Stove Not Pulling Air

[Echo Parking Lot]

Ya’ll, long time lurker first time poster.

Our office L (circa 1826, main house circa 1780 (got some other questions about that for a different post)), does not sit over the foundation and shares a wall with the garage, thus becomes almost unusable in the winter months. So, of course, we recently, as in yesterday, installed a Waterford 100B 90 wood stove in the existing fireplace. It was professionally installed by our chimney sweep (great guy, very knowledgeable).

When we purchased the stove the only known issue was a cracked firebrick, which we will deal with as we get more confident with messing about with stoves.

However, after we fired it up yesterday after getting the okay, we ran into a (small?) problem: if you closed the door the fire would go out. The 100B is one of the ones that has a spin draft on the front door and we have it in the fully open position, yet every time the door is closed the flames sputter out and the kindling (doesn’t hold anything much larger) just smolders. Our first guess was maybe that the fire grate at the front was blocking the air flow, but that seemed unlikely, considering there’s a gap between the door and the grate that air can surely get through, plus the grate itself is not a solid piece.

Are we missing something really obvious or is there a deeper issue here? Please ask questions and happy to post more photos if that will help and answer any questions.

 

[begreen]

It's the flue that creates the draft that pulls air through the stove. Has the stove had fires in it so far this season or is this the first on this new liner? Normally I'd say check up to to see if something is blocking the chimney cap screen but in this case, I'd say check the wood to be sure it's fully seasoned. Get some construction scrap 2x4 cutoffs and split them in half and use them to start a fire. Stack them lincoln log style so that plenty of air can get thru the wood.

If that doesn't work then the issue could be negative pressure in the room. This is particularly common in basement installs, but can show up in first floor installs that have leaky upstairs windows, attic vents uncovered, etc. You could try opening a nearby window an inch to see if that improves the fire. If it makes a notable difference then this is the issue.

Where on the Housatonic are you? That was my old stomping grounds.

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

First fire with the new liner.

Burning mostly maple and ash, fully seasoned (according to my moisture meter at any rate). Will split a bit more and check again though. Can’t hurt.

I’ll test out the negative draft stuff. There’s no upstairs to the L, but there are attic vents. Any tips on what I should be looking for.

The Waterford is on the same floor, only separated by a door that doesn’t shut properly, as our other wood stove, which hasn’t had any draft issues to our knowledge (we only moved a year ago, but used the VC Defiant that came with the place all last winter).

We’re in the Cornwall area. From what part of the Valley did you hail?

 

[moresnow]

Unless I misread your description? What exactly is the stove venting into from stove collar to termination? I.D? Insulated stainless liner? Old masonry with a direct connect? What is the length of that venting as well?

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

6 inch stainless liner up through an existing masonry chimney, I think 14 feet. Chimney is capped with a piece of slate.

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

It's the flue that creates the draft that pulls air through the stove. Has the stove had fires in it so far this season or is this the first on this new liner? Normally I'd say check up to to see if something is blocking the chimney cap screen but in this case, I'd say check the wood to be sure it's fully seasoned. Get some construction scrap 2x4 cutoffs and split them in half and use them to start a fire. Stack them lincoln log style so that plenty of air can get thru the wood.

If that doesn't work then the issue could be negative pressure in the room. This is particularly common in basement installs, but can show up in first floor installs that have leaky upstairs windows, attic vents uncovered, etc. You could try opening a nearby window an inch to see if that improves the fire. If it makes a notable difference then this is the issue.

Where on the Housatonic are you? That was my old stomping grounds.

apologies for the lack of replies. holidays getting in the way of mucking about with stoves. set some time aside on boxing day to mess around will report back.

 

[begreen]

No problem. I lived in Cornwall too. It's a beautiful location.

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

Tried lighting it again this morning and this time, before I could even start testing things out, smoke started pouring out of the spin draft and the cook top, which wasn’t happening before. Luckily it was just a bit of newspaper at that point. More stumped than before, though.

I would assume this indicates the something that before was preventing some of the air getting down the chimney is now completely preventing it.

My only other thought is that because the stove is in a room that gets so cold this might not have agreed with lighting anything in it?

 

[Gearhead660]

Have you tried preheating the flue with a propane torch to create draft?

 

[Mt Bob]

Would not be the first time packaging/packing got left in a flue pipe.

 

[gthomas785]

Is this masonry chimney on an exterior wall? It could be sluggish / reversing draft due to being cold. Try preheating it by blowing a hairdryer up the stove for a few minutes before lighting, and keep the door cracked for a few minutes until the fire really gets going to heat up the flue.

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

Is this masonry chimney on an exterior wall? It could be sluggish / reversing draft due to being cold. Try preheating it by blowing a hairdryer up the stove for a few minutes before lighting, and keep the door cracked for a few minutes until the fire really gets going to heat up the flue.

masonry chimney but not outside wall, at least not exactly. other side is what is now the garage (long story short 70 years ago the wing the office and garage were part of was moved on logs 500 feet north).

the room is on a crawl space not the foundation , though, so it gets damn cold. i’ll try warming up the chimney, though owning neither a blowtorch or a hairdryer will prove tricky.

 

[stoveliker]

Set a candle in the stove for at least half n hour.

 

[12guns]

Did the installer put a damper anywhere? Sure sounds like a damper is closed or pipe is blocked. Preheating might help, but there is no reason a fire would sputter out when you close the door unless the gases have nowhere to go on the exhaust side. I would call the guy back that installed it and tell him something is wrong. I bet he'll come running (he should for liability reasons).

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

Did the installer put a damper anywhere? Sure sounds like a damper is closed or pipe is blocked. Preheating might help, but there is no reason a fire would sputter out when you close the door unless the gases have nowhere to go on the exhaust side. I would call the guy back that installed it and tell him something is wrong. I bet he'll come running (he should for liability reasons).

no damper that i’m aware of unless he installed it without telling us and also forgot when we called him again.

does seem though that something is blocking it rather than it being just too cold.

 

[clancey]

Maybe a animal got in it somehow and is blocking it--just a thought here if I understand right--no experience with these things..would like to see a picture of your set up...clancey

 

[Seanbear]

Im new to wood burners. I had the same problem, kind of. All it took was warming the flue with a hair dryer and its fine then. My wood burner is small, but it heats my whole house basically. Try the hair dryer, you can buy them cheap, or go to Goodwill. They are really cheap there. Hope you figure this out.......

 

[MR. GLO]

Small heater attached to a plywood shelf that sits on the stove lip works great. Install a plywood face with foam and the ashes won't circulate out.

10 minutes of preheat and it I never get smoke issues when lighting.

Harbor freight has a cheap heat gun but the ashes alway kick up.

Or try lighting fire with only kidlin first and then add logs.

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

Tried the candle in the stove for about an hour and I’m cautiously optimistic that this worked. It’s still going a bit slow, but no smoke pouring into the room and it’s not sputtering out. Hopefully as the fire heats the stovepipe up it will really start cranking.

Regardless all the suggestions were very helpful and I’ll monitor the progress.

 

[Seanbear]

Warming the flue was like night and day for me. What a relief......no more smoke!

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

now if i can just figure out how the stove works 😂 it‘s nothing like the big top-loader we have in the main section of the house

 

[bigealta]

Try top down fire when starting cold. It will have way less smoke and heat up and establish draft much faster.

 

[Echo Parking Lot]

Top down helped a lot. I always do it on my VC, but for some reason it didn’t occur to me for the small one, go figure.

On a small, front loader like this, when you’ve got good coals going is it best to rake them to the front? the back? one of the sides?

 

[coaly]

Top down helped a lot. I always do it on my VC, but for some reason it didn’t occur to me for the small one, go figure.

On a small, front loader like this, when you’ve got good coals going is it best to rake them to the front? the back? one of the sides?

Remove ash from where it burns down the most at air intake. Rake coals and some ash toward intake and build new fire on them. Always leave some ash on the bottom. Doing this you can remove a little ash each day from the intake area, rake coals and some ash ahead, and never have to leave the stove go out to remove ashes.