to begreen, although he's 3 hours behind us. But that chimney total height looks awful short, esp. when accounting for the losses of what appears to be 3 elbows. Check the manual for your stove, but for most assume 15 feet minimum, if straight up. Estimations of penalty for each elbow vary with the size of the appliance and even the relative locaitons of the elbows, but some estimate a penalty of as much as 5 feet per elbow, meaning you'd want your 3-elbow rig to be somewhere near 30 feet tall to draft like 15 feet with no elbows.

I don't believe that, I suspect the 5 foot rule is seriously over-compensating for the relatively small airflow of that stove, but measuring your draft would settle that real quick. You're going to want something well over 15 feet, either way, with those three elbows, and to me it looks like you have less than 12 feet.
 
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all good points so far. I believe the is a F3 CB model. Am I correct?

Try a top down fire with lots of kindling like maybe only 2-3 splits. They the only way I light fires now.
 
Ashful said:
I'll leave the clearances to begreen, although he's 3 hours behind us. But that chimney total height looks awful short, esp. when accounting for the losses of what appears to be 3 elbows. Check the manual for your stove, but for most assume 15 feet minimum, if straight up. Estimations of penalty for each elbow vary with the size of the appliance and even the relative locaitons of the elbows, but some estimate a penalty of as much as 5 feet per elbow, meaning you'd want your 3-elbow rig to be somewhere near 30 feet tall to draft like 15 feet with no elbows.

I don't believe that, I suspect the 5 foot rule is seriously over-compensating for the relatively small airflow of that stove, but measuring your draft would settle that real quick. You're going to want something well over 15 feet, either way, with those three elbows, and to me it looks like you have less than 12 feet.
Click to expand...
from the elbow attached to the house to the top of the stack is 7ft. So I should extend the stack to 15ft?

jotul5.jpg
 
jotulnj said:
from the elbow attached to the house to the top of the stack is 7ft. So I should extend the stack to 15ft?

View attachment 320115
Click to expand...
Those class A offsets are also going to hamper your draft. They are intended for navigating rafters where only a little offset is needed.
Not for clearing soffits.
 
all night moe said:
Those class A offsets are also going to hamper your draft. They are intended for navigating rafters where only a little offset is needed.
Not for clearing soffits
Click to expand...
The pervious owners installed it but for the sake of solving my problem. Would it be worth installing a Draft inducer fan?
 
jotulnj said:
The pervious owners installed it but for the sake of solving my problem. Would it be worth installing a Draft inducer fan?
Click to expand...
I'm not the guy to ask for that. I lean towards natural drafting.
 
The flue system is marginal at best. It's too short and has a lot of turns in it. An older stove will not be a sensitive, but the F3CB needs stronger draft for secondary combustion. The normal solution would be to add more chimney, but it may need more bracing and won't look great.
This is a clear case of where going straight up through the roof is a significantly better solution.
jotulnj said:
its 16 inches from the corner to the tile. The wall is cement board then tile.
Click to expand...
What is behind the cement board, wood studs? If so, that is the nearest combustible the clearance is measured to. This would not be what qualifies as a protected surface. The corner clearance with single wall pipe is 18", so this is not too bad if it is currently at 17" to the studs. The picture made it look more like 12" to the corner wall.
 
Makes me a bit nervous, especially if the area has winter power outages.
 
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jotulnj said:
from the elbow attached to the house to the top of the stack is 7ft. So I should extend the stack to 15ft?

View attachment 320115
Click to expand...
Pipe is expensive, and roof bracing is work. So while it seems likely my guess on the chimney being too short is probably right, I'd measure draft to determine if this really is the problem, before spending time and money on fixing it.

jotulnj said:
im not sure id know how to install this to tell!
Click to expand...
Pretty easy. You drill a hole in your stove pipe, and insert a hose nipple or scrap stub of 3/16" brake line into it. Connect 3/16" ID rubber hose between nipple on gauge and nipple or brake line stub in stovepipe. Plug hole with a screw when you're done.

It's also worth mentioning that any stove or furnace tech has this equipment, and uses it everyday. Guys who primarily work gas or heat pumps may have manometers that don't read fine enough for chimney draft, but anyone who works wood or oil will have the right gear. You could just call a chimney / stove tech, and have them check out your chimney.
 
With 10-11 ft total rise plus a 45, two 90º turns and an offset, the draft is bound to be on the weak side. Also, it's uncertain whether the installation satisfies the 10-3-2 rule, hard to tell at this angle.
 
Let’s start with the easy stuff. Tell me about your chimney. How tall is it? Is it lined? What size is the liner if it is?

Have you tested the moisture content of the wood?
 
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