Smoke smell from woodstove
EricGunnerson
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I have a woodstove in my cabin that’s giving off a slight wood smell, and I’m wondering if there’s any way to reduce it. I expect to get some smell when I open the door, but there appears to be some escaping the rest of the time as well.
The stove is a Country comfort with outside combustion air, and a double-wall chimney running about 20′ up to the roof. There appear to be some small gaps between sections of the chimney.
Replies
Even in the best of installations, you will get some small amt of smoke and smell when burning wood but here are the things I can think of to reduce it to a minimum.
> Keep the flue clean. Anything that reduces the draft will result in more smoke in the house. This includes not only creosote build up, but angles in the pipe installation, tooo short of a flue, exterior obstructions near the top, and low pressure systems fronting a storm.
height oin yours sounds good - should always be at least fifteen feet and two feet higher than ridge of house or three feet higher than any point within ten feet of the cap. if you live near bottom of a slope in lee of the hill or trees, this can cause downdraft conditions too.
> you exterior air intake should be providing enough makeup air to let it breathe without choking and swallowing it's own smoke, but be sure that then intake vent is clean and operating correctly too. This aor probably runs thru a preheat baffle in the stove that could be clogged with ashes.
> use refractory furnace cement on any joints in the interior pipe. This not only helps prevent it from leaking smoke into the house, but also reduces creosote buildup because if cool house air enters the flue pipe it cools the exhaust gases to precipitate tar condensate on the metal lining. This happens around 450 - 475°F. A hot chimney will never collect anything more than soot.
> Finally, check whether you have a (dang, my mind just went blank. Brain farts like that happen to us older guys. ) one of those ceramic discs in the exhaust port of the stove to reignite the gasses. Catalytic converter! That's it. Whew! brain back in gear here.
So anyway, if you have one, you may need to clean it or replace it. Your stove has instrucins for that or you should be able to dopwnload online from the makers site.
One more thing - burn dry wood
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