Hi, newbie stove question. I've had an insert in the past, but just had my first stove installed a few days ago in a new house. I've burned two fires in it, both using only newspaper, kiln-dried grocery store wood, and biobricks. The smell of the paint curing was strong, so I kept the windows cracked. The house smelled pretty smoky on top of the chemical smell of the paint during both fires, though at the time I figured it was the effects of the open windows on the draw. But since then there's been a surprisingly strong residual smoky smell and today I realized the smell is coming from a layer of black soot around a couple of joints on the outside of the chimney pipe. I'm wondering if this is a fault in the installation? Is this normal or should I contact the installers to have them seal the gaps?
I'm attaching a couple of pics, though it's hard to show black stuff on a black background, so not sure how helpful they'll be. Thanks for your help - I've read the forum for years and appreciate the knowledge here.
I'm attaching a couple of pics, though it's hard to show black stuff on a black background, so not sure how helpful they'll be. Thanks for your help - I've read the forum for years and appreciate the knowledge here.
