Sudden draft problem - Alderlea

[Elfin]

The past couple of days we've noticed a draft problem with the Alderlea that we haven't had before. It's burning well and all seems fine until we open the door to add more wood... smoke comes billowing out at us.

We've checked a couple of things to try to resolve the issue, and have a couple of other things to try as soon as the stove and pipe are cool enough. We had a fairly deep ashbed, so we cleaned that out, leaving 1". We had recently closed down our foundation vents to insulate for winter, so we opened some of those back up in case the fresh air combusion wasn't getting enough air. No change. So now we are planning to check the fresh air combusion for a critter and the stovepipe for the same.

What else could it be? It was fine until now, and the weather is the same temp... it's not windy... no changes like that like that I can think of. Can the baffle or other "guts" in the stove clog up somehow?

Thanks for any ideas!

 

[struggle]

Restricted chimney cap/plugged up??

 

[Elfin]

Thanks... that is certainly something we are going to check, as soon as it is cool enough to do so...

I discovered that the ash bed had been completely blocking the small holes at the front of the firebox (just under the window). I am thinking that this point that this could be the problem. I put a call in to Pacific Energy to see if this can be safely vacuumed out... I assume it's ok with this stove, but I don't want to find out the hard way that I'm wrong about that. Anyway, maybe this isn't the problem, but I'm going to clean it and see if it makes a difference.

 

[snowtime]

If this was an old smoke dragon i would be confident you have a restricted cap. Go outside and look at your cap for black obstructions around openings in cap. My T6 burns so cleanly that I can only imagine this problem if you have suddenly started loading a bunch of wet wood.

 

[Elfin]

We will, as soon as the pipe is cool enough. And that's what was so noticable about it... the stove normally burns so cleanly, and all of a sudden it wasn't. Wet or green wood is definitely not the issue... it's something to do with the draft.

 

[begreen]

Squirrels?

 

[Elfin]

I don't see how that would be possible... it's a freestanding stove, with a screened spark arrestor at the top...

 

[jqgs214]

Running any exhaust fans?? dryer? stove? bathroom? any competing appliances??

 

[Elfin]

Nope, nothing competing with it... none of those appliances are running, nor are any of them within 50 feet of the stove's location...

 

[madison]

If you crack the T5 door open, and you still don't have a draft, I believe that would rule out the T5 inlet as the issue. Crack the stove door and a window/door of the house to rule out the "house" as the problem. Leaving the stove pipe/chimney system as the issue.

My 2 cents.

 

[Elfin]

Mystery seemingly solved... we've got creosote. Finally got up onto the roof and the spark arrestor is ALREADY very clogged... which has me very concerned as this is a new stove installation, new stovepipe and we've only burned dry, seasoned wood for one month. Being long-time burners (though this is our first EPA stove) the only thing I can imagine we are doing wrong is burning our fires too small.

Or, that there is there possibly something wrong with our installation?

 

[Joey Jones]

Check the spark arrestor screen on the chimney cap

 

[rwilson]

Mystery seemingly solved... we've got creosote. Finally got up onto the roof and the spark arrestor is ALREADY very clogged... which has me very concerned as this is a new stove installation, new stovepipe and we've only burned dry, seasoned wood for one month. Being long-time burners (though this is our first EPA stove) the only thing I can imagine we are doing wrong is burning our fires too small.

Or, that there is there possibly something wrong with our installation?

Are you able to take any pictures of the pipe and show us the creosote buildup? I'm a newbie, and would like to see what bad creosote build-up really looks like... I've seen pictures online, but those cases seem extreme!

Glad to see you've got this problem solved. Why the creosote is building up so quickly presents a new problem though. Good luck!

 

[Elfin]

Well, darn it, we didn't take any pics! Sorry about that... basically inside the spark arrestor/chimney cap is a screen... like 1/2" hardware cloth. And the 1/2" holes were nearly clogged with black stuff...

We never had creosote with our old smoke dragon... now with this new EPA we do, so there obviously is an issue we've got to address. No more small fires is our new rule for starters!

What I'm really happy about is that this stove normally burns so clean, that when something is wrong, you know it immediately! It was like night and day, the difference.

 

[myzamboni]

Your not burning hot enough.

 

[Elfin]

Thus our new rule

Interestingly enough, our glass has been staying clean.

 

[cmonSTART]

Small fires are fine as long as you burn them hot.

 

[Elfin]

We do burn them hot (we thought) and clean (we thought)... that's what's so perplexing...

 

[kevin fitzsimmons]

We had some wildlife take up residence in the chimney in the early spring. Only problem (for them at least) was one cool day and we were back burning. About 10 seconds after lighting the paper and kindling we heard scratch scratch scratch scratch thump. a flicker had tired to get out, but ended up on the baffle. We looked at the old spark screen and it had a hole in it, so we replaced the screen with a length of expanded metal rolled to fit. I am not sure how this differed from the old screen. perhaps it had smaller mesh, or sharper edges that the ash could cling to, but within a week or so the fire would not draw and like your issue, when the door was opened the smoke rolled out. So the screen is out and we are running fine now. The chimney wasn’t plugged with creosote but the screen was the issue. Do you have much build in the chimney, and can you run without a spark screen?

 

[Elfin]

The chimney is too tall for us to get into... we'll have to get a sweep here to take a good look at it. Your idea is a good one, but we do have a lot of wildlife here... bats for one (and we have a ton of them around in our big trees) could certainly get thru the slots in the arrestor if the screen were removed.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this and the problem you had with the screen. If we don't have a lot of build up in the chimney, we will probably have to look at a change of some sort to the spark arrestor...

 

[cmonSTART]

Heh, well two years ago I used a pellet gun to clean my spark arrestor. It was plugged and everything was covered with ice and snow. There was no way I was going up on the roof so I chose a good sniper spot in an unused apartment attached to our house and about a half hour later, the screen was free enough to do the job. NOT something I plan on doing again and NOT something I recommend anyone else try.

 

[Elfin]

Ha ha... that's a good story! don't worry, I won't try it

 

[BrotherBart]

Heh, well two years ago I used a pellet gun to clean my spark arrestor. It was plugged and everything was covered with ice and snow. There was no way I was going up on the roof so I chose a good sniper spot in an unused apartment attached to our house and about a half hour later, the screen was free enough to do the job. NOT something I plan on doing again and NOT something I recommend anyone else try.

A 12 gauge is quicker. :lol:

 

[Hogwildz]

one of two reasons:
Not burning hot enough,
or wood is not as dry as you think.
Or both.

 

[begreen]

I have to agree. My cap has the same 1/2" screening. It's staying clean going on its third season. 1 3/4 seasons were with the Castine which ran with relatively cool flue temps. So it appears to be either the wood or a very cool stack. What is the flue system connected to this stove? Inside or outside chimney?