Honestly, my wife loves our wood stove and the heat from it. BUT, on those few occasions when I had an unfriendly meeting with a tough downdraft while attempting to start a cold stove and the basement filled with smoke,,, Well, let's just say I got some VERY unloving glares from my kids and wife. Most recently, it didn't help my cause that she had just laid out a weeks worth of wet laundry and was loading it into the dryer. 6 feet from the wood stove!!
Got another cold plug what PIA, smoked up the house real good. I warmed up the flue with a torch for a few before lighting, epic fail, no fire tonight
How about a hair dryer for a few minutes, then some paper lit at the back of the stove to get the air moving in the right direction
What temperatures are you guys looking at when there is a problem making a fire? And what kind of stove/flue setup?
It was 20 outside , full triple wall all the way out. When it happens when I open the door the air rushes at you and coluldnt get it to go up and out
When I had a basement unit I would stick the output of the shop vac up there for a bit that seemed to work for me. Litterly blast the cold air right out the top of the flue.
Man, this happened to me today. Has never happened in 3 years of using my insert. I recently went through and re caulked and re weather stripped all the windows and doors. I didn't think it was really drafty but could feel a little coming through in very cold temperatures. It is around 34 today so a little warmer, but I've lit from a cold start in warmer with no problems. Must be the windows and doors were draftier than I though. What else could it have been? It wasn't a complete smoke out but don't want that to happen again. I knew it felt like there was a down draft but I lit it anyways. I'll know better now.
The hair dryer works very well, between the heat and the blast of wind from the hair dryer, it pushes the cold air right up n out.
