Reverse draft correction

I stopped using paper. If I didnt correct the draft fast enough, the paper would REALLY fill the house with heavy smoke! Nice dry 6" strips of thin oak plank stacked like a log cabin light off with about 30-60 seconds with the torch, and much much less chance for smoke.

 

My basement stove is stubborn to get going at times. I start a top down fire with a ball of newspaper on top and the quick flame and heat gets things going in the right direction. A torch or heat gun would be nice to use on the pipe but it’s double wall. I might try a torch in the stove next time.

 

Sounds like you have "Negative Draft" pretty common in basement with stoves. Adding an Outside Air Kit may take care of the problem., or A leaky attic door or hatch can cause problems also.
This may not be the least expensive way, but it's convenient, it doesn't fix the problem, but it gets around it.
It's called the AD1 Auto Draft Fan. It gets installed into one the stove pipes coming out of the stove. When turned on it creates a positive pressure up the chimney and makes starting the stove easy. You can also use it when reloading and you go to open the door and smoke comes out, turn the fan on just before that and all the smoke is pushed up and out the chimney. It has a Variable speed control.

 

This is what works for me. When we get up to the place on a cold evening, no way that draft is in the right direction. I have to open a window and the door to get things going. So picture this...it's about 45F in the lower level, in the teens or colder outside, and I'm opening a door and a window. I build my fire and put a piece of fatwood up top, light that, then light one in the middle. I may get a little rollout, but the draft starts pretty quickly.

 

When I put the first stove in a decade ago, outside air was mandatory for inspection purposes. I put one in with the initial install and everything passed. When I replaced it last year, the inspector (different guy) told me that now, they were actually recommending that you do not put one in, and that it can cause a reverse draft. Arrrrgh. I bet if I called in 5 inspectors, I'd get 5 different answers, each one arguing why the others were wrong.

When I put the new stove in last year, I put a butterfly in the outside air pipe so I could close it off when the stove isnt being used. I doesn't seem to make any difference whether it's open, closed, half way, or otherwise. Hopefully others have had better luck with the whole setup than I did. Lol.

So far, as long as I dont turn my tiger torch on full blast and blow ash all over the place, it works perfectly. I think I'll look into one of those draft fans though. Much less effort.

 

Used to get severe backdrafts in the basement wood furnace.
Often I used the lazy mans way and just tried to overcome with newspaper and kindling. Often I filled the house or at least basement with smoke. LOL
In these situations I sometimes found it helpful to open the chimney clean out door briefly. Allows the heat/smoke to go up one side of the flue while the down draft rushes out the door. Eventually it will circulate and smoke will come out the door too. Sometimes it was just enough to get things going, sometimes not.

I found I could reverse that draft by holding a window fan right in front of the stove door and just blowing up the chimney.
No fire of course No heat required, just force.

If you have single wall pipe maybe it would be easier to torch the outside of the pipe to get heat inside. Never tried that myself.

 

While I never had that problem, I would use my favorite method to cure that too (in addition to smoke spilling into the house, fly- ash in the house, and starting a fire when it is 45F outside and the chimney just will not 'pull' until warm).... a draft inducer.

But if a torch works for you, perhaps you could just make a small hole in the smoke pipe above the woodstove to put the torch nozzle into and heat the stove pipe and chimney directly? You would have to make some kind of flap valve out of sheet metal to cover it but you would only have to do it one time and then use the stove easily. Just a thought.....

Brian