zDavid said:
We had a similar incident. My wonderful sweet wife woke up early this Saturday morning and started a fire from last night's embers. After coming back to bed a few minutes later, I smelled that same chemically-like smell like when we first began using our wood stove a year ago.
It appears that two things happen:
1) We get that (very) offensive odor when a hot burn gets going too fast. It seems that our Hampton Wood Stove likes to be warmed up more slowly.
2) Perhaps more important, the paint on the flue (from the stove to where it exits the ceiling) appears to be gradually "burning off." The paint used to be shiny and glossy. Now it is becoming more like a flat paint - not glossy anymore.
Yep, #2 bugs me. I feel like we're being exposed to the paint chemicals and probably slowly poisoned. The gradual turn of the paint from glossy to flat would seem to be an off-gassing effect.
We've obviously learned a lesson to not crank a fire too quickly. But I'm concerned about the slow, gradual release of fumes over time. Is there any way to just get it all burned away and be done with it?
Does anyone here have any additional info?
Thank you.
We have the same 2 issues, and it bugs the chit out of me to think of burning paint in our house with my young family breathing it. I have had the windows wide open on 20 below days several times this winter. We have a Pacific Energy Super 27, and the
same thing happens as in zDavid's post. It's all about how fast it heats up, if it's gradual, then we don't get it, and I can burn at 5-600 without the smell. We pretty much are forced to start a fire and damper part way down all the time, no matter what size fire, otherwise it's windows open in below zero weather. I had the guy who installed it come over and we watched burning paint fumes wafting under the lights and setting off the smoke alarms, so he had his crew come over and replace the pipe, and that was in December. We now have the exact same problem. I had a theory that they were using excessive amounts of Stovebright; has anyone else found out any answers about this problem, or heard of touch-up paint issues? I would appreciate any and all info...
thanks