Smoke pouring out of my stove!!!!!

[Dr Bigwood]

Got home tonight and loaded my jotul castine with papper and small sticks to sart a fire. Stove burned 3 logs this morning which I loaded at 7:30 am.

I went out for some more wood to load once the sticks and kinlin took. Came in the house to find my stove was leaking smoke around all joints. pouring out where the door meets the stove. It was coming out of the stove pipe too! (Leaking at the stove pipe/flue joint!) Fricken Scary! Has this stuation occured with anyone on
hearth.com? Blockage in the chimmney?

I threw the sticks in a metal garbage can and took it ouside and doused it with snow.... Carefully...

Thanks for any info you may have to help me on this...


DOC

 

[begreen]

Sounds like a draft issue. When was the chimney last cleaned? What is the age of the stove? of the flue? Can you describe the setup? Is the stove rear or top exit? Describe the flue in detail. Interior or exterior? Masonry or metal? Insulated? How tall?

 

[laynes69]

If you can get on the roof and look into the chimney with a small mirror to reflect the sunshine down the chimney. You will see if its blocked or not. Also tap on your flue, a dull thump will tell you its blocked, or full of junk.

 

[BrotherBart]

Yep. The first stop in the troubleshooting is to make sure that chimney is clear and proceed from there.

But the pipe leakage is also nature's way of telling you to seal those joints while you are at it.

 

[kd460]

Was this initial start up on a cold stove/flue? Is this a set up that has worked fine in the past? If so, it might have been a combo of cold flue and negative house? In other words, slightly open a door/window, and heat up the stove/flue quickly with nothing but a some loosly crumpled up paper for a quick heat up/draw.

Mine has done this twice before until I figured out what was going on. Seems like a low pressure weather situation was going on outside as well. KD

 

[elkimmeg]

Was the damper open? when is the last time you took apart the connector pipe and cleaned it? and cleaned the chimney?

we need more info

 

[Tendencies]

Mine was doing exactly the same thing, started over a 2 week period, not a lot of smoke but kinda hazy and everyday got worse till it was pouring into the room everytime I opened the door, then I read the post about the creosote problem and decided to take a look, took out the baffle in the stove and saw very little if any build up in the flex pipe going up, went on the roof next and couldn't believe what I saw, the cap which has numerous holes about 1 1/2" wide by 1/4" tall in rows of 4 high was completely plugged with wet nasty creosote, what was happening was the smoke under pressure from heat I'm sure was forcing it's way down between the cap pipe and the liner and coming back down between the flex and the clay pipe coming back into the livingroom!! I took a screw driver and poked a few holes clear and it was like a steam locomotive, almost roared out now that it had a release! i kept cleaning the holes and eventually cleared the cap. I later took off the cap and all the creosote was built up in the last foot of the cap pipe where it's cold being above the chimney, must be collecting condensation and sticking to the holes. Now I have a larger cap with big holes ie: 1" and am having no more problems!! Check your cap, you may be surprised what you find!!

T

 

[webbie]

This sounds like a chimney and draft problem....what is likely is that the chimney is cold (probably not clogged) and that the chimney actually reversed while the stove was being used because it was not warm enough.

Although most reverals happen on startup, it is very possible for it to happen when a stove is low.

What is the chimney setup? That will likely tell the tale.

 

[Sandor]

Bathroom fan going? Clothes dryer running?

 

[rudysmallfry]

I am very good at lighting a "smoker" when the weather's wet and mild. Even with good draft and clean pipes, a rainy 42 degree day will always give me a nice room full of smoke. I don't even bother trying to light a cold stove in those conditions. My stove's on the lower level, so negative pressure is definitely in play there.

A good way to tell if it's going to light without a lot of smoke is to just try lighting one stick and hold under the flue for a good 5 minutes. If by the time the stick burns out, the flame isn't pulling strongly toward the flue, you'll just be lighting a smoker. If you do still light, let the small stuff get going very strong before adding the larger logs. Good luck.

 

[Dr Bigwood]

AH! Finally I can reply!!
Thanks for all the good info! Awesome!
Well, My Castine was installed last Feburary. New. It sits against a north exterior wall and the stove pipe empties into a stainless chimney liner. Not insulated. The chimney is located on the outside.(3 sides exposed to the elements) Roughly 15 feet of chimney liner. 4 feet of stove pipe. Top exit. No damper. Have yet to clean chimney or connector. I was told by the Salesman who sold me the stove to clean the chimney once a year..... Seems like he was wrong!
Do I use furnace cement to seal the stove around the gaskets and stove pipe?

Thanks guys!

Doc

 

[webbie]

It is important to understand the problem as opposed to doing all kinds of things to solve it and hope that one is right....

This is a clean burning stove and I doubt the chimney is clogged, but if you have burned over a cord or two, you might want to take a look just to eliminate that. More likely it would be ash or soot that fell down and is built up in the el behind the stove - you might be able to reach in and get that out.

So, my 90% guess is that it is the chimney reversing when in use because it is not warm enough.

But let's go back to the original story - it was probably 95% spent when you came home - so the chimney had cooled enough so that it reversed....even though some coals may have been there, the chimney was sold.

Since you know this is a possibility now, the proper course of action would have been to open the front door...and then you would have probably felt cold air coming in from down the chimney! Either way, a small piece of balled up newspaper placed high up in the stove above the baffle and lit would have probably warmed the chimney up and gotten it headed back up again. Then you could have easily restarted the fire with no problems.

Furnace cement will not help the problem because the smoke should not have reversed in the first place and once it does it will come out of every possible crevice including gasket and draft control, etc - I have seen it come out through welds in steel stoves.

There is a lot of advice about proper burning on this site in the QA and Article area - but the basics for you...
1. Start the stove in a very hot manner - burn through the kindling and first load to get the chimney and stove nice and hot.
2. In general burn less wood with more air.
3. When starting the stove, try to open the door and get the feeling as to whether the chimney has reversed.....if it has, make certain to "prime" the chimney with a piece of newspaper before starting.

Get a few CO detectors for the house in addition to smoke detectors.

 

[Dr Bigwood]

Thank you Webmaster! I will Follow your advice. I have noticed that over the past 3 months more smoke has been emptying into my living room when I open the door to load it with wood. I will look behind the stove for ash/soot build up. Start there. I have burned about two cords. So I may need to clean the chimney as well. Should be inspected any way. I am curious to see it. Anxious to get back to burning wood.


Thanks again for your expertise.

Doc

 

[ertzog]

Mine was doing exactly the same thing, started over a 2 week period, not a lot of smoke but kinda hazy and everyday got worse till it was pouring into the room everytime I opened the door, then I read the post about the creosote problem and decided to take a look, took out the baffle in the stove and saw very little if any build up in the flex pipe going up, went on the roof next and couldn't believe what I saw, the cap which has numerous holes about 1 1/2" wide by 1/4" tall in rows of 4 high was completely plugged with wet nasty creosote, what was happening was the smoke under pressure from heat I'm sure was forcing it's way down between the cap pipe and the liner and coming back down between the flex and the clay pipe coming back into the livingroom!! I took a screw driver and poked a few holes clear and it was like a steam locomotive, almost roared out now that it had a release! i kept cleaning the holes and eventually cleared the cap. I later took off the cap and all the creosote was built up in the last foot of the cap pipe where it's cold being above the chimney, must be collecting condensation and sticking to the holes. Now I have a larger cap with big holes ie: 1" and am having no more problems!! Check your cap, you may be surprised what you find!!

T

EXACTAMUNDO! had the same symptoms (getting bad enough to make my insert unusable - because the door could not be opened without filling the house with smoke), checked in here said... "hmmmm" and went up on the roof. the 1/2" square grill was plugged solid with the flocks of oily black grit. half an hour later its been off, cleaned and back in place - fires roaring.

this was a 6" ss sleeve /osburn 2400 insert installed last spring, been using the insert as the only heat source this fall/winter... only 2-3 months (but we have been enjoying the warmth/fire viewe to the point of roasting ourselves)? so its a surprise it could clog like that so quick. at least it came to light on a reasonably warm week.

thanks, T.

not much as far as any build up actually in the pipe, also only near the very top.... but I expect it'll need a cleaning soon. time to read the threads on cleaning. anybody have good sources for brushes/tools?

this place is a fantastic resource.

 

[Todd]

[/quote]


not much as far as any build up actually in the pipe, also only near the very top.... but I expect it'll need a cleaning soon. time to read the threads on cleaning. anybody have good sources for brushes/tools?

this place is a fantastic resource.[/quote]

Local hardware stores or Home depot type stores should have everything you need.

 

[begreen]

Mine was doing exactly the same thing, started over a 2 week period, not a lot of smoke but kinda hazy and everyday got worse till it was pouring into the room everytime I opened the door, then I read the post about the creosote problem and decided to take a look, took out the baffle in the stove and saw very little if any build up in the flex pipe going up, went on the roof next and couldn't believe what I saw, the cap which has numerous holes about 1 1/2" wide by 1/4" tall in rows of 4 high was completely plugged with wet nasty creosote.

Sounds like you may need to be burning hotter fires and/or drier wood? What are the typical stove top temps you are seeing?

 

[Tendencies]

It's an insert and all I have is a thermo on the front door arch and it is usually around 550-600, sometimes as high as 700 late in the burn cycle, I have very good secondary burn going from the tubes, the wood is well seasoned, mostly white/red oak, 2 years old and a tarp over the top, like I said it's the last foot or so of pipe that extends above the masonry chimney where it cools off too fast and condensation forms creating this cement like substance.. My entire chimney length is 28'. When I had the cap off there was hardly any discoloration/creosote on the SS flex liner below the masonry lip going down to the stove so I think I'm defianately more than hot enough.

T

 

[Gooserider]

Crazy thought, but are there any products that can be used to insulate that last bit of chimney? Possibly something home brew like putting a chunk of 8" around it and filling the void with some kind of non-flammable insulation?

Gooserider