How to stop smoke bellowing into my room from the woodburner

[noyouhavehadawee]

Its awesome and I live it but three times now we have had it where smoke has come out of the air vent at the back - this is due to a cold pocket in the chimney pipe and it not being driven out fast enough so being heavier it pushes the smoke back down which then comes into the room - its not pleasant and we need to know what You do to stop it happening - it only happens when dh light it . He goes into a blind panic and shouts a lot! Then we spray a lot of febreze and open the windows to let all the lovely cold air in.

I mean I love it

Probably light it more gradually, don't put on an enormous piece until there is sufficient ember to burn it quickly.

Is it old? Had the chimney swept this winter? If so, did they do a smoke test?

If not, call a sweep and get them to check it out, you do not want your room filling with smoke from combusting fuel. Do you have a carbon monoxide alarm in the room near the burner?

I would get that checked out to be honest.

Same problem here so I'm interested to see what the solution is!

It happens when its very still and there isn't enough wind blowing over the pipe outside to suck the smoke up.

get a little handheld gas torch, you can get them from most DIY places for about a tenner. They burn butane or propane. Before you light the fire, hold the lit torch inside the woodburner for a minute or so. The heat from the torch will start to get the air in the chimney rising rather than falling, and should start the "draw". Then use the torch to light the fire.

The easiest (OK, yes cheating) way to start up your woodburner.

We have problems with the draw if the wind is blowing the wrong way and this technique never fails.

THinking about it, a hairdryer might have a similar effect. Except it won't have the bonus of being able to be used to start the fire.

It was only fitted in June tis new and until the weather got v cold and damp it hasn't been a problem, I think dh is an impatient swine and chucks on big chunks where I start with ickle twigs and a firelighter, im certain its about getting the draw - just read on tinternet to have some ventilation in the room like a door open as opposed to having them all closed which is what we have been doing.

Over the bit where the stove pipe is is a slab of iron its got a name but I cant remember so id have to remove that really wouldn't I to point my hairdryer up it ? its a throat plate that's its name

We use a hair dryer. As suggested by our chimney sweep. We only need to do it on the first fire of the year, or if it's expcetionally cold.

Blow hair dryer on hot up the chimney for a couple of minutes then light fire.

Also its a twin wall flue thingy on outside of a 2 storey house - surely a little pissy hairdryer wont send heat all the way up there or will it? humour me..... its roaring away now nicely....

dorisherod do you remove your throat plate to do this?

No need to move throat plate As long as air above gets warm.

just open the door of the stove and shove the hairdryer in. Before it's lit, obviously.

All you need to do is get the air in the chimney moving upwards instead of down, then light the fire

You just need to get the air moving upwards then light the fire gently as you describe (you do it, not your DH!)

X post with sleepless!

I still like my blowtorch. Super-speedy firelighting round here. Get your DH one for Xmas.

We sometimes had to keep the door ajar on ours just to get a bit more air in. Like you though, no point in trying to get half a tree to burn from the off. Lots of newspaper, kindling and then slowly increase the size of the pieces of wood.

thank you - I am going to ban him from lighting it for the next 3 days and prove he is not the cave man I thought he was . In fact with your help I am going to utterly piss him off

We had this problem - although every time we lit it. It was a problem with down draft and we had to get an exofan fitted. It cost £1k but now it burns beautifully.

Last time it happened our carbon monoxide monitor went off in the middle of the night and kept going intermittently until we had totally ventilated the house (big sliding glass doors fully open for half an hour in the same room). The kids sleep downstairs near the fire and we sleep upstairs so it was a bit scary - please be careful and get an alarm.

sleeplessbunny you sound like a twisted fire starter - dh would probably love it but I would be to scared - hairdryer v blowing myself up hmmmmmm

We have alarm in the front room and its never set it off - dh despite being crap at lighting it is paranoid about safety.

incorrect lighting technique, tell your husband to have the balls to say 'I am doing it wrong'.

BTW watch the febreze, nasty stuff!

Get your husband an axe and chopping block for Christmas, and send him out to chop some kindling. If you're starting the fire with the small stuff AND your wood is good and dry, it shouldn't be too smoky.

LOL My Dh had the same problem for years, he would get smoke in the house when lighting the wood burner. I didn't. He finally started doing it my way and it worked, small bits of wood and a fire starter and we kept the door open slightly till it caught well, then add a bigger bit of wood and get it to take off.

ha last night I lit the perfect fire, I did the hairdryer trick which resulted in blowing dust out of the stove all over the sodding place , luckily I cleaned it up before dh came in and had a perfect roarer awaiting him