Smoking issue with Hearthstone Mansfield 8013

[lesliej]

We bought a new model Mansfield with catalyst 1.5 years ago. It has been really difficult to use. We have constant problems with opening the door to add wood, and smoke billowing out into the room. It's incredibly frustrating. We actually barely used the stove last winter because we had so many smoking issues (we have a smaller stove we can use for heat as well - but it's really too small to adequately heat; the Mansfield is supposed to be our main heat source, while the smaller stove is more for comfort and ambiance). Last winter we were just cold unless we sat in front of the small stove, because we couldn't run the Mansfield without smoke.

This summer we extended the chimney several feet in hopes this would help.

Now the latest problem seems more serious. The stove is on the first floor of the house. With a strong fire burning, and with the stove in the optimal heat range, we are getting smoke in the upstairs bedroom. We load the stove, let it get up to temperature, damp it down, and go to bed. An hour or two later I am awakened by a strong smell of smoke in the bedroom. I go downstairs and it is smoky in the room where the stove is as well, implying the smoke is lifting up the stairs to the bedroom.

I don't know what to do. This keeps happening night after night and it's really unpleasant and probably unhealthy.

We have an old house (built in 1832) that is not tight, although the upstairs was redone and the roof is well insulated But I don't think the problem is back pressure from poor airtake into the house. The house really is not that tight.

Another thing I've observed is that white ash is accumulating on the top of the stove, and there is some kind of debri accumulating a bit around the stove pipe where it emerges from the stove. This may be vermiculite that the guy who installed the liner packed in there. I'm not sure. And I don't understand where the ash is coming from.

The room filling with smoke has me worried. We just had the chimney inspected this fall, but is it possible the liner is damaged? If so, I'm worried about a house fire. Is it possible that the stove is backpuffing in some way that is releasing smoke out the front glass door, despite the gasket? I've never witnessed that but I'm at a loss otherwise about where the smoke is coming from.

Anyone have any ideas about what I should do?

Thanks in advance

 

[begreen]

Has the catalyst been properly cleaned to be sure it is not plugging up with ash?

This should be looked into by the dealer and a professional certified sweep ASAP. We may not be able to tell what is wrong without more details, some pictures may help. Regardless, smoke should not be coming into the room. Is there a smoke detector and a CO detector installed?

 

[lesliej]

The catalyst has never been cleaned. Can we do that ourselves? We really haven't used the stove much - probably about a two months total, because of the smoking issues. Could it be clogged/dirty already?

The chimney was inspected this fall and supposedly is ok.

The dealer is useless, and so is the chimney sweep. Both (independently) came out and just shrugged their shoulders and said we don't know what's going on, you can try extending the chimney pipe but it may not help (for $600 we did try, and it hasn't helped).

We need to install new smoke detectors, we bought them but need to install them. Thanks for the reminder.

And thanks for your response.

 

[begreen]

Yes, you can do this yourselves. The clogging may be due to stove ash clogging the cat. If so, a gentle brushing of the cat face, followed by brush vacuuming or low pressure blowing air through it should suffice. Follow the manual's directions.

Can you describe the installation in detail with particular focus on the stove pipe and chimney details, including the length of each? Pictures are welcome and helpful.

 

[wetwood4life]

Hi Leslie,

That sucks! We've had similar draft problems with our Hearthstone Castleton. It's two sizes smaller than yours, but I think it's roughly the same design. We've almost never had smoke sucked back into the house while it's running with the door closed, so I guess it's a different problem, but here are some things we've dealt with, maybe this will give you some ideas.

1. By scraping the coals forward every reload, I managed to accidentally pack the primary air hole full of ash. This choked out the stove and made for very smokey reloads. I was able to vacuum it out (LONG AFTER THE ASHES WERE COLD).
2. Through some operator error, I clogged the catalysts with ash. I forget exactly what I did, maybe stirring coals and forgetting to bypass? This was a pain to resolve. I spent the rest of the season vacuuming the catalysts every 2 weeks, and they kept clogging. Over the summer I took them out completely and deep cleaned them in water & vinegar. Turns out the vacuum was only getting the top layer of ash. This has been night and day improvement! If you do this, you might need to buy replacement gaskets (it's like batting/stuffing to make a good air seal).
3. This year, I'm trying to let the stove get well into the silver "active" region before closing the catalyst. Also giving it a couple minutes after reloads. I used to reload, close the door, close the bypass. Don't want to clog those catalysts again!
4. I have found we need to progressively open the air during the burn cycle. Starts & ends fully open, and mostly closed through the middle of a burn. Otherwise the draft dies out partway through the burn and everything smoulders & gets smokey.
5. We're in the process of getting the chimney extended; you've already done that, which is good.
6. This year, I'm trying to run the stove much hotter. Maybe you should try this too. Don't pull the air back as much. The hotter stove should keep your chimney hotter, which creates more suction to pull the smoke out of your stove.
7. Sometimes I notice a strong smoke smell in parts of the house. I've actually come to believe this is smoke from outside getting pulled inside. Not from the stove itself. But never visible smoke, just the smell.

I'm right there with you about the bad dealers! Hearthstone says you have to go through a local dealer... but the only local shop who will talk to us is the original installer, and they did a terrible job with the install.

Good luck, it's really tough to figure this out alone without a local pro to look at the situation.

 

[Pinesmoke]

Leslie I can feel for you. I'm running mine for the second season and had a lot of smoke roll out last year, especially from the right side by the door hinge. I was able to slow it down by cracking the door and opening it slowly to let the flue draw get ahold of the smoke. I'm loading north south so any actively burning wood close to the door made it worse. The smoke rolls up the baffle to the front of the stove and there is not a lot of room for it to draw over the baffle before it does out the door. This is a common complaint.

If the stove pipe has an "appliance adapter" as the connection to the stove they can be very loose in the stove, as pointed out by one of the guys last year. I spread the end but never got a perfect seal and I suspected the flue was pulling some air in from there, lessening the draft t on the stove and dropping the flue temp some. Yesterday I replaced the "adapter" with a 6" pipe section for a tighter seal and the fire this morning puts pulling much better and much less smoke roll out and a higher flue temp.

The "ash" on top of your stove, could it be ash carried out with the smoke when you open the door and rake stuff around?

Unless the smoke upstairs can be tied to smoke coming out of the door is concerning. Begreen hit it to have that looked at.

I was told by my dealer, an old friend, these are very cold blooded and start them with the door cracked until there are some coals. That info helped me out a lot.

 

[keeperslight]

We bought a new model Mansfield with catalyst 1.5 years ago. It has been really difficult to use. We have constant problems with opening the door to add wood, and smoke billowing out into the room. It's incredibly frustrating. We actually barely used the stove last winter because we had so many smoking issues (we have a smaller stove we can use for heat as well - but it's really too small to adequately heat; the Mansfield is supposed to be our main heat source, while the smaller stove is more for comfort and ambiance). Last winter we were just cold unless we sat in front of the small stove, because we couldn't run the Mansfield without smoke.

This summer we extended the chimney several feet in hopes this would help.

Now the latest problem seems more serious. The stove is on the first floor of the house. With a strong fire burning, and with the stove in the optimal heat range, we are getting smoke in the upstairs bedroom. We load the stove, let it get up to temperature, damp it down, and go to bed. An hour or two later I am awakened by a strong smell of smoke in the bedroom. I go downstairs and it is smoky in the room where the stove is as well, implying the smoke is lifting up the stairs to the bedroom.

I don't know what to do. This keeps happening night after night and it's really unpleasant and probably unhealthy.

We have an old house (built in 1832) that is not tight, although the upstairs was redone and the roof is well insulated But I don't think the problem is back pressure from poor airtake into the house. The house really is not that tight.

Another thing I've observed is that white ash is accumulating on the top of the stove, and there is some kind of debri accumulating a bit around the stove pipe where it emerges from the stove. This may be vermiculite that the guy who installed the liner packed in there. I'm not sure. And I don't understand where the ash is coming from.

The room filling with smoke has me worried. We just had the chimney inspected this fall, but is it possible the liner is damaged? If so, I'm worried about a house fire. Is it possible that the stove is backpuffing in some way that is releasing smoke out the front glass door, despite the gasket? I've never witnessed that but I'm at a loss otherwise about where the smoke is coming from.

Anyone have any ideas about what I should do?

Thanks in advance

your problem maybe that your house is so airtight and if you are using a hvac system you are sucking the air back down the chimney

 

[stoveliker]

Hvac doesn't exhaust air, so should not suck air down the chimney.
Bathroom or kitchen fans,.and oil boilers etc. do. Negative pressure could be a thing - but rather unlikely in an 1830s home .

 

[5U4]

Can you explain, in detail, your nighttime reload process? I run a Mansfield and don't experience smoke smell on overnight burns

 

[lesliej]

Thanks everyone for your help. Sorry for the delayed response. My husband and I both got wallopped by Covid the last week. Ugh.

We'll try some of the things suggested. Right before I came down with Covid I also talked to a guy at the other wood stove store in town. They don't sell Hearthstone but he was really nice. He couldn't say for sure without seeing the stove in person but he seemed more or less convinced that there's a problem with our flue. It bends about 45 degrees immediately after emerging from the top of the stove (long story - how it had to fit into the chimney) and also may be slightly "ovalized" where the chimney liner attaches to the collar, leading to less than optimal draft. Since it sounds like others of you have some of the same smoking problems we've been having I think it may a combination of sub-optimal flu combined with finnicky stove, making it even more problematic. Thankfully, we haven't had any more smoking during the next in the last week, since my original post. It's been colder outside (in fact, it's about -7 F right now) so we're thinking maybe that's helping improve the draft.

Have any of you had a problem with bumping the front bracket that holds the baffles, so that it drops down in to the firebox? We struggled a bit with that too, and ultimately wired it to the slot so it wouldn't keep falling if we accidentally bump it when loading up with logs.

Overall, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed in this stove. Nice heat when it's working, and gorgeous, but it's been quite a struggle to operate.

Thanks again for taking the time to offer all these suggestions.

Happy holidays!

 

[lesliej]

Can you explain, in detail, your nighttime reload process? I run a Mansfield and don't experience smoke smell on overnight burns

We open the vent and disengage the catalyst to be sure the bed of coals is hot. We load up with logs and let it run for 10-20 minutes till the logs are burning and the stove is in the burn temperature range. Then we engage the catalyst, close the vent, and go to bed.