Reverse draft correction

I ran my stove pretty steady last winter, so the basement stayed fairly warm. On the few occasions when I let things cool right off and I had a reverse draft.

My stove is an Englander 30NC. To get things flowing the right direction again, I would move one of the ceramic baffle boards to the side and point a propane torch up the chimney. This always worked but sometimes it took up to 10 minutes to warm the chimney up enough. I just found a mini tiger torch on sale at Princess Auto (Harbor Freight - north version) so I grabbed it. I'm guessing that 20 seconds of that blasting with that will have me in good shape.

My issue is, I hate even touching those ceramic boards. They weren't made to be handled much and they aren't cheap to replace (yes I have spares).

Lighting anything on fire in there just results in a basement full of smoke and an angry wife, thus, my torch solution. For those of you who have had reverse draft problems, what was your fix ?

 

Good thought, but I tried a few different things like that, including a can of Sterno that I had in my truck for years. No go. The heat isn't enough to force up the chimney. When the reverse draft gets going, nothing shy of putting my torch right up in there was able to get warm air to move up the chimney.

I should also note that once I've got a fire in there and things are moving the right way, the draft pulls like a freight train. The chimney layout and height itself is fine. Its only when the basement gets downright cold that the problem occurs.

 

Shop vac output up the flue was my way of correcting . I had a t in the flue pipe so I could just stick the hose in that way . start up stove with vac blowing, then when things were going a bit, cap it back off. worked like a charm for me.

 

BDF is a proponent of draft inducers, I can't recall which thread(s) he discusses it in length, but it may be just what you need.

Maybe he can be wrangled away from the kittens long enough to give some advice.


edit.. link.. Electrical draft inducer

 

Yep....thought of them too but I dont know if its worth the trouble for the number of times I need it. I had a thought a few minutes ago. If I made up a flat end, or even flattened the end that's on this little tiger torch, it would allow me to get heat up through the space at the front of the stove between the baffle boards and stove top. That might be enough heat to reverse the flow and get it rolling up again without moving the baffle boards. Humm....time to go play in the shop.

 

If only there was something like a pellet stove igniter, but just small like a flue temp probe. Some 1000 degree metal probe would probably heat the air enough to reverse the flow shortly. Maybe?

 

I've tried balling up news paper and lighting it along with the firestarters. it helps.
I will open a door or window also.

 

Some homemade version of this?

 

Have you tried opening a nearby window when starting up? The few times I've experienced this problem it was quickly remedied when I opened a nearby window. After the fire gets established the window gets closed. Naturally!

 

In my experience newspaper only made things worse. It puts out a crazy amount of smoke if it flows into the house.

In the past I have always used my propane torch up through the bypass to get things moving before lightning the wood, but I was just thinking I could lift the cover and stick my heat gun in pointed toward the back. Then I dont need to sit bent over heating the flu

 

A quick zap and I can shut the door!

 

When my stove is stone cold I get a reverse draft. I would usually just light my propane plumbing torch and leave it sit in the stove pointed up for 5 or 10 minutes and that would get things moving in the right direction.

I wouldn't bother trying to move your ceramic boards out of the way...you aren't going to hurt them with the torch and once they heat up they'll start heating the flue.

 

I got my first reverse draft condition of the season this morning. I took my el'cheapo $20 cdn peso tiger torch and put the flame right at the front of the stove where the smoke passes the baffle boards and starts to head to the rear of the stove and up the pipe. 20 seconds from that thing and things were flowing nicely in the right direction. I didn't even have to hit the trigger to get it to reverse....but did because it sounded pretty cool. I can only imagine what it sounded like outside. LOL. Apparently I have a fix for my problem. Now to find one of those "Save-a-Q" adapters that lets you hook a 20lb tank fitting onto a 1 lb tank. I highly doubt I'll be able to get enough flow to give it a full blast but there should be more than enough to light the torch and get a decent flame going up there. I don't really want to keep a 20lb propane tank in the basement all winter. If something ever did happen with the stove and there was a fire, fire inspectors just LOVE finding crap like that.

 

I need to get one of those too. My gas grill is plumbed into the 500 gallon house tank, and has a quick connect, so that's my fill point I think.

Pretty sure you want to have the small tank frozen to get it to fill well, at least that's what they used to do to fill nitrous tanks back in the day when i raced and a shop didnt have a pump

 

turn the 20gallon unit upside down when filling a hand tank other wise all you are doing is filling with gas no liqiud ( little tough to do that with the 500 gal unit though) That is the reason tanks are only filled to 80%, so the liquid can liquid can achieve a gaseous state. It also helps to make sure the small tank has no residue charge left in it and yes on the frozen or at leased well chilled small tank. Go through the same tricks to load co2 tanks.

 

Ok. I was talking about being able to hook up a 1lb tank to the tiger torch. If you want to know the secret to filling the 1 lb bottles from a bigger one. Yes...turn the bigger one upside down to get liquid out of it. The thing you have to do to get the 1lb one full is to pull OUTWARD on the pin of safety relief valve (looks like a tire valve) on the 1lb bottle. Make sure its above the level of any liquid in the bottle when you do or you're going to get sprayed with liquid propane. Hold it out for about 5 seconds. That will vent enough pressure out of the 1lb tank to allow it to be filled completely. No freezing required. That being said....dont allow it to fill the 1lb bottle right full....and doing this WILL allow you to fill them right to the top. There has to be approximately 20% vapour left in the top of the tank for expansion when it warms up.

Always do this outside. It's not because the piddly little bit of vapour you're intentionally letting out is going to blow up your garage. It's just in case the safety valve sticks open (I've never had it happen) and you dont have a way to stop it. Always wear gloves and safety glasses when messing around with liquid propane. I know I'm stating common knowledge to most but I'll say it anyway. Liquid propane on any part of you is going to result in frost bite burns. Please be careful.

 

For my sister's house I got lucky and fixed her's by air sealing and insulating the attic access door . Of course they didn't have a reverse draft problem until I sealed the major amount of sill leaks from a sloppy builder and raised ranch design.

 

when i put my hand in the cold stove and i feel a draft coming in, my fix is to open a windows close by and make sure there is enough paper (with the wood) for a strong new fire, so far this never failed me