Now then, as just about everybody on here has one of these (and a Skoda) I assume that I am not alone in smoking myself out when trying to light a fire on a particularly cold day. I am guessing that there is a plug of cold air in the chimney that the warm air cannot get through causing it to exhaust into the room and make my children cough. Once the cold air dissipates the thing starts to draw and roars like a V8 pulling much of the smoke back in, but still leaving enough in the room for it to be hazy and a bit smelly.
Can I get round this or do I just have to MTFU?
you shut the stove door right ?
use more paper get a good lick of flames going in the firebox right at the start.
even with open fires i never had this issue.
Harry is your chimney above the pitch of your roof?
Chimney goes up the apex and is pretty tall.
Smoke comes back out through the air vents.
How are you lighting it? I use small sticks and napalm (bbq lighting gel) gets it going really hot from the start. Never had anything at all come back into the room, ever, not even the smell
as trail_rat says, get some flame going with loose scrunches of paper and a teepee shape of light kindling - you need some hot gas to get the draw started - once the air is moving through the fire seat it will get itself going nicely and work on a hot core.
Im quite a dab hand at fire starting these days as I have to start 3 fires a day every day at the moment (furnace and woodstove).
The furnace is interesting as it burns upside down though so appreciating primary and secondary air flows in a n upside down combustion chamber is an art as much as a science 🙂
Matches, newspaper and kindling. Only happens when it is very cold outside. Medium cold and it draws normally.
a thought.
Have you tried opening the stove door for a short while before you try to light it ?
Let the stove interior get up to room temperature ?
I have actually had this once before in a bothy once
IIRC our solution was to light some paper and hold it up the chimney - but this was not a stove it was an open fireplace. It took after that and sucked almost all the smoke out.
Good idea. I'll try leaving the door open for a bit to warm my flue.
As above, maybe you need to get the flue hot before it'll draw properly.
FWIW- We start ours with a fire lighter and kindling (no paper), thedoor ajar for 2-3 mins. Until its roaring, you can feel the flue heating up. Close the door, open vents. Never had the smoke issue, but it can be slow if its a still, foggy day.
I guess each fire/chimney is diff.
I get a similar thing with my Victorian coal fire: until it gets going, it can smoke into the room. Sheet of paper over the fireplace to get it roaring fixes it.
Our flue goes up the outside of our house - we need to get the cold air moving in it before we light the fire every time - warm of cold outside. A firelighter isn't hot enough to do it - we need to get some paper roaring up the flue first. We could just leave the fire door open for half an hour before we light the fire, but that just cools down the room ( and we usually don't have the time).
Loosely scrunched balls of newspaper lit with minimum kindling.
What is all this firelighter/gel business? Call yourselves members of woodburningstovetrackworld indeed!
On a still day - not many of those where I live, I sometimes hold the door slightly open to help with the draw to begin with. Say an inch or two max. Opening a window/door to the outside can also help with the draw at the start.
Hairdryer up the flue?
Which nozzle do you need fit on the hairdryer?
🙂
I've had it once with an open fire when some of the kindling was projecting into the room rather than directly under the chimney. This created a sort of siphon effect, like you describe, and caused all sorts of chaos because I couldn't work out what to do quickly enough. The solution was as described above getting a good blast of heat up the chimney first.
Sometimes our wood burner produces a sooty smell in the room when it's not on. I think this is a similar effect but due to outside temp changes causing a plug of cold air to plunge down the chimney bringing chimney smell into the room. Or something.
Sometimes our wood burner produces a sooty smell in the room when it's not on. I think this is a similar effect but due to outside temp changes causing a plug of cold air to plunge down the chimney bringing chimney smell into the room. Or something.
Quite common with this sort of chimney setup as the twinwall doesn't have the mass to retain heat through a freezing night when it is outside and the draw will stop or reverse.
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above the baffle plate will get it moving the right way again before lighting without stinky firelighter smoke spilling out.
Sometimes our wood burner produces a sooty smell in the room when it's not on.
Close the vents?
We used to have this during the winter in one room if we didn't use the fire for a few days and we had a fire lit elsewhere, plus there was a cold downdraft. It was one of the reasons why I started thinking about a stove.
Now we have neither problem - just shut the vents off and it also stops the constant updraft from a warm room to the cold outside.
Try placing a candle in the stove for a while before sparking up, to heat things up a bit.
Are you sure you have enough ventilation in the room.Does opening a window make a difference. Only time i have a problem is when i try lighting burner with extractor fan on in kitchen which is at least 7.0m from lounge. I use a compressed cardboard( the green stuff used under laminate flooring) soaked in citronella oil to light the fire to light mine. Burns well and doesnt smell to bad.
I've had it once with an open fire when some of the kindling was projecting into the room rather than directly under the chimney.
Old Potting Shed?
I use a compressed cardboard( the green stuff used under laminate flooring) soaked in citronella oil to light the fire to light mine. Burns well and doesnt smell to bad.
other than keeping the mozzi's away I wonder what that does to your liner (if you have one).
Old Potting Shed?
Heh no, at home. I know a lot more about fires now 😉