wood burner - horrible smell

vixen1500

Hiya there,

We have a yeoman wood-burning stove and have had a couple of problems with it

1) tends to fill the room with smoke when first lit (depending we think on the air pressure outside.)

2) the following morning and for days after there is a really horrible smell through out the house.

The smoke we can clear by opening the windows - though this is not ideal as it makes the house freezing.

But the smell is ugh and takes so long to clear

Anyone got any ideas as to why and how to deal with these problems

Thanks

suki1964

You dont have enough draw on the chimney if its smoking and letting smoke in the room

When was it last swept? How long have you had the stove? Do you have an air vent in the room ?

Oh I find burning a smelly candle helps clear that smoked house smell

grahamc2003

I think it's potentially quite serious - you don't want to breath too much smoke, and watch out for carbon monoxide too. If you aren't confident enough with what's happening, I'd certainly get a chimney sweep to have a look (and a clean if it hasn't been for a while).

We used to sometimes (rarely) get a strange acidic smell when we had an open fire, before I fiited our stove. I'm sure it was when there was a downdraft when the outside was warmer than the inside of the room (usually happened in summer). I think it is just the smell of the soot and tar in the chimney. With a stove, you shouldn't ever get a downdraft, or any exhaust gases in the room (and it's potentially dangerous if you do, hence why regs say you have to have a lined chimney these days).

I'm sure spending £60 having your chimney swept and quizzing the sweep (or flueologist I think they're now called) would be money well spent.

anotherbaldrick

You are right it is air pressure. The term the trade use is that the room is in "Decompression" . this may be due to the design or location of the chimney or atmospheric conditions (temperature inversion) or a combination of both , once the fire is going the flue starts drawing and with the hot air rising the problem stops.
Our solution (we get the problem occasionally) is to keep a close watch on the fire during the initial light up stage say 5 mins, and if we see the smoke is not drawing up the chimney but swirling and starting to build up in the fire box , to open a window both sides of the room. This immediately cures the decompression and you can see the smoke take off up the chimney . A couple of minutes for it to settle and we can shut the windows

crphillips

How long has the stove been in?
Has it always been like this or is it recent?
How old is the flue?

If it has always been like this and opening a window doesn't help with the draw then it is likely the flue isn't drawing which can be due to blockage, restriction, leaking flue, incorrect terminal....etc.

If it's a recent issue and worked finepreviously then get your flue swept and checked.

If it's worse when windy then install an anti down draught cowl.

If it works a treat with a window open then fit an air vent.

Obviously it could be a mixture of the above.

naomig

As mentioned, the smoking in the first few minutes is due to the fact that the flue is not drawing. That happens when there is not much of a temperature difference between the inside of the stove and the outside. As soon as the stove warms up, the temp difference will increase the pressure and the flue will draw. My husband sometimes will arrange the wood ready to be lit and then add lots of crumpled up newspapers so that a quick flash of fire occurs and this warms up the stove just enough to avoid this problem. Might be worth a try but obviously only after you checked everything else is correct such as the flue checked/swept as mentioned above.

vixen1500

we have had the chimmey swept, but as yet to retry it - though with this cold weather - I think that will be happening fairly soon lol

anotherbaldrick

vixen1500 wrote: »

we have had the chimmey swept, but as yet to retry it - though with this cold weather - I think that will be happening fairly soon lol

Vixen. Can I enquire if you have had your domestic factotum correctly trained in the craft of "fire Lighting" ? It is not just a matter of screwing up some paper in the grate and chucking wood on top. In all seriousness, on lighting to get the flue drawing you need to get some heat into the grate with the minimum amount of smoke production.
What I do is use a piece of commercial fire lighter and put this with some small pieces of artificial log I have chopped off. When this is well alight an amount of medium size kindling on top and let it all burn up. A few mins and the flue is well warm and drawing and hardly any smoke has been produced, at which time start feeding the logs in.
Alternatively take him down the scout hut and enrol him on the Backwoods course.