wood stove beginner

[tbooth]

bought a home with an inset Hearth Mate woodstove in the basement. We called a pro to come pull it out and clean it out, there was 25 gallons of creasole that they removed from the back end of it. The pipe on the back was completely missing. I went to Home Depot and got all my parts and put them together and I thought all was good. Evertime I want to start a fire there is soo much airflow comming down from the outside I end up creating a very smokey house most of the time before I can get it running ok.

Any suggestions on starting a fire without all of the fire alarms going off?

Also, should there be some kind of seal around the door? There's not one now but theres no groove where one might sit it just smooth..anyway when this begins to smoke I tried to shut the door but smoke will continue to roll out around the door.

Many Thanks in Advance.

 

[GVA]

Some light reading here for you. This was a recent post on a similar subject.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/5052/

 

[GVA]

And more.............
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/4088/

 

[stoveomatic]

Where to start....are you going into a masonry chimney or do you have a flue liner? If using a liner do you have insulation around to keep air from comming back down. You said that there is no area for a gasket for the door, is it smooth on the stove face? If so look on the inside of the door for a groove, generally we use a fiberglass gasket for this application; either a round braided of flat braided depending on the the style and year of the stove, these come in a variety of sizes and density.

Do you have a model number off of the stove, it may help with finding the right parts.

 

[elkimmeg]

I think what he has is one of those 70' old cresote poluting beast stoves
The ones without gaskets. Where it is very hard to get a controled burn and hard to opperate it, without constant babysitting it.

He is damn lucky to be posting here with that much cresote sitting in his chimney. Man if that touched off it would have fueled quite a chimney fire.
Or it created so much blockage, he is lucky not to have exphiciated himself. It is my suggestion, while you still are among the living, not to opperate that stove.
Second, I think it prudent ,to replace that death box, with something more modern