Smoke and my inset stove

Shazer01

Hi All.
I had a blacksmith artisan inset stove installed today. It is in a sitting room approximately 14ft by 12 ft. It lit fine and had worked well all day. I am burning coal. One question tho, I have opened the door of the unit twice today to add fuel and a fair bit of smoke came out. Not a huge amount but enough to leave a smell in the room. Am I doing something wrong or is this normal. Is there a way to prevent smoke from coming out when I need to add fuel.
Thanks for any replies.
Regards

RichT

Had exactly the same problem. It's the coal. You need to buy smoke-less coal. we burn turf, but I normally use a little coal to get the fire started, when the coal ran out we bought some cosy-glow and the problem disappeared!

Call me Al

I burn briquettes in our stove which is not a smokeless duel.
I find that if i open the door too quickly smoke comes into the room but if i open the door, leave for a second or two, and then open, the draw into the chimney takes over and i get little or no smoke. HTH

Shazer01

RichT wrote: »

Had exactly the same problem. It's the coal. You need to buy smoke-less coal. we burn turf, but I normally use a little coal to get the fire started, when the coal ran out we bought some cosy-glow and the problem disappeared!

Thanks very much. I bought a coal bunker and got 3 40 kg bags with it as a special offer. Gonna have to use this up first before I can try smokeless coal. Will reply again with hopefully a positive result.

Shazer01

Call me Al wrote: »

I burn briquettes in our stove which is not a smokeless duel.
I find that if i open the door too quickly smoke comes into the room but if i open the door, leave for a second or two, and then open, the draw into the chimney takes over and i get little or no smoke. HTH

Hi. I tried that and about half the time it works. I even opened some windows in the room to create a draft. I'm also thinking am I putting to much fuel in or is it just not hot enough. Its annoying the missus mostly.

RichT

Shazer01 wrote: »

Thanks very much. I bought a coal bunker and got 3 40 kg bags with it as a special offer. Gonna have to use this up first before I can try smokeless coal. Will reply again with hopefully a positive result.

Why not get a bag of smoke-less to use to get the fire started, then use your other coal once its up and running.

Before I started using smoke-less I noticed that when the fire was starting you could see the smoke swirling around inside the glass.

Shazer01

RichT wrote: »

Why not get a bag of smoke-less to use to get the fire started, then use your other coal once its up and running.

Before I started using smoke-less I noticed that when the fire was starting you could see the smoke swirling around inside the glass.

That's a good idea. The glass on my stove door gets dirty very quickly as well. The missus thought it'd be very romantic being able to see the flames so she's not happy about that either.

Shazer01

RichT wrote: »

Why not get a bag of smoke-less to use to get the fire started, then use your other coal once its up and running.

Before I started using smoke-less I noticed that when the fire was starting you could see the smoke swirling around inside the glass.

That's a good idea. The glass on my stove door gets dirty very quickly as well. The missus thought it'd be very romantic being able to see the flames so she's not happy about that either.

RichT

A damp cloth/kitchen towel dipped in the cold ashes cleans the glass up a treat.

goulders

wouldn't advise a damp or wet cloth on hot glass. I found just a rub of a toilet roll on the inside of glass cleans it great, just tear off the paper with soot and discard.

RichT

goulders wrote: »

wouldn't advise a damp or wet cloth on hot glass. I found just a rub of a toilet roll on the inside of glass cleans it great, just tear off the paper with soot and discard.

I meant when the glass had cooled down, but I should have said so.

Shazer01

RichT wrote: »

I meant when the glass had cooled down, but I should have said so.

Yeah. I kinda figured that. I'll give it a shot in the morning when I'm empting the Ashes.
Thanks again.

nick 56

Make sure to use a dry fuel (coal or antracite ). i used to find that when it was damp i got a tarry steamy form of smoke that blackend up the glass.

Did you get blowback before you fitted this stove ?

anyway It takes a time to get used to a solid fuel stove's habits.

Shazer01

nick 56 wrote: »

Make sure to use a dry fuel (coal or antracite ). i used to find that when it was damp i got a tarry steamy form of smoke that blackend up the glass.

Did you get blowback before you fitted this stove ?

anyway It takes a time to get used to a solid fuel stove's habits.

I'm using polish coal and a log at the end of the night. Never noticed blowback before as we had a gas fire but rarely used it cause its too expensive. I do need to gain some experience using a stove. Only have it 3 days. It is nice and hot tho.

Shazer01

Shazer01 wrote: »

I'm using polish coal and a log at the end of the night. Never noticed blowback before as we had a gas fire but rarely used it cause its too expensive. I do need to gain some experience using a stove. Only have it 3 days. It is nice and hot tho.

Hi.
Just giving a quick update. It turns out my chimney was damp from lack of use. Since using the stove I have found that the amount of smoke coming out had reduced significantly week by week. None comes out now. The damp chimney was reducing the draft. It hasn't totally gone but for all intents and purposes it has.
Regards

Robbie.G

Shazer01 wrote: »

Hi.
Just giving a quick update. It turns out my chimney was damp from lack of use. Since using the stove I have found that the amount of smoke coming out had reduced significantly week by week. None comes out now. The damp chimney was reducing the draft. It hasn't totally gone but for all intents and purposes it has.
Regards

That is why it's recommended to line chimneys as the large chimney is hard to heat so the liner is used as
It is sized right for the flue

wwrjd

im having a similar problem with my stove.

i only burn nuggets (recommended by the installer) and hard or soft wood logs.

been smoking when i open to refuel for a week now and im still waiting for my installer to come and check it (he's been coming every afternoon for a full week now).

im getting my chimney swept tomorrow 2 see if that helps.

Robbie.G

wwrjd wrote: »

im having a similar problem with my stove.

i only burn nuggets (recommended by the installer) and hard or soft wood logs.

been smoking when i open to refuel for a week now and im still waiting for my installer to come and check it (he's been coming every afternoon for a full week now).

im getting my chimney swept tomorrow 2 see if that helps.

Also make sure you have a open vent in the room.When refuelling open a door or window and
See if this helps

Paranoid Mandroid

I'm getting the same issues with an inset stove(dimplex 4kw). Once the fire is roaring away, there isn't a problem but adding small amounts of coal after the dry kindling has taken off or topping up to get it going does my head in. It stinks the room. Starting the fire with kindling and briquettes is the worst for this.

I'm going to experiment with firelighters on base with dry kindling on top with small amount of coal on top, all at once. Light firelighters. Close door, open air fully. leave it until its hot and then lash in the larger dose of coal. Close door. At least smoke might only enter the room once, if its not hot enough that is. Anyway, I'm waffling here. Gonna do this tomorrow.

Let us know what works folks. Also, I know getting a flue added would have avoided this possibly but I didn't do that unfortunately. Smoke test was done and chimney only 5 years old and low usage.