unbearable smell

[elen papa]

Hello everybody ,

We rented a flat last year with a wood stove included.We've operated it some 7-8 times and everything went great.
We had no problems and we fell in love with its effect.

Only a month ago after we bought new wood the stove gave us hard times.
After being operated for 2 hours maximum it produces an unbearable stench so much that we feel like suffocating.
it smells like sth chemical being burnt...could it be creasote..?

Today we had our chimney cleaned.Unfortunately that wasnt it!
Could anybody give me a hint what that terrible smell could be? I suspect it's from the new wood we bought..

Thanks from the heart in advance!

 

[karri0n]

Creosote would smell tasty and barbecuey. It always makes me hungry.

What is this new wood you bought? If it is store-bought firewood, it's probably not from the wood, but you are probably burning good wood for the first time and really got the stove cooking. The paint on the stove won't cure until it gets a REALLY good burn, and once it does that a couple times, won't make the smell any more. The smell of this is really quite awful.

The other possibility is there is something combustible near the woodstove or the chimney flue. You should check all around the stove and flue and make sure you arent burning anything plasticky/varnishy/chemically.

 

[elen papa]

Thank you so much for the fast reply.

This new wood we bought is mixed pine and beech tree wood.We bought from a local trader who brought the logs from the countryside.
The logs we used before these ones where the left overs of the tenants and were bought in a different trader.

What is interesting in our story is that this stove is not new.The previous tenants have been using it for a whole winter before us.
and there is nth burning close to it... and we have already used the new wood 5 times already.And always the same smell after two hours.
This thing feels like getting stuck in our thoats ..

 

[SteveT]

Are you checking the stove temperatures, and if so, are the fires with the new wood significantly hotter? As KarriOn said, it sounds like the stove is still cooking off some chemicals. The fact that a prior tenant used the stove for a season doesn't necessarily mean that they ran it often enough or hot enough to cook of the oils and cure the paint. In other words they could have had a few small fires and never completed the curing.

The stench in curing a stove can be awful. For that reason most people try to do it outside before the installation or inside when the weather is such that you can leave windows open. The good news is that it only takes a few hot fires to cook everything off and there will be no recurrence.

You now know that you have a clean flue so a hot fire isn't risky. Run the stove hot (but within the manufacturers limits), keep some windows open and a fan moving the air outside. The problem should self-correct in a burn or two.

Good luck.... keep us posted.

 

[Custerstove]

Sounds like you're getting smoke inside the house. It could be a small leak or poor draft - how tall is your chimney? You might consider checking the seal on the stove door. There is a simple test using a dollar bill or (paper Euro?). Basically, you close the stove door (when cold) on a dollar bill to see if the bill can be pulled out. If the bill can be easily pulled thru then you know the seal isn't very good. If that's the case, it's possible to replace the seal - usually looks like a piece of rope.

Also check that the stove surfaces are clean or else something could be burning - like spilled juice or layers of dust.

 

[Beanscoot]

When running the stove, it should try to suck in room air to replace what goes up the chimney. If you open the stove door a little, air should get pulled in vs smoke coming out.

Try leaving a window a small bit open next time you use the stove. If this cures the problem, it indicates that the chimney is not venting properly, resulting in smoke escaping into the room.

 

[elen papa]

Thank you all!
I am amazed how fast it goes in the forum!
I come up with some points from your querries:

1.I dont know how much the previous tenants used it but rather a lot I would say coz they showed us their bill of electricity and it was really low..

2. We've used it quite a lot too.About 20 times in total I would say.

3. When we open the stove door there is no smell.Not any unpleasant anyway.Just the wood smell.

4. The flue is about 1,30 metre tall I would say..max 1,50.The smell comes from there.From the area of flue

5.Indeed I opened a little bit the window and was slightly improved.But takes all our good heat away

 

[SlyFerret]

It sounds to me like the paint curing smell.

I burned my stove the last half of last year, and even half way though this year, I still get a little bit of the smell from the black stovepipe on a reload. It seems to me that since the black pipe doesn't get as hot as the stove itself, it takes longer to cook the oils out of the paint.

Another possibility... Did you by any chance clean the stove with anything that might leave behind oils during the off-season?

-SF

 

[karri0n]

If the smell is coming from the stove pipe, I would just go ahead and replace it, then burn a HOT HOT fire to cure the new pipe. There could be something that spilled on the pipe, the pipe not might be rated for the temps, or it might just not be curing properly. Stove pipe is fairly cheap, and it would be an easy fix if it got rid of the smell.

 

[LLigetfa]

Creosote would smell tasty and barbecuey...

Depends on the wood. Creosote can smell like railroad ties.

 

[Chettt]

Elena is the new wood heavier than what you burnt last season? If so it may be really wet and will not burn good and hot which is a bad thing. Before I forget, do you have a carbon monoxide detector?

I would try some scrap wood, pieces leftover from a wood shop will burn very hot and then see if you detect the smell.

One last thought, do you have any appliances that pull air in from outside that could be bringing the smoke inside?

Let us know how you solve this.

 

[lecomte38]

You could go down to the local grocery store and pick up a bundle of different wood and see if it makes a difference. or borrow an arm load from a friend.

 

[Custerstove]

Elena, you mentioned the flue pipe was about 1.5 meters - I assume you mean the pipe inside the home. How tall is the entire chimney? Measure the height from the stove to the very top of the chimney outside. Sometimes a short chimney does not draft very well and that can lead to a smokey stove. A typical stove requires at least 12 ft (4 meters) or more for the entire chimney. Also the chimney should be taller than the highest point on the roof for the best draft conditions.

I also suspect that your new wood is not seasoned long enough. Wood can sometimes take several months or even a year to dry into properly seasoned wood.

 

[Yamaha_gurl]

When my stove heats up very fast it smells a little, when it's going close to the overfire zone on the temp. So when I level it out with the air control, the smell goes away. How much are you feeding your stove? I would suggest a thermometer.

 

[bokehman]

Have you done any painting in the stove room since last winter (like painting the ceiling for example)?

 

[homebrewz]

You could go down to the local grocery store and pick up a bundle of different wood and see if it makes a difference. or borrow an arm load from a friend.

just remember to remove the plastic wrapping first..

I agree with the last several posts.. it sounds like the next thing to try is some good, dry wood from another source.

 

[Jags]

Yes, by all means, try another source of wood. Could you fill us in on what stove you are running? I do not burn the variety of wood that you have but have noticed that some species of wood, when burned in an epa stove gives an exhaust smell that is "odd", but not all wood does it.

Is it possible that you are burning a different variety of wood than you were previously. Does it have an acidic or "factory" type smell?

 

[Hogwildz]

Is any parts of the flue piping concealed? Any chance an animal found its way into that concealed area around the pipe & died?
Maybe your suffering from roasted animal corpse?

 

[Beanscoot]

If the stove is drafting properly it won't matter how smelly the firewood (or trash, etc.) being burned is. All the smoke will go outside. From what Elena has said, I assume the noxious smell is not the woodsmoke.

Maybe the previous renters repainted the pipe and/or stove as part of their cleanup when they left.

 

[BrotherBart]

If the stove is drafting properly it won't matter how smelly the firewood (or trash, etc.) being burned is. All the smoke will go outside. From what Elena has said, I assume the noxious smell is not the woodsmoke.

Amen brutha.

 

[littlesmokey]

My suggestion is to check for air leaks in the flue. If it passes through the ceiling, make sure there is no close contact with anything combustible. You said the chimney was swept, it is possible one of the connecting joints is loose, letting air in the exhaust stream. Generally pine and beech are pleasant smelling, but if it is "punky", rotten or green, or a close to beech, but a copycat, you may be getting the smell associated with our US poplar. Check that you are using very dry wood and burn it a little hotter, don't damp down as much. Sounds like more of an incomplete combustion. On that rare nice day, give the stove a good cleaning and check with a flashlight for cracks or leaks in seams.

 

[firefighterjake]

Hello everybody ,

We rented a flat last year with a wood stove included.We've operated it some 7-8 times and everything went great.
We had no problems and we fell in love with its effect.

Only a month ago after we bought new wood the stove gave us hard times.
After being operated for 2 hours maximum it produces an unbearable stench so much that we feel like suffocating.
it smells like sth chemical being burnt...could it be creasote..?

Today we had our chimney cleaned.Unfortunately that wasnt it!
Could anybody give me a hint what that terrible smell could be? I suspect it's from the new wood we bought..

Thanks from the heart in advance!

As others have said I too would guess it is the paint curing from the stove pipe and not an issue with the wood since a properly drafting stove should result in little to no smell in the living area . . . that and your description of it being a chemical-like smell would make me lean towards thinking that either the stove is really getting heated up for the first time in a long time or as others have mentioned the pipe or stove was repainted or some other substance (paint from painting the room, cleaning materials, etc.) has come in contact with the stove and/or paint.

As mentioned . . . new stoves and new stove pipe typically has an acrid, chemical-liike smell when folks burn in their woodstoves for the first time . . . and this smell often will continue as the stove and pipe reaches progressively higher temps (i.e. the first time I brought my stove to 200 degrees per the break-in specs and there was a smell . . . and when I brought the stove up to 300 degrees for the second break-in fire there the smell returned). The paint curing and some residual oils from the manufacturing process may cause this chemical like smell . . . which as I said typically goes away in time with continued burning until a new, higher temperature is reached.

 

[Jags]

4. The flue is about 1,30 metre tall I would say..max 1,50.The smell comes from there.From the area of flue

Could you expand on this a little. As was contested above, is the smell coming from the exhaust of the flue, and getting back indoors somehow or the flue (sides) itself?

 

[donatello]

Sorry to gross everybody out, but maybe some wise-arse PEE'd on your wood. Even after it dries, it stinks when burned. Found this out at camp years ago.

 

[firefighterjake]

Sorry to gross everybody out, but maybe some wise-arse PEE'd on your wood. Even after it dries, it stinks when burned. Found this out at camp years ago.

Lord (and Craig) forgive me for this one, but . . . maybe someone was just trying to clean off the glass front of the woodstove and had bad aim.