Expert: James Ball - 2/11/2012

Question
Dear James,

I recently installed a Fishers Papa Bear wood stove in the corner of my basement.  This is one of the early models Fisher produced in the late seventies or early eighties (before there were government safety standards for wood stoves).It has a six inch stove pipe and three 90 degree bends before it goes vertically up the brand new double wall insulated chimney. Every time I start this stove up it smokes quite a lot and continues to smoke to greater or lesser degrees.  There is a basement door to the outside two feet from the stove.  I open the door and that seems to stop the smoking to a degree.  Today I opened two windows to clear more smoke and that seemed to help also. Right now the stove is burning very hot and there seems to be little smoke.  I want to know what I must do to get this stove to not smoke.  I have heard that basements are poor locations for wood stoves due to the negative air pressure likely to present there due to the "stack effect."  One on-line said running a direct vent line into the stove was one solutions, but this is not practical with this stove (where would I vent it in?).  I am considering cutting a hole in the door and installing a vent, but I have no confidence that will completely solve the problem (at one point I had the door wide open and the stove was smoking profusely).  

This basement in partially underground and the air is quite dead.  Do you have any ideas on what I could do?

I appreciate your time, concern and expertise.

Thanks!

Rodney

P.S. There is no venting between the upstairs and downstairs.  I am considering cutting two holes in the floor to encourage air flow and heat transfer to the upstairs.  But I do not want to do this with the stove smoking so badly.  I have an 85 year-old man living there.  This is an all electric house and we installed this wood stove as a backup in case we lost power.

Answer
Hello Rodney, installing a 30-40 year old stove is not a good idea and I would not do it, I would try to remove a few of those 90's, (45's are better or none at all) then check the stove when cold (not used) is there air coming down the chimney (cold, down draft) if so try opening a door or window to brake the negative pressure of the house, if it works then that is how you will always have to  work this stove, any time you want to open the door to start or feed wood you will need to open an out side door/window. do not cut floor vents this will only make it worse, new stoves have fresh air intakes to get around this problem. are you sure the chimney is clear (no nests?)
James