Expert: James Ball - 11/22/2009

Question
our wood stove is leaking back smoke when it starts to die down. It's always smoked alittle, but not lately & now is only smoking badly when the fire begins to die down. Bad enough I have to open windows & doors. Our house is under 1000 sq/ft & the wood stove is an older Fisher model that is also huge. We have furnace vents on the ceiling but the furnace is never on when I use the wood stove. The house is pretty airtight except that we have no insulation & an uninsulated attic as well. I never have windows or doors open when I use the stove unless it begins to smoke. Any ideas??

Answer
Hello Ali, What is happening is you are getting Negative Pressure in your home (house stack effect) that is hot air rising in your home (and getting out through the attic vents, doors, lights) your house is a better chimney than your chimney. Also kitchen/bathroom exhaust fans, cloths dryers and the boiler/furnace all take house air out of the house (mechanical negative pressure) your house needs make up air, perhaps an open window in the basement? Or stop the air from getting out the attic and other area’s.
Trail and error until you get this stove to work for you, maybe a fresh air intake will allow the stove to work independent of the house? check with the manufacture
Or it could be dirty? 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.
James