Wind Noise from new Avalon Rainier insert

[pvca]

Just found this site a few days ago, and really appreciate its information and expert advice.

This is our first experience with a wood stove, which we finally bought to plug up the inefficient pre-fab fireplace in our living room. Our dealer did a site inspection of our home, and recommended the Avalon Rainier insert, which he said could heat our entire house, and definitely would keep the living room toasty (where we spend most of our time). Our house is a newer insulated 1700 sq. ft. home with dual pane windows and 10 foot ceilings. Although we have no previous experience to compare by, this Avalon Rainier insert does not seem to be heating our house as we expected.

We've followed our dealer's instructions on how to build a fire, and start with small kindling and some pallet wood pieces to get the stove hot, then add some splits of seasoned oak when there is a bed of coals (after about a half hour) to get a roaring fire going. However we keep having to add more oak and kindling every half-hour to an hour to keep a flame going, or else the oak just turns glowing red with no flame. It seems to take a while to get any rise in temperature in the living room where the stove is. The living room temperature starts at 59 degrees, and it takes over 3 hours to get even a 4-degree rise in temperature, to 63. Yesterday we had the stove going good for most of the day, but it took about 6 hours for the the living room to finally reach 67, and never got any warmer. We have the living room ceiling fan on low speed to circulate the air, but the rest of the house does not even get warm, and perhaps only increases a couple degrees at most (brr!). We’re considering getting a blower, to see if that might help push the hot air into the room and the rest of the house.

However, since the stove was installed, we've always been hearing a low wooshing noise coming from the firebox, but we just figured that it was a natural convection noise of the fire. Today it has been rather windy and stormy, and the wind noise coming from the firebox is louder - almost like a howling wind noise. When we open the stove door, the noise stops. Is it possible that there is an air leak in the door seal? We feel that we are burning a lot of wood (almost the same as we did in our open fireplace before), and we are getting a lot more ash than our dealer told us we would (we have to clean it out every couple of days).

We appreciate any suggestions or advice, since we are complete newbies at heating with a wood stove. Thank you for your help.

 

[Robbie]

You are going to have to get a blower. There is simply no way around this unless you use small fans etc. The description you give sounds like an air leak but you should notice high temps and dirty glass.

Your stove will not heat your whole house without a blower, I don't know why the dealer did not know this or tell you. It can not heat back rooms without air movement............

I have an Avalon with a blower and it heats a 1850 sq ft easily. Average temps downstairs are 76 to 78. Upstairs is about the same thanks to the blower.

As the others said, check for air leaks with a dollar around door.

Are you loading the stove with several splits ?

What is the condition of your wood ? Very dry ?

You also described a very strong draft by the swooshing sounds............some whistle with a strong draft and burns up dry wood very fast............your heat may be being sucked up the chimney before it has time to heat the fire box.

I just re read your post and it sounds like an extremly strong draft............eating your wood up......maybe in conjunction with an air leak.

Sometimes, my stove will whistle at the air intake under the stove where the damper air is sucked in, not often but I have heard it.

Don't get discouraged, the blower will work wonders for you and all it seems to need is fine tuning and you will be happy with your stove.


Robbie

 

[jtp10181]

Definitely sounds like an air leak someplace. Could be on the door seal. Put a dollar in the door seal at various places and see how easily it slides out. There should be some resistance if the seal is good.

Have you noticed any control of the fire when using the air controls. With all air controls shut the flames should get noticeably less active or almost go out. If you cannot control the fire then that also would point to an air leak.

 

[marky_mark896]

My lopi makes the sounds you are describing, especially during a high wind time which we have a lot of in Toledo area. I don't think there is anything unusual about it though. Mom and dad's old Libby insert used to do that as well. Control of the fire is not affected.

Maybe someone can give you a link to the Canadian video where they show how to start a fire and control it. Are you sure your air is completely on and leave your door cracked until the wood is charred good? Do the flames only quit after all the gases are burned out of the wood and you just have coals? You should get a Rutland magnetic thermometer to mount on your insert so you can monitor temperature. The flames stop on my oak when it's turned to coals, but the coals continue to keep the stove at 450-500*F for quite a while. That is an important portion of heat, and you want to let that finish out before reloading. Reloading all the time stops the stove from heating up well, because it's always using heat to warm new wood, burn off moisture, etc....

 

[webbie]

We've had some whisting avalons that were solved by closing off a bit of the secondary air intakes (they used to be visible, not sure any longer).

 

[pvca]

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions and advice. We tried the dollar bill test, and it does slide out around the upper corner above the handle. We're going to talk to our dealer this week about the problem. Thanks again!

 

[yukiginger]

I don't know if a small air leak could cause your problem. You give no information on how you are controlling air intake. The more air you are allowing, the faster the burn, and some would say, the more heat you are sending up the chimney.

First, as someone mentioned earlier, you definitely need a blower. I don't know how dealers sell inserts without strongly recommending the blower, unless their customers are more interested in appearance than heat output. You absolutely need it with an insert.

Second, to get good heat output you need to load up that unit. Get a good bed of coals established, then pack the wood in. Managing the air intakes, get the flames burning good until the wood is charred black. You should feel some good radiant output from the front by that point. Then begin closing your air down until you manage a nice, slow flame. The startup burning should have gotten the unit fairly hot. Now you're trying to maintain a good, steady, hot burn.

MarkG

 

[pvca]

Just a follow-up to let you all know that we had a blower installed and the door gasket replaced. There is no more wind noise and the stove is actually heating up the house by 10 degrees or more in about 2 hours. The blower has made a significant difference. Thank you to everyone who responded to our post.

 

[yukiginger]

Great to hear! Thanks for the update.

MarkG

 

[SlyFerret]

I'm really amazed that the dealer didn't make sure you purchased the blower in the first place.

I'm glad to hear it's working properly now.

I'm burning a freestanding stove not an insert, but... I've been struggling a bit with the oak that I am burning too. It takes a while to really get it going. From what I've read, part of that is just the nature of oak, but my wood is also not fully seasoned, so it's more difficult to get it to really take off. Once I get a good coal bed established, it seems to run just fine, but getting that far takes some babysitting and some time.

-SF

 

[Robbie]

This is great news.

There is somehow a method to all this. I have found that until you get your furniture, walls, and everything else in your house up to a certain temp. then all the above simply acts like ice in a cooler.

I don't think you can get furniture warm as fast without warm air circulating around and under it. And you can not do this without a blower or a fan of some type.

Once you get the furniture warm, then it makes a huge difference. It is harder than people realize to get the underneath sides of furniture and sheet rock walls up in the 70s......then you have a chance to stay warmer with wood stoves I think.



Robbie

 

[They Call Me Pete]

I get the wind noise with my Rainer but that's just the air going through the intake. I sometimes wonder if I have too much draft but stove works fine and gives relatively long burn for a small firebox.