The coughing resulting from inhaling smoke is annoying as well as painful, right? Not only that, but it’s also detrimental to your health in the long run. This is why this issue must be addressed very carefully. So, what do you do when faced with the trouble of your pellet stove blowing smoke into the house?
First, start by removing ashes and debris from the burn pot of your stove for proper operation. You must also make sure that your chimney is active to ensure a proper flow of smoke. Finally, look out for vent pipe leaks and faulty installations of vents.
Too confusing? Hey, don’t worry! We’ll break it down in the simplest hacks so you can understand and get rid of this nuisance. So, stay tuned if you want a healthy home environment!
Pellet Stove Filling House with Smoke: 4 Life-Saving Hacks
The universal process of solving any problem is identifying the source of the problem. And the best part is that the same rule applies in the case of a pellet stove causing smoke.
That is why, in the following 4 hacks, we have introduced different sources of problems and have offered you ways on how you can counter them!
Hack 1 of 4: Cleaning the Burn Pot
When your pellet stove blows smoke, the culprit may be the burn pot of your stove.
Sometimes, ashes and other debris gather in the pot which creates smoke by the stove. In fact, the accumulation of debris does not only create problems for the pellet stove. Debris also prevents water from being added to the geothermal loop properly.
So, you need to clean the burn pot before everything else. Don’t fret, because we’ll provide a guide on how you can efficiently clean it.
Tools
Instructions
Before you start, make sure you operate your stove manually and turn on the room temperature mode. Then, the ‘combustion blower’ option would get powered on by itself which will help remove the ashes.
First, you need to carry out the basic stage of removing out all the ashes inside the burn pot to the ash bin of your stove. Use a Harman scraper tool to do this. After you’re done, take your scraper tool and start scraping the inside of the burn pot. Make sure you thoroughly scrape all the parts of it to remove the carbon deposits lingering in the burn pot.
Now comes the turn of your bristle brush. Use it to brush off the last remains of ashes inside and outside the burn pot. You’ll notice that there is a plate on your burn pot covering the igniter. Use your screwdriver to remove the screws and detach the plate, exposing the igniter.
What’s next? Grab the ash vacuum and start absorbing all the final remains of dust, ashes, and other debris of your burn pot and igniter. Re-attach the screws and the plate to cover the igniter and you’re done! You shouldn’t face any problems with smoke now.
A word of caution: Make sure that the stove and burn pot are cool to the touch before starting to clean.
Hack 2 of 4: Making the Chimney Active
It’s natural to wonder why your pellet stove is blowing smoke inside the house when it’s supposed to be released outside through the chimney. So a possible reason could be related to your chimney, right?
Alright, enough with the suspense. What we want to say is, sometimes, your chimney may draft downward on its own when you’re not using it for a long time.
If the chimney is not drafted upward, the negative air pressure will blow smoke inside the house. This effect is similar to the malfunctioning of a heat sensor which causes an electric heater to blow cold air.
So this is the reason why you need to start the chimney and use it for a while. Do it before starting to use the stove and let it adjust to drafting upward again. For this, we’re helping you conduct a test to avoid risking your house getting filled with smoke.
For this test, take a piece of newspaper over your stove at a very high height above it. Then, light the newspaper. When it starts burning and the chimney pulls it up towards it, you can be sure that the chimney is drafting upward.
Voila! You can now light a fire without the risk of smoke inside your home!
Hack 3 of 4: Taping the Vent Pipe
If we look at this entire problem from a simpler perspective, then what do you think could be the cause of smoke from your pellet stove leaking into the house? That’s right. It’s because exhaust fumes and smoke are leaking from the vent pipe to the outside.
So, you can solve this problem by taping the vent pipe with silicone. Seal with silicone around each vent piece and you’re done!
Here are the top 3 silicones that we recommend using:
Hack 4 of 4: Repositioning the Vent
One of the reasons for the black smoke of the pellet stove blowing inside your house could be because your vent leading the smoke outside is not installed correctly.
So, how do you ensure that it is positioned accurately? By making sure the elbows of the vent are at 90 degrees or less and measuring that they are not more than 10 inches horizontal at any particular point. You can measure the latter with just a measuring tape and you’re all set to make the required adjustments!
Making adjustments this way is actually vital if you need to fix any issue or get something to work. A prime example of the importance of adjustment is needing to level ground for an easy set pool.
FAQs
Question: Can a pellet stove produce carbon monoxide?
Answer: If the wood pellets inside a pellet stove are stored for too long, they will create a chemical reaction and produce carbon monoxide. That is why a pellet stove needs to be cleaned at regular intervals and needs proper ventilation.
Question: How often should I clean my pellet stove?
Answer: The answer depends on how often you use it. The most common time interval ranges from cleaning every three days or at least once in two weeks.
Question: What should the flame look like in a pellet stove?
Answer: The ideal flames of a pellet stove should give a bright yellowish-orange color. As long as the top of the flame doesn’t produce a black tip while burning, the flame is burning correctly.
Conclusion
That’s all from us. These simple hacks will aid you to take steps when faced with the troublesome situation of your pellet stove blowing smoke into the house.
Just keep your burn pot clean and make adjustments to your vent pipe. Furthermore, keep the chimney active. In this way, nothing will stop you from getting an environmentally sound home!
We wish you all the best of luck!