stove smokes on start up

[KindredSpiritzz]

I been noticing my little vogelzang defender stove smokes when i first light it up. The smoke wafts out like long pretty tentacles from the bottom of the stove somewhere. Im guessing from the air inlets for the secondary burn tubes? Im not too worried as its not bad and it goes away once the fire gets going but is this normal? Seems a bit odd smoke goes into those little holes in the secondary tubes and down the piping in the stove to come out the bottom of the stove. Least thats what im thinking is going on. Short chimney, maybe 10 ft probably contributes to the problem. Hard to get that little sucker going but once she gets to temps she runs good.

 

[bholler]

what type of chimney?

 

[claydogg84]

Definitely sounds like a draft issue. Can you make the chimney taller?

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

what type of chimney?

some type of triple wall im not familiar with. Single wall at 6-8 & 10 inches uninsulated. I could probably add another 2 or 4 ft of chimney if needed. Seems to run fine once its going so im inclined not to bother.

 

[bholler]

Is it ul 103ht listed? most triple wall is not try to find a label somewhere it might not have a high enough temperature range. Also uninsulated triple wall is not the best preforming system the stack runs allot cooler than insulated chimney

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

Is it ul 103ht listed?

that pipe is over 20 yrs old, did they even have UL listing back then? I replaced the 6 inch this year as it was deteriorating but the 8 & 10 inch seemed fine. Its worked for the past 20 yrs with my Atlanta box stove so im thinking it'll be ok with the Defender. I know its not perfect but im not willing to invest the money in that structure.

 

[bholler]

Yes they had ul listings 20 years ago and if you replaced the inner liner it absolutly is not ul listed anymore

 

[begreen]

It does sound like you have a no longer approved chimney system. At 10" is seems like it may have once served an old ZC fireplace. The draft requirements for the old box stove are much less than for the Defender. Going to a 10" round, short chimney is not helping draft. Most likely you are not seeing the full heating potential of the Defender due to insufficient draft. The chimney should be replaced with 6" class A chimney ideally for a total flue system height of about 15'.

All of this is spelled out in the manual. The risk of not fixing the stove could be a serious downdraft given the right conditions. That could be lethal.

 

[brenndatomu]

Is this a cold start? Bottom up fire? How many fires you had in 'er so far?
The Defender gets air in 3 places
1. The primary air from the slot across the front above the door.
2. The boost air comes in the bottom, in the middle, that raised 2"x 2" part, the 1/8" holes are blowing back on the fire.
3. The secondary air tubes.

So you had smoke coming out of one of these?!

I have this same stove, it is a really easy breather, I bet this is one stove that will work on a 10' chimney, if it is straight up.
I have a 18' chimney and I had to plug about half the air intake off to keep 'er from ripping through a load in 2 hours, and that's with the air control shut down. The fire was roaring. Oh, and the door gasket is fine, after my "mods" it burns very controlled, clean, and for much longer

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

yes cold start, bottom up fire, probably had 8 cold start fires in it so far and most if not all had smoke seepage from the bottom somewhere. I should mention the door is open when this occurs to as im trying to get the fire to catch. I modified my air intake slide plate with some washers so it would sit flush against the unit instead of sloppy. A piece of tin foil slide in there helps me shut the air down more once its going if i so desire. Smoke seems to come from the bottom left middle of the stove somewhere, havent really tried to pinpoint exactly where yet.

 

[Hogwildz]

Reverse draft pushing the smoke out of the air intake.

 

[begreen]

Take a moment to visit this thread:
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...cies-related-to-wood-fired-appliances.135082/