Expert: James Ball - 1/4/2009

Question
We have a heat pump and an add-on wood furnace.  The wood furnace has a jacket around it with a large opening with filter in the back of the furnace.  When the heat around the wood furnace builds up sufficiently, the heat pump unit's fan kicks on and sucks the heat from the wood furnace and pushes it through supply ducts throughout the house.  If the wood furnace's damper is shut at the time, and there is much smoke in the firebox, smoke somehow ends up in the duct and can be smelled at the supply registers.  The smoke exhaust pipe from the furnace to the chimney does not seem to leak.  Does it appear as though there is a crack somewhere in the firebox of the furnace?  Is there anything we could try before scrapping the furnace and buying a new one?

Answer
Hello Roger, not sure what you have with out seeing it. I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have and see where the problem is coming from.
James