My wood burning stove blows smoke into the house not out what do I do?
Question by star8u: My wood burning stove blows smoke into the house not out what do I do?
We have checked the floo and that is fine. We have checked the area where it bends to the stove itself and that is fine. What else do we need to check? Please I hope someone knows we dont want to hire someone to over charge us for something that we can do ourselves. Thank you ahead of time…..
Ok so I cant believe all the answers I’m getting. The chimney goes up to the roof, the stove is in my basement and I have a working fireplace in the upstairs. The floo is about 2 feet from the stove itself. You turn it to allow the smoke to go up. When turned it we light a fire and smoke doesnt go up.
Best answer:
Answer by up y
Make SURE your flue is open all the way out the cap. Make SURE your damper is open. Build a small fire until the flue is well heated. Hot air rises and will help the draft. Make sure the top of the flue is above the roofline. You could be getting backdraft instead of draft.
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January 13th, 2012 at 1:38 am
check the exhaust pipe from where it exits the house. after you make sure the whole pipe is clear, make sure you heat the pipe up to prime it. light some newspaper and stick it up the pipe until the fire and smoke goes up the pipe.
January 13th, 2012 at 2:22 am
Didja open the damper?
Was it a windy day?
January 13th, 2012 at 2:31 am
You need so sweep your chimney or have it swept with a special brush (called a chimney sweep LOL).
January 13th, 2012 at 2:54 am
your chimney may not extend out the roof far enough and you’re getting a draft that’s blowing back down it. your chimney should extend higher than the peak of the roof it goes through.
January 13th, 2012 at 3:52 am
If you have checked the chimney and the “flue” the only thing left in my opinion is to make sure there is a draft coming from the bottom of the stove. It has to draw air from somewhere. Are you sure you don’t have a broken flue pipe somewhere in the chimney, or that there is no bird nest clogging up the top of the chimney/.
Don’t take any chances with this, you might wind up dead from carbon monoxide, which is oderless and colorless, yet it can kill you dead. This not something to fool around with. Contact an expert or your fire department.
January 13th, 2012 at 4:19 am
for every fire you need fresh air to feed the fire. If your house is closed tight you will not have a proper draft nbo matter how roaring you make the fire. crack a window near your wood burner and see if it starts to draft- if not- you have a venting problem. wood stoves cannot be side vented out of a house
they have to be vertical and should extend 2 foot above the roof or eave.
January 13th, 2012 at 4:49 am
The only reason the stove blows back into the house is the pressure of the house is less that it is in the stove. This is rather easily fixed.
You have to raise the flue (chimney) to a point where it is higher than the house. It can’t (according to the chimney people) have anything around it that is not at least 4 feet lower (this can be adjusted when you add a little by little until you have the draw up the chimney that will take all the smoke up the the flue).
The problem is that you’re flue is not long enough to draw the hot air (smoke) up it and to the outside. Hot air will rise, and the smoke will rise if you get enough “draw” in the flue (chimney).
January 13th, 2012 at 5:02 am
chimney may not be high enough, best to have the whole system checked by a reputable sweep.
January 13th, 2012 at 5:34 am
This will happen if your chimney runs on an outside wall. What happens is the cold air is in your chimney and must be pushed out to allow the chimney to get a good draw, once your chimney is warmed up you should be fine if its not blocked and it is high enough. You should be operating this stove out of its own flue too! 1st when you go to light your stove take a couple pieces of newspaper and wad it up loose and put in the firebox, light it and leave the door on the stove opened about an inch, that fire outta take off like a freight train up that chimney, you should now have that cold air out of the flue and start your wood fire the same way! good luck.
January 13th, 2012 at 5:59 am
check the inside of the fire box, there may be a crack in it letting smoke into the heat exchanger
January 13th, 2012 at 6:00 am
You might want to hook up a blower fan above the wood burning stove. This will make the smoke get sucked out. But be for you go though all that work, 1.) check the damper on the side stack; You could try opening it more. THEN, 2.) Check the air flow vent in the front of the wood stove, and close it less than the damper on the side stack. The purpose of this is to create a flow for the smoke to go. Smoke will fill up a room from top to bottom. BE SAFE when it comes to playing with fire. 3.) Don’t forget to close the door once you have your fire stated. 4.) You could also see if the chimney may have a blocked. It possible you might have to clean your chimney stack! There are many things that could slow the air flow down like raccoon’s, squeal’s, bird’s, and other such things like sooth on the inside of the walls in the chimney stack. I hope this might answer your question with your wood burning stove. GOOD LUCK AND BE SAFE!!
January 13th, 2012 at 6:10 am
A couple of other things to check.
1-If the flue pipe is long and the air temperature is cold, the dense cold air in the flue is preventing it from drafting or,
2-There is a fan that is exhausting to the outside(bath-fan, range hood, dryer, or hvac duct loose, this will create a negitive pressure in the home allowing air to come down the flue.
January 13th, 2012 at 7:02 am
if all the answers did not help you and you have tried all the other peoples advise i would check the seals on the stove you did not say what type of stove it is example solid steel welded or a cast stove is it a air tight model if all else failed the you most liley will have to reseal the stove as it is drawing air from somewhere else and you do not have a good seal on the joint of the stove if it is a cast stove and is put toghether in panels is a easy fix also where is the smoke coming from the door where you put the wood into or is it coming from somewhere else I would need more info as to what type of stove it is I think some of the answers maybe over looked this question as with there answers as to you knowing how to work your stove good luck