Stopping Smell on Mt Vernon Classic -and gasket question

[cparts]

Hi Everyone,

I've posted a couple of times. New pellet stove owner of a inherited 2006 Mt Vernon Quadrafire classic (lightly used by my parents - maybe 10 tons max, but a bit rusty because their basement had some humidity in it).

New install in two story old chimney by me of.....

Duravent Praire cap, whit 4" exhaust up, 3" OAK down the chimney. Plate at bottom of chimney in firebox to block off the stinky old wood burning chimney.

Mt Vernon burns fine based on my novice opinion. Might have a tad to much air in the mixture.

When it is running the house has a woody pellet scent in it. It is faint but present. I just chalked it up to the fact that burning wood in the house would probably produce some smell. However I see on some posts here that properly operating pellet stoves should not smell of any smoke.

So I set about to see if I had any leaks on the stovepipe. In a totally black room with a flashlight I started the stove. Honestly the firebox never got much smoke in it (I'm not sure if they normally do), so I'm not sure how much leaking smoke I would see anyway. I had both side panels off stove. I did not see any smoke from the insides of the stove up the stovepipe.


But from my prior outdoor testing and cleaning, I do know that the gasket in the picture below is bad. It may be letting a tiny bit of exhaust out. I can pass a putty knife past the gasket in some place. So I'm going to change it.

Question 1: that gasket looks like a basic rope gasket. I'm not sure it is a good design even when it isn't beat up. Is there a better alternative or should I mail-order an OEM gasket?

Question 2: Is there some other gaskets I should be looking at. Again I don't see any smoke.

Question 3: Is there a better way to do a smoke test?

Question 4: I ordered another door gasket, but it has not arrived, so I will be putting that in. Would that cause a small smokey smell?

Question 5: The firepot cleanout dump lever is sticky, so when I pull it the firepot inches up a bit, it is bound up. I can free it but it never really moves freely. It will make the front of the pot pop up a little bit. If I help move it with my hand (the trap door) while operaing the pull lever. i can free it up. I will put a gasket on the pot at some point. Could this lack of gasket cause smokey smell?

Thanks for taking time to read this!

 

[vinny11950]

I don't know your stove model, and I don't recognize the pictured part and what it does.

But a good rule of thumb is that everything before the exhaust blower motor is getting sucked in (negative pressure), so air and smoke are getting sucked into the stove - so your leak is unlikely to be from that space (unless you have a gaping holes somewhere or open the door).

But once the air wash gets past the exhaust blower motor, it is now being pushed out and pressure builds in the exhaust channels (positive pressure). So you want to look in the paths where the pressure is pushing out. This most likely where your leak is coming from.

My stove leaks a tiny bit on startup, I can barely see it, but once the fire gets hot and the draft heats up, I smell nothing. So you shouldn't be smelling anything after start up.

Also consider that your smoke smell may be coming from outside somehow, a crack in a window or door.

Look for the owners manual online and see what gasket the manufacturer recommends for that pictured part.

A few pictures of the exhaust pipes may help people spot the issue.

 

[Mt Bob]

If chimney was not thoroughly cleaned before install,you may have this problem for quite a while,in my opinion.

 

[kappel15]

That pic is the clean out plate. kap

 

[chamas]

Have you tried tightening the screws?

 

[cparts]

I have an update. I appreciate the replies so far.

I taped up the cleanup plate in order to see if that changed things....

I have posted two pictures.

Sealing the clean-out plate (which I am 100% convinced was leaking because the gasket was not complete), revealed a leak where my finger is in picture two. It was coming up from behind there. I could not exactly see it. Once is saw a bit of ember come out from somewhere back there. I feel like it might the exhaust blower.

There is some space around the pellet drop chute, but I don't think that matters. Is that correct?

Thoughts? I thinking that I'm probably going to have to pull the entire guts out of the back to fix this. In this case could somebody suggest if there are other parts or gaskets that I should replace while I"m in there. Im not looking forward to it, but I can't have a smoke leak. I suspect the 2006 stove just needs an overhaul even thought they didn't run it very much.

 

[cparts]

continued/update in this thread.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...otor-removal-instructions-videos-tips.172164/