Whitfield Advantage II pumping noxious fumes into the house

[Chrissi]

We have a 1992 Whitfield Advantage II insert. The hubby is very diligent about cleaning and maintenance. In the last 17 years, he's replaced an auger motor and fan. Other than that, the thing has been exceptional....until now. The first five weeks of the season, the stove worked great. Gradually, over a couple of days, we starting getting a bad smell from it. The hubby recaulked and retaped the joints/cap on the T. The smell just seemed to get worse. We stopped burning and called the repairman. 3 visits and an $860 bill later, the thing is still putting out fumes that give us headaches and we can't us it.

The first trip from the repairman, he thought that there might be exhaust fumes escaping from the combustion housing so, he replaced that. He also replaced the blower motor that was starting to go and found a small hole in the flex pipe a few inches above the T. The hubby siliconed/taped the hole. The new combustion housing didn't help. If anything, the smell got worse.

The second trip the repairman brought the "sniffer" and found multiple places along the flex pipe that registered exhaust leaks. Which lead to the third trip where they pulled and replaced all 25 feet of flexpipe and resealed/insulated the cap at the top of the chimney.

We waited two days to let the silicone cure and then fired it up. We still get the fumes. We have run the stove several times over the last couple of days.
We even ran the stove on high for 7 hours with the windows open and the whole house fan running to vent the fumes to try and burn off everything. No luck.

The fumes we are getting smell like a chemical. They do not smell like burning pellets or the exhaust that comes out the chimney. Our carbon monoxide detector is not registering any CO, even when I hold it in front of the stove. We're burning Golden Fire pellets which is what we have always burned.

Before my husband goes balistic when he calls the repairman yet again on Monday, does anybody have any ideas what could be causing this?

 

[charles u farley]

Got little kids? Maybe a melted toy in the distribution air passages?

 

[Mr Whitfield]

I would look hard myself to find the answer, It has to be something your missing. I would not have a repair person come out anymore. Look for the normal things , it must be something simble. Your stove is pretty basic. Look outside the box!

 

[Chrissi]

Yes, we've checked the heat tubes, numerous times. Nothing there. (That was one of our inital thoughts too.)

As far as the reply: "it must be something simple. Your stove is pretty basic. Look outside the box! " If it was so simple, we would have found it already. We do have 17 years experience with this stove.

Here is the scenario:
We fire up the stove. The first 10 minutes, we may get a very slight odor, not much. After that, the odor starts to get very strong (because the stove has heated up???) The higher (hotter) we run the stove, the more fumes we get. So, that would indicate that the fumes are generated by something heating up.

Facts: The stove is an insert in a zero clearance fireplace. The vent to let in outside air is open - which it always has been. There were no fumes the first five weeks of the season, then over about 3 - 4 weeks we started getting fumes which kept increasing to the point that we can no longer use the stove.

All joints on the tee were siliconed, left to cure, then wrapped with tape. What has changed now, is that when we tape the joints, the fumes get worse. If we leave the tape off the joints (where the tee connects into the back of the stove and where it connects into the flex pipe coming down the chimney) the fumes aren't as bad, but still bad. The tape we pull off reeks with the silicone smell - which is also the smell we are getting in the house. The silicone and tape that are used are the same products we've used for 17 years and the exact same brand/version/heat tolerance that the pellet stove dealers sell - in fact that's where we got the products.

So, I'm guessing that these fumes have always been generated by the stove but until recently, have not been pulled in thru the heat exchange. So, why all of a sudden now? The outside vent is open and not blocked - checked that. Is there someplace where a hole could have developed so that now fumes that may be generated behind the stove are being pulled thru the heat exchange?

 

[daydreamer]

Maybe a hole has rusted through somewhere you cannot see internally? You did say it was a 1992 insert?

 

[Pellet-King]

Has the stove been completly cleaned inside?, removed fire bricks, if the exhaust has been changed then i guess it has?

 

[Arnold]

We have a 1992 Whitfield Advantage II insert. The hubby is very diligent about cleaning and maintenance. In the last 17 years, he's replaced an auger motor and fan. Other than that, the thing has been exceptional....until now. The first five weeks of the season, the stove worked great. Gradually, over a couple of days, we starting getting a bad smell from it. The hubby recaulked and retaped the joints/cap on the T. The smell just seemed to get worse. We stopped burning and called the repairman. 3 visits and an $860 bill later, the thing is still putting out fumes that give us headaches and we can't us it.

The first trip from the repairman, he thought that there might be exhaust fumes escaping from the combustion housing so, he replaced that. He also replaced the blower motor that was starting to go and found a small hole in the flex pipe a few inches above the T. The hubby siliconed/taped the hole. The new combustion housing didn't help. If anything, the smell got worse.

The second trip the repairman brought the "sniffer" and found multiple places along the flex pipe that registered exhaust leaks. Which lead to the third trip where they pulled and replaced all 25 feet of flexpipe and resealed/insulated the cap at the top of the chimney.

We waited two days to let the silicone cure and then fired it up. We still get the fumes. We have run the stove several times over the last couple of days.
We even ran the stove on high for 7 hours with the windows open and the whole house fan running to vent the fumes to try and burn off everything. No luck.

The fumes we are getting smell like a chemical. They do not smell like burning pellets or the exhaust that comes out the chimney. Our carbon monoxide detector is not registering any CO, even when I hold it in front of the stove. We're burning Golden Fire pellets which is what we have always burned.

Before my husband goes balistic when he calls the repairman yet again on Monday, does anybody have any ideas what could be causing this?

What about your convection blower motor ? It could be going bad & once you've run the insert awhile the windings in the motor are getting hot & burning the insulation off the internal windings of the motor. This would send the smell directly into your living area, since since this fan circulates room air thru the stoves heat exchanger. Burnt wiring smells really bad & might be the cause.

Good luck

Tom in Oh

 

[Pellet-King]

We have a 1992 Whitfield Advantage II insert. The hubby is very diligent about cleaning and maintenance. In the last 17 years, he's replaced an auger motor and fan. Other than that, the thing has been exceptional....until now. The first five weeks of the season, the stove worked great. Gradually, over a couple of days, we starting getting a bad smell from it. The hubby recaulked and retaped the joints/cap on the T. The smell just seemed to get worse. We stopped burning and called the repairman. 3 visits and an $860 bill later, the thing is still putting out fumes that give us headaches and we can't us it.

The first trip from the repairman, he thought that there might be exhaust fumes escaping from the combustion housing so, he replaced that. He also replaced the blower motor that was starting to go and found a small hole in the flex pipe a few inches above the T. The hubby siliconed/taped the hole. The new combustion housing didn't help. If anything, the smell got worse.

The second trip the repairman brought the "sniffer" and found multiple places along the flex pipe that registered exhaust leaks. Which lead to the third trip where they pulled and replaced all 25 feet of flexpipe and resealed/insulated the cap at the top of the chimney.

We waited two days to let the silicone cure and then fired it up. We still get the fumes. We have run the stove several times over the last couple of days.
We even ran the stove on high for 7 hours with the windows open and the whole house fan running to vent the fumes to try and burn off everything. No luck.

The fumes we are getting smell like a chemical. They do not smell like burning pellets or the exhaust that comes out the chimney. Our carbon monoxide detector is not registering any CO, even when I hold it in front of the stove. We're burning Golden Fire pellets which is what we have always burned.

Before my husband goes balistic when he calls the repairman yet again on Monday, does anybody have any ideas what could be causing this?

What about your convection blower motor ? It could be going bad & once you've run the insert awhile the windings in the motor are getting hot & burning the insulation off the internal windings of the motor. This would send the smell directly into your living area, since since this fan circulates room air thru the stoves heat exchanger. Burnt wiring smells really bad & might be the cause.

Good luck

Tom in Oh

Thinking the same thing this morning while at work, imagine i'm thinking about somebody elses problem 3000 miles away, deff look at the convection blower to the right rear of the stove, make sure your "squirrel" cage is clean, mine was filled with 10 yrs of dust and crap, cleaned it first time this fall.

 

[WoodPorn]

Dead mouse or something in the convection airway???

 

[Panhandler]

Tape heat rating not high enough?