Wood Burning Stove emits a harsh chemical smell

[doobydo]

Dan:

Thanks - that's a good idea, would be a lot easier than trying to connect bendy flue pipes!

 

[DanCorcoran]

You didn't say...what was your existing pipe made of?

 

[doobydo]

Dan:

It's "made from steel with a quality vitreous enamel coating"

Thanks

 

[DanCorcoran]

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that was some new pipe you just bought to replace the existing.

 

[doobydo]

Np - thought the order of messages may have been inversed

 

[woodburn]

doobydo, it's definitely coming from the paint on the brick. You said there was a burned off patch behind the stove. Where do you think that paint went? Clearly vaporized into the air, hence the smell of fumes you are getting. Yes, of course it's harmful to you and your family to breathe it in. Not to worry now, but I certainly wouldn't want to keep burning it. While you have the stove out, I would paint the brick with a proper high temp paint, then use the suggestion of using a heat shield. Good luck. It's definitely a fixable problem, so no need to think about giving up burning.

 

[califf]

my initial thoughts would be the paint applied to the bricks...might try covering the brick and floor painted areas to protect from direct heat and see if this eliminates the smell....could strip the paint...which would be a messy chore...or cover with mortar of some kind...

 

[doobydo]

Hi all

I have repainted over the bricks today with an enamel heat resistant paint. I would also like to try to move the stove further away from the wall but to do this I would need to put a bend in the flue.

I am thinking of using this product:

(broken link removed to http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-Adjustable-Bend-Prima-Plus-Flue-Pipe-/250826662246?pt=UK_HG_FireplacesMantelpieces_RL&hash=item3a666f2166#ht_2188wt_905)

If I can move the stove away from the wall I will also put in a heat shield.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

[Danno77]

Was the brown stuff identified? Is that some sort of high temp caulk or stove cement?

 

[doobydo]

What brown stuff? The patch behind the stove was burnt paint. Is that what you are referring to?

 

[Danno77]

What brown stuff? The patch behind the stove was burnt paint. Is that what you are referring to?

No the stuff that looks like it was used to seal at the stove collar, at the blockoff plate, and that other square plate.

 

[doobydo]

Ah yes that is fire cement. I bought the wrong colour but used it anyway as I knew the stove would be coming out.

 

[Danno77]

No problem. I was hoping tht's what it was. If it was a brown version of that high temp caulk then it could be a source of the problem.

 

[doobydo]

Ah ok, gotcha.

Next step is to try to find a way to bend the flue out so I can move the stove away from the wall.

 

[doobydo]

Update:

Heat resistant paint went on nicely, put a couple of coats on. Then with the help of a friend who's handy at DIY we managed to pull the chimney liner closer to the front by chipping out some crusty cement that had accumulated on the bricks. This meant the liner came forward by about an inch.

This meant we could move the stove further forward away from the wall to the extent it is now 2 inches away from the back wall (plenty of room on the sides).

We used heat resistant sealant to attach the flue pipe to the stove and the liner.

As yet we haven't put the register plate back up as I wanted to see if there was any smell without it.

So far so good!

I burned it fiercely this morning and there was a metallic odour which I took to be the stove mostly, but it might also be the enamel paint hardening. The stove was then kept on medium throughout the day and when I came back from work this evening I couldn't really smell much at all!

I'll burn it again for the next few days to make sure, but all the signs so far are positive. If it doesn't emit any more strong odours then we'll put the register plate back and the job's finished.

 

[mattiker]

Update:

As yet we haven't put the register plate back up as I wanted to see if there was any smell without it.

So far so good!

I burned it fiercely this morning and there was a metallic odour which I took to be the stove mostly, but it might also be the enamel paint hardening. The stove was then kept on medium throughout the day and when I came back from work this evening I couldn't really smell much at all!

I'll burn it again for the next few days to make sure, but all the signs so far are positive. If it doesn't emit any more strong odours then we'll put the register plate back and the job's finished.

Hi Doobydo,

I have a similar issue to you, and it's driving my totally crazy (I'm sure you can empathise!). Has yours stopped smelling? Did you put the register plate back in? Did the smell come back? If you cured it what do think was the cause?

I suspect without the register plate the bad smells might drift up the chimney anyway, right?

Cheers,

Matt

 

[Hinneymac]

Hi, I have a wood burning stove fitted into our lounge which continues to emit a harsh chemical smell which I don't believe is smoke. The stove was installed a year ago. It's an Evergreen double doored stove, 7kw. The smell is present even when I burn lots of paper, or dry logs, so it doesn't seem related to bad fuel. The stove is fitted into a recess which is painted with black emulsion paint. The register plate is steel with a trapdoor. The flue pipe is fitted into a steel liner. I recently had a HETAS engineer round who checked the liner and fitting (cctv) and said the liner had no cracks and was fitted correctly. We have an electronic CO2 detector and that is zero. It's driving me nuts and means we can't use the stove as the fumes are too potent.

Any ideas? I am thinking of taking the whole thing apart including register plate, flue pipe and connector and putting it all back again. I just want to get this sorted as winter will be here soon.

Hi all first post for me,can't believe this I have the very same problem,it's an Evergreen double sided twin door burner and I get the same rancid smell,this must be from the paint as it only happens when you run it hot,it is very off putting and had me worried about the fumes it was giving off. I know hopefully by having a mains connected carbon monoxide alarm that it is not that (as I know you can't smell it, but it's still a worry) I am going to get in contact with Evergreen tomorrow and find out what paint they are using.
Anyone else having this issue could you please let us know if it is the same manufacturer Ta
Oh looking forward to reading the other threads looks a great site.

 

[Hinneymac]

Well contacted Evergreen they said that it is the paint and you need to burn it hot so I am had a few ragers on the go so I will keep you posted as to how I get on.

 

[begreen]

Latest:

This weekend a friend and I took a closer look at the stove to try and ascertain the source of the smell. First, we used a gas blow torch to heat up areas of the stove. It did emit a slight smell similar to the one I experienced, but it wasn't conclusive enough to convince me that was it. Then we heated/burned some of the black paint on the brick. Again it emitted a smell but was a lot more acrid than the one I normally get. However, I thought that perhaps a combination of the two was the culprit.

By this stage I thought we may as well go the whole hog and take everything apart. So we took down the register plate (after heating that too, but no smell) and took the stove outside.

After taking the stove away we could see a large grey patch where the paint had been burned/dried off behind the stove. The stove was sitting just 1-2cm away from the brick behind.

Any other suggestions?

I think that's the big clue. I would install a metal heat shield onto the back of the stove or onto the brick with at least a 1/2" air gap. The stove is getting the brick hot. The paint on the brick is outgassing when heated.

 

[fiona]

hi, just had a stove installed 3 days ago. the fumes are strong, its making my eyes sting. did you have this problem. im kinda worried about it.

 

[Robin Jackson]

I also have the strong fumes, almost makes us sick, problem is it has been used every winter since 2007 and we have to go through this every time we let the stove go out. So every time we have a few nice days and it gets cold again we have to sit through the awful "burn-off" all over again.
Anything we can do to stop this? Repaint stove? Use stove Polish? Shouldn't have to go through this after the first burn in my experience in past life....

 

[jbirdjtrain]

Hi, I have a wood burning stove fitted into our lounge which continues to emit a harsh chemical smell which I don't believe is smoke. The stove was installed a year ago. It's an Evergreen double doored stove, 7kw. The smell is present even when I burn lots of paper, or dry logs, so it doesn't seem related to bad fuel. The stove is fitted into a recess which is painted with black emulsion paint. The register plate is steel with a trapdoor. The flue pipe is fitted into a steel liner. I recently had a HETAS engineer round who checked the liner and fitting (cctv) and said the liner had no cracks and was fitted correctly. We have an electronic CO2 detector and that is zero. It's driving me nuts and means we can't use the stove as the fumes are too potent.

Any ideas? I am thinking of taking the whole thing apart including register plate, flue pipe and connector and putting it all back again. I just want to get this sorted as winter will be here soon.

The ceramic sealant for the door/glass may be odor you smell. It's horrendous, and you're likely to smell it in areas furthest from the stove. Definitely chemical smell. Solution: disassemble the door. Clean all of the sealant off thoroughly. Replace gaskets with a thicker sealant (more caulk-like than runny black crap that comes with gaskets). Use the absolute minimum amount of sealant with new gaskets (Follow recommendations). This will help a lot, but may not solve completely. Circulate the air in your home, open windows. Spaces where heat gets trapped emit stronger odor. Another option is to not burn so hot, and makes sure your chimney and stove is cleaned regularly.

Paint smells similar, but slightly different. So if unit or paint is fresh, take unit outside and burn off out there for 4-8 hours first.