Got the stove going this morning, I burned a couple wicker baskets in there that really went up in flames. Anyway I opened up the door and it was really cranking in there, so I shut the door to slow her down and as soon as the door shut I got puffs of smoke shooting out of the front air vents . Even made loud sounds just like a steam engine taking off...POOF.....POOF..POOF..POOF, blowing smoke out into the room. Any idea what happened?
Backdrafts..what happened??
- Thread starter seadog2
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How long had the fire been burning, how hot was the stove and was it raining when you closed the door? It sounds like the stove and flue were not that hot and the fire still needed the oxygen.
Did you have your primary open or did you shut everything down suddenly with a roaring fire? IF the latter then it might be that it was needing air and kind of exploded on you. What made you burn wicker in your wood stove?
Lack of sufficient oxygen to support the fire. It got oxygen from the closest place, the air vents. Yep its a backdraft so to speak. It gets even worse if the backdraft is feed by oxygen that comes down the stack. I had it happen once (and once only, it was my fault). The BOOM rocked everything around the stove to the point that I had a complete inspection done by a cert. installer. My undies changed color that day.
EDIT: Ummmm.....if you ever read posts by me that find complete fault with using an ash door for startup air, now you know why.
EDIT: Ummmm.....if you ever read posts by me that find complete fault with using an ash door for startup air, now you know why.
seadog2 said:
I've had that happen burning pallet wood.. I think it is all going at once and it went out then relight causing the whole thing to reignite.. That is why my cat stove is not happy with pallets.. It cycles between burning then smouldering.. Best thing to do is not have the cat engaged if you have a cat stove and mess with the air untill it burns itself out.. Hard to explain in english lol..
Ray
There were a couple of small wicker baskets going to the dump so I threw them in the stove thinking they would burn nicely. I have two vent dials, one on the bottom ash dump door and on on the top loading door, they were both wide open when I shut the door back up but like you are all saying it was starving for oxygen and must have pulled the air from inside the chimney.Sounded just like a steam engine train taking off!
Imagine for a moment lightly crumbling very old newspaper and tossing it on your raging fire. What will happen? The baskets are a very open fiber cane. It is like throwing that paper on your fire, it all wants to ignite at the same time. I repair chair seats and at times have lots of cane around (same stuff). I never, (repeated with emphasis) NEVER put it in the stove. It is too unpredictable in burning, except the speed of ignition. It goes in the trash for mulch. You wouldn't throw crumpled cardboard on the fire would you? (Well, except the totally lunatic fringe).
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