Hi folks:
I'm a wood stove newbie. We just purchased and installed a Hearthstone Castleton woodstove in our 1970's New England Colonial house.
The stove was installed partially sitting inside a wood burning fireplace. About 1/3 of the stove is sitting in the firebox, and about 2/3 sitting on the hearth. The installers ran a stainless liner / stove pipe down my chimney flue and into the firebox and connected it to the back of the Castleton with a "T" elbow. The stuffed the original damper opening of the fireplace with Rock Wool insulation around the new stove pipe to seal up the original chimney from the new stove pipe liner.
The Chimney is an exterior chimney, located on the north side of the house (North east corner) and it does not get a lot of direct sunlight.
I lit my first "seasoning" fire yesterday so that I could break in the soapstone. I nearly smoked myself out of the house! At first, it seemed I had zero draft from the chimney. It almost seemed the stove was pulling air down the chimney and into the stove and then smoke was coming out of the feed air vents at the bottom of the stove. Complete reverse air flow. After about an hour of playing around, I was able to get the airflow moving properly and actually got a nice, seasoning fire going. It cooled for few hours and I was able to get a second seasoning fire going last night and avoided smoking myself out by lighting a piece of newspaper and putting it directly in the flue before lighting the fire. All was fine. The fire burned and went out.
Fast forward to this morning, I come down stairs to a fully cooled stove as expected. But I did NOT expect to smell my stove. The room, and a good portion of the first floor, smells like a wood stove.
Needless to say my wife and I are not happy about this. It seems there is a draft coming down the new stovepipe liner in my chimney, into the new Castleton, and out through the feed air vents (even when the vent is in the fully closed position.) I am hugely disappointed by this. When we used this fireplace as a regular, wood burning fireplace the past few years I would occasionally get a smoky / creosote smell from the Chimney. We attributed this to our original top-sealing damper and thought the wood stove would stop the odor since the door has an air tight seal, etc. But I guess I forgot about the feed air vents not being "air tight."
What can I do to stop this problem?
A few more details:
-The stove is located in our family room which is on the first floor. This room is directly over a two car garage where the garage doors are facing northeast.
-The original fireplace where the Castleton is installed has a flimsy door in the floor of the fireplace that leads to an "ash pit". The cleanout door for the ash pit is in the garage below.
-There is an attic over this room (no second floor.) We do have a second floor in other parts of the house, but this particular room is a single floor room with only an attic above. There are speakers and recessed lights in the ceiling.
Googling, it seems I could be having a "stack effect" issue. I wonder if it is coming from the garage below. When we get winds from the north-east (as we do in 'Nor-Easters), the garage gets over pressurized due to winds. Could that be contributing?
Is there any way to make the Castleton more "air tight"? How else can we stop this problem?
Thanks for the help!
I'm a wood stove newbie. We just purchased and installed a Hearthstone Castleton woodstove in our 1970's New England Colonial house.
The stove was installed partially sitting inside a wood burning fireplace. About 1/3 of the stove is sitting in the firebox, and about 2/3 sitting on the hearth. The installers ran a stainless liner / stove pipe down my chimney flue and into the firebox and connected it to the back of the Castleton with a "T" elbow. The stuffed the original damper opening of the fireplace with Rock Wool insulation around the new stove pipe to seal up the original chimney from the new stove pipe liner.
The Chimney is an exterior chimney, located on the north side of the house (North east corner) and it does not get a lot of direct sunlight.
I lit my first "seasoning" fire yesterday so that I could break in the soapstone. I nearly smoked myself out of the house! At first, it seemed I had zero draft from the chimney. It almost seemed the stove was pulling air down the chimney and into the stove and then smoke was coming out of the feed air vents at the bottom of the stove. Complete reverse air flow. After about an hour of playing around, I was able to get the airflow moving properly and actually got a nice, seasoning fire going. It cooled for few hours and I was able to get a second seasoning fire going last night and avoided smoking myself out by lighting a piece of newspaper and putting it directly in the flue before lighting the fire. All was fine. The fire burned and went out.
Fast forward to this morning, I come down stairs to a fully cooled stove as expected. But I did NOT expect to smell my stove. The room, and a good portion of the first floor, smells like a wood stove.
Needless to say my wife and I are not happy about this. It seems there is a draft coming down the new stovepipe liner in my chimney, into the new Castleton, and out through the feed air vents (even when the vent is in the fully closed position.) I am hugely disappointed by this. When we used this fireplace as a regular, wood burning fireplace the past few years I would occasionally get a smoky / creosote smell from the Chimney. We attributed this to our original top-sealing damper and thought the wood stove would stop the odor since the door has an air tight seal, etc. But I guess I forgot about the feed air vents not being "air tight."
What can I do to stop this problem?
A few more details:
-The stove is located in our family room which is on the first floor. This room is directly over a two car garage where the garage doors are facing northeast.
-The original fireplace where the Castleton is installed has a flimsy door in the floor of the fireplace that leads to an "ash pit". The cleanout door for the ash pit is in the garage below.
-There is an attic over this room (no second floor.) We do have a second floor in other parts of the house, but this particular room is a single floor room with only an attic above. There are speakers and recessed lights in the ceiling.
Googling, it seems I could be having a "stack effect" issue. I wonder if it is coming from the garage below. When we get winds from the north-east (as we do in 'Nor-Easters), the garage gets over pressurized due to winds. Could that be contributing?
Is there any way to make the Castleton more "air tight"? How else can we stop this problem?
Thanks for the help!
