We woke up to a house full of smoke the other day and are not sure where it came from...It only happened once, but once is obviously enough. Looking for some suggestions & advice about what happened. EDIT: The smoke in the house was as thick as a light fog you see outside.
I called the installer and they are coming by later today to double-check their install and to ensure everything is together as it ought to be. I have looked at everything that I can and do not see any issues but I am not an installer. Any advice on things to check will be helpful. Likewise, I have read everything I could find about backpuffs, smoke in the house, etc, that I could find here on the forums. The last two nights I have burned fires and have not had anymore smoke in the house. I have been getting up every 2-3 hours to check & make sure everything is working properly. The stove seems to operating as it ought to. Right now, it is ash and coals, which I am cleaning out so the installers can inspect a cool stove.
Based on what I have read, I have narrowed it to a couple/combination of things. My gut says we had a "perfect storm of events."
1) My first thought was to check the chimney and it was not blocked in any way [no nests, leaves, animals trying to keep warm, etc.]. Clear all the way down and no creosote since we have just started burning.
2) The door latches "hard" and if we are not careful, it does not shut all the way. Smoke seeps out if it is not latched tight [We triple-check that now every time we add wood]. That day, I ran to the stove and immediately adjusted the wood, the air, & blower to get it burning/drafting, and did not look to see if the door was fully latched. That could be part of the issue.
3) We have a large ceiling fan in the room and were seeing if it could help circulate the heat in the house. We forgot to turn it off when we went to bed. The room with our stove peaks at about 14' and the fan is centered in the room. The fan is about 8' away from the stove & has 2 speeds: fast and really fast. Could the fan combined with the blower [which was on a medium high setting] have created a "negative draft" of some kind, pulling the smoke back in the house?
4) It was in the mid 30's when we went to bed but the outside temp in the high 40's and it was foggy outside, when we discovered the problem. Could the weather have affected the draft of the chimney? I had several people tell me it was windy that night but there was barely any breeze at our house. [Our house sits back in a knoll of sorts and is surrounded by many tall trees. We are well protected from the wind].
Inasmuch as It has not happened since, I kind of feel it was a combination of the latch, the fan & blower, and the weather. As soon as the installers look it over, I will hopefully have a better idea. As mentioned, I appreciate any suggestions.
Almost forgot, our stove is a Buck 94NC. We have block off plates, some insulation, & 8" steel pipe in a clay lined chimney [roughly 12'x18"]. When building a fire, we start small and get bigger before we dial it back. Kindling & 2"-3" pieces of wood to start & to get a good coal bed. Then we add larger splits, stacked pretty tightly. We do not stack much above the firebrick on the sides of the stove, & let the larger pieces burn 15-20 minutes before turning back the air. We turn it back gradually so we do not choke the fire, about every 15 minutes. Been checking the wood as I bring it in and it ranges from 14% -18% moisture content.
The scariest part of all of this is that none of our smoke detectors went off despite having brand new batteries in August. I have since made a trip to the hardware store and we have new smoke detectors that do work very well now. Everyone is getting to that time when they burn 24/7, so do not take chances and make sure they work!
If you have not checked your smoke detectors & carbon monoxide detectors...check and test them!
I called the installer and they are coming by later today to double-check their install and to ensure everything is together as it ought to be. I have looked at everything that I can and do not see any issues but I am not an installer. Any advice on things to check will be helpful. Likewise, I have read everything I could find about backpuffs, smoke in the house, etc, that I could find here on the forums. The last two nights I have burned fires and have not had anymore smoke in the house. I have been getting up every 2-3 hours to check & make sure everything is working properly. The stove seems to operating as it ought to. Right now, it is ash and coals, which I am cleaning out so the installers can inspect a cool stove.
Based on what I have read, I have narrowed it to a couple/combination of things. My gut says we had a "perfect storm of events."
1) My first thought was to check the chimney and it was not blocked in any way [no nests, leaves, animals trying to keep warm, etc.]. Clear all the way down and no creosote since we have just started burning.
2) The door latches "hard" and if we are not careful, it does not shut all the way. Smoke seeps out if it is not latched tight [We triple-check that now every time we add wood]. That day, I ran to the stove and immediately adjusted the wood, the air, & blower to get it burning/drafting, and did not look to see if the door was fully latched. That could be part of the issue.
3) We have a large ceiling fan in the room and were seeing if it could help circulate the heat in the house. We forgot to turn it off when we went to bed. The room with our stove peaks at about 14' and the fan is centered in the room. The fan is about 8' away from the stove & has 2 speeds: fast and really fast. Could the fan combined with the blower [which was on a medium high setting] have created a "negative draft" of some kind, pulling the smoke back in the house?
4) It was in the mid 30's when we went to bed but the outside temp in the high 40's and it was foggy outside, when we discovered the problem. Could the weather have affected the draft of the chimney? I had several people tell me it was windy that night but there was barely any breeze at our house. [Our house sits back in a knoll of sorts and is surrounded by many tall trees. We are well protected from the wind].
Inasmuch as It has not happened since, I kind of feel it was a combination of the latch, the fan & blower, and the weather. As soon as the installers look it over, I will hopefully have a better idea. As mentioned, I appreciate any suggestions.
Almost forgot, our stove is a Buck 94NC. We have block off plates, some insulation, & 8" steel pipe in a clay lined chimney [roughly 12'x18"]. When building a fire, we start small and get bigger before we dial it back. Kindling & 2"-3" pieces of wood to start & to get a good coal bed. Then we add larger splits, stacked pretty tightly. We do not stack much above the firebrick on the sides of the stove, & let the larger pieces burn 15-20 minutes before turning back the air. We turn it back gradually so we do not choke the fire, about every 15 minutes. Been checking the wood as I bring it in and it ranges from 14% -18% moisture content.
The scariest part of all of this is that none of our smoke detectors went off despite having brand new batteries in August. I have since made a trip to the hardware store and we have new smoke detectors that do work very well now. Everyone is getting to that time when they burn 24/7, so do not take chances and make sure they work!
If you have not checked your smoke detectors & carbon monoxide detectors...check and test them!
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