smoke in house

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61snowrider

Member
Jan 11, 2010
39
Central Pa.
They is no better way than to learn from experienced people. I have a St, Croix for 5 winters now and enjoy it very much. My question is when the power goes off the fan shuts off and smoke enters the room from that little draft pipe back on the back of the furnace. It was professionally installed by the store where i bought it. Only 1 thread that I read had that pipe vented outside.
What does everyone think about this? How do you eliminate the smoke from coming into the house when the power goes off? If a battery backup is necessary, what kind does everyone have?
So far, I had to replace the combustion fan this winter, other than that it has been good. I have my draft open the whole way. My store says I only need to open it a little bit. But when I did that it would burn lazy and black. I figured it needed more air so I opened it the whole way and it seems to burn better that way. Thanks for all your inputs this site is very helpful. I have learned a lot from everybody. Thanks
 
Can you just hook up an OAK (outside air kit). This will allow the smoke to either take the proper path out (cold air in the intake vent and smoke out the exhaust vent), or in the case it gets reversed. The smoke will exit out the intake vent (OAK) and fresh air will come down the exhaust.

Thats about the only way to stop it. Unless you went with a UPS (battery back-up) but even then, thats only so much time to properly shut it down. And you must be either awake or home to do that. The OAK is the easist way and can be done cheap with some 3" vent (rigid 3" dryer vent is cheap and works great))
 
thanks dexter, With that vent going outside, would that help my fire, would I then need to possible close my draft, rather than having it wide open? Before I did this, I just wanted to know if everybody else did this?
 
61snowrider said:
thanks dexter, With that vent going outside, would that help my fire, would I then need to possible close my draft, rather than having it wide open? Before I did this, I just wanted to know if everybody else did this?

If your stove is on the main level, then straight out will be fine. Just remember to follow all install instructions. It must be 1 ft below or beside the Stoves exhaust vent.

As for a better burn?? It depends. An OAK will always increase the overall efficiency of the unit. If you have a new home that pretty tight, then the stove may be starving for air. The OAK would then allows you to possibly close the draft some.

The dealer cant tell you where the draft should be set, without looking at your install and the flames activity. Thats the same as me telling you where to put it.

An OAK makes the stove a sealed system. Which means instead of using air inside your house (you already heated it) and forcing it out your vent (that air is them replaced by cold air coming in through all the leaky and drafty points in your home) the Air is drawn in the intake vent and sent through house combustion chanber, then out the house. Keeping all your warm air in your home.

Again, the damper may be a crapshoot unless the house is super sealed and tight. The OAK itself can be straight out, but giving a rise could be beneficial (could?). All installs are different. But if you have 2 sealed vents (intake and exhaust) the only way smoke can be released into the house is through any small holes for heat exchange cleaning rods, versa grate rods, and possibly the air wash can leak some smoke.

Ranting......... ;-P
 
We have a St Criox also and have an OAK. Ours is the kind that attaches to the vent pipe. We have a straight out vent.

When our combustion fan was going we had a couple of episodes where it would shut off and we got a little bit of smoke in the house. Not horrible, but you could smell it and it wasn't enough to set off the smoke alarm that was right by the stove.

I have been told that if you have a rise to your exhaust there will be more of a natural draft in case of power outages and the smoke will naturally go up and out instead of in the house, but I don't think that will happen if you don't have your outside air vented out of the house as well.
 
My air intake goes into a small metal box inside the back of the stove, that has a two inch hole open to the stove's mechanical space, which is vented to the outside of the stove, so an Outside Air Kit doesn't make for a sealed system. I suppose it is just in case the outside air intake becomes blocked. I thought it odd that they would make it like that.

Dave
 
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