Expert: James Ball - 4/14/2009

Question
I purchased a home & workshop (concrete block)about 2 years ago and in the workshop is a chimney with a 6" hole in the block going into the chimney. I purchased a wood stove at an auction that has an oval in the back of it 13" wide and 5" tall with the damper in it. It has an oval to 8" adaptor that connects to the heater. I installed a 8" to 6" adaptor and installed 6" stove pipe with 2- 90 degree fittings to go from the stove to the hold in the wall. the stove is aprox. 30" tall and the hole in the wall is about 70" from the floor. While running the stove pipe i could feel cool air blowing in from out side down the chimney into the workshop. After all was connected and secured i started a small fire...within a matter of seconds my small fire to "test" the stove turned into a shop completly full of smoke. The dampier was 100% open but seemed there was no drafting at all. What can i do or what should i have done to get this wood stove to work prpoerly? $15.00 for a wood heater and $75.00 worth of stove pipe and fittings from Lowes and I'm still at square one....Thanks in advance for any assistacne you can provide.

Answer
Hello Randall, lets start with do you have the owners manual for this stove? if so you must follow the installation instructions, if you do not have it try to locate it.
second you state that you reduced your pipe from 8" to 6", you can not do this with a solid fuel appliance. last there may be a negative pressure issue causing cold air to come down your chimney.
also you can not use a wood stove in a garage so if cars or lawn mowers are in that "work shop" the stove must  be removed
hope this helped
James