Back draft looking for advice

Hello I have just recently installed our first wood stove. It is a drolet HT3000 and it is located in the basement for our home I have a wall pass through and about 20’ of chimney on the exterior of the house.

I’m looking for tips and tricks when firing the stove up when it’s cold. I have filled my basement with smoke twice and I’m hoping you guys can help me change that lol. Currently i have a piece of plywood cut larger than the door opening on the stove and a hole cut in the centre so that I can fit a heat gun into the plywood snugly. The idea here is to warm the column of cold outside air to induce a draft.

if you have any other ideas please share with me I would love to hear them.

-kg

 

I have used a propane torch aimed into the flue. Works well for me.

You may have negative pressure in the basement, because warm air is escaping your home higher up. I.e. your home acts as a chimney. This leads to low(er than ambient) pressures in basements.

Air sealing upstairs helps.

If you have a door or window in the basement, crack it open during start up. This will help equilibrate the pressure.

And if course any kitchen, bathroom, boiler exhaust fans should be off when the stove door is open.

Do have working smoke and CO alarms in your basement as when the stove dies down, carbon monoxide might escape and you want to be warned for that when you are fast asleep at 4 am...

 

Ours went off in the kids bedroom at 5 am the other day...the only reason that could be surmised was an Asian lady beetle crawling around in it...danged bugs...I'm usually up at 6, so no more sleep for me!

Yeah a torch or hair dryer works really well to get that draft going...the hair dryer is better for really stubborn chimneys as it will deal with a "cold plug" or down draft better...got to be careful to not blow ashes all over though!

 

Awesome thanks guys
Sounds like I’m on the right track with the heat gun (hair dryer on steroids) but I will point it up the flue instead of trying to warm the entire fire box.



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When I lived in Wisconsin my stove (Woodstock Fireview) was in the basement and I had an issue like you describe. I used a heat gun pointed up the flue. I worked pretty good. Just be patient with it and let it work. Mine had about 40’ of cold metal to heat up and it take a few minutes especially if the air is wet and heavy. I calculated it at one time and I think it was something like 60sqft of metal. If you get impatient you’ll still end up with a house full of smoke. Better to be patient with it.

 

I aim the torch up my 27 ft lined chimney for about 20 seconds
I don't know if it works - no smoke inside, but maybe it was not necessary to do this...
I do have the impression the fire starts faster this way, and I tell myself it's because of the draft I already got going on when the fire is still starting.

 

You hit the nail on the head Brad I think it needed more time


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I'm going to come at this from a different angle. Could we back up and discuss the venting setup? From what is posted, the stove is in the basement and I'm assuming it goes up to a 90-degree bend, through a horizontal pipe and then into the chimney. Is this correct? Some questions:

-What is the diameter of the stove pipe?
-Is the stove pipe double or single wall?
-What is the inside diameter of the chimney?
-Is the stove pipe to chimney thimble sealed air tight? If not, it can kind of create a situation like trying to drink a milkshake through a straw that has holes poked in it
-I Assume the outside chimney is brick? If so, it will take a while for the brick to warm up and induce draft. This won't be cheap or fun, however, if the chimney diameter is too wide and draft is poor, some folks line their chimney with stainless flexible pipe and then insulate it with pour-in insulation.

please holler back.

 

Morning, golf.

-stove pipe diameter is 6” Selkirk double wall
-I.D of chimney is 6” and it’s a stainless steel pipe with 1” insulation
-stove pipe all the way to thimble is sealed when I have smoke that fills the basement it’s only leaking from the stove until draft has been created then it runs well.




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I open a basement window every time I start and have a rechargeable "keyboard" blower/duster (amazon) ready in case a downdraft occurs. Not having a cord is nice, I just reach in and pull the trigger. If you are back flowing when the stove has coals, you have carbon monoxide issues, I have three CO detectors. More draft or exterior air supply could help if back drafting with coals.

 

From cold starts, I like to lay in a about two handfuls of extremely dry very fine split kindling and hit it for a second with a propane torch. I keep 8 to 10 big boxes of kindling on hand. It burns really hot for 5-10 minutes and then I'll add another handful with some small splits and larger on top. I don't really have a back drafting issue with my setup, but I did once last spring when air was heavy with extreme fog in the air. I quickly removed the larger pieces as they hadn't started to burn yet and put in a little more kindling. From that, it took right off.

I've even heard of setting a scented three wick candle in the stove for a bit as well. The chimney will smell amazing as well, it's a win win.

 

I had a hard back draft the other day and didn’t recognize it before it was too late. As others have said a plumbing torch does wonders.

 

Torch does the job 99% of the time, but for one that just don't wanna go, hair dryer or heat gun for the win.
(Heat and air pressure!)

 

I would have grabbed either one but the torch was close. The living room was filling with smoke, it wasn’t the time to be picky. lol.

 

Agreed!

 

Thanks everyone, I’m really enjoying this group thanks for all the advice and funny comments seems like a really good community on here. .

Temperature is dropping this week

-18 c/ 0 f tonight


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I sealed the clean out door on my exterior block chimney. Big improvement on the draft, especially at startup. Next summer I will cut the caulk, clean out soot, and reseal.

 

Try above for my friend that had smoke allergies we installed a draft inducer. Basically a fan in pipe (like bath room fan) on switch.. cheap and easy