Air quality issues when running stove

[Helical]

We bought a house earlier this year with an Esse Ironheart upstairs and a traditional masonry fireplace downstairs. The prior owner had the Ironheart installed, but never used it thinking the new stove might boost his sale price. We get noticeable smokiness when running the wood stove. Our air quality monitor shows pm2.5 levels spiking to >100 ug/m3 at the worst times. It’s worse but not exclusive to startup and refueling. There has definitely been an issue with cross drafting as the stove flue and chimney open right next to each other and some of the time the smokiness is worse down in the basement when the main floor stove is running. The downstairs fireplace doesn’t seem to cause the same issues, except for the cross drafting. The fireplace has an outdoor air intake while the stove does not and is not installed in a location where that is possible. We have a local installer coming out in a few weeks to help troubleshoot, but I thought I’d canvas for some ideas on things we can try in the meantime.

First, things we have tried:
- we are only burning seasoned wood tested at <20% moisture
- we build the fire top down to try to help get a good draft to start
- we manage the air intakes per the manual
- we wait until it’s burned down to hot coals to refuel, then open air intakes about 30 seconds before reloading
- we only have softwood (Ponderosa and Douglas Fir) to burn. If the solution is to burn only hardwood then it may not make sense to keep/use the stove at all, as the main benefit is “free” heat from timber that requires thinning on our property
- the damper on the downstairs fireplace is closed whenever it’s not in use

Any thoughts on other things we can try to mitigate this issue? While I’m aware that some pollutants are inevitable, it doesn’t seem like a modern wood stove should be this bad or so much worse than the old fireplace with a folding glass door.

 

[moresnow]

stove flue and chimney open right next to each other

In a nutshell if you are describing both units venting, terminating at the same elevation you will likely be advised to add venting length to the stove up top. Not an uncommon issue. Post a pic of where both lines terminate up top.

 

[stoveliker]

Wood species is of no importance in this.

Spikes when opening the door of the stove àlso suggests draft that could be improved. How tall is your flue from stove top to cap, and what is your elevation?

 

[begreen]

Common issue due to back siphoning of the smoke into a lower pressure zone. Extending the upstairs flue 12-18" should solve the problem.

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[Helical]

Thanks for all the responses. We’re just under 4,000 feet elevation and it’s probably 12-14 feet from the top of the stove to the cap. Photo of the openings is attached.

 

[begreen]

Add a couple of feet of chimney pipe . It will probably help the stove operation at that altitude too. The chimney pipe will need to be braced at 5 ft above the roof.

 

[stoveliker]

Yes, that's what I was aiming for with my question. If you want to try first, just get some cheap single wall pipe t add on top before you buy class A.