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pellet stove smoke

15 years ago

I just purchased a Hudson River-Westpoint pellet stove and had it direct vented. When the contractor initially fired up the stove there was enough smoke to make the smoke detectors go off. We were told that was part of the normal curing process.

Once the contractor left, we turned up the temperature because we weren't getting any of the house warm except the room where it is installed. This caused the smoke detectors to go off again. So I disconnected the smoke detectors (just to get me through the night).

We burned the stove all night and the house smells like smoke so bad I couldnÂt stand it and had to turn the stove off. And it isn't a little smell. It's very noticeable to the point that it got my sinuses stuffed up. It has burned 16 hours continuously, so I can't see that there would be a curing issue at this point.

The unit is installed on the first floor of a 2 story 3000 sq.ft. home. Again, it is direct vented. It appears to have an exhaust pipe that sticks about a foot away from the siding and has a 45 degree cap facing the ground. The intake vent is installed flush with the house siding, level with the exhaust vent. There is maybe 18" of separation between the vents. There arenÂt any windows on the side of the house where it is installed.

Please let me know some of your thoughts.

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Comments (3)

SeattlePioneer
15 years ago
You should have a copy of the installation manual.

Take a look at what methods are approved for venting the equipment and see if your stove complies with those specifications.
fireplacehelper
15 years ago
I agree with the above response but add that your should make sure that a pellet stove adapter was installed on the exhaust pipe before the pellet pipe was installed. Also make sure that a high temp silicone or metal tape was installed around every joint inside of the house. Also make sure that there are no joints between the walls of the house. The pipe needs to be solid all the way through the wall / thimble. If you have a fresh air intake installed, make sure that it meets the specifications and that it is not drawing exhaust air into the fresh air pipe because it is too close to the exhaust pipe. Bottom line is to call the installation company back to resolve the problem.
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happybythesea
15 years ago
We just had a quadra fire mt. vernon insert installed and had the same issue. Except for us it was the carbon monoxide detectors going off. Scary. Was also told by the store that it was normal and the smell should be gone in 6-8 hrs. My detectors are hard-wired so there is no shutting them off so I'm supposed to have those go off for that time? Also the smell was horrible - no one would be able to stay in the house - and there was a haze. I was running around with a 6-month old baby opening all the windows and freaked out by what we were breathing. I got out of there as fast as I could and shut the stove down. Husband is out of town right now so waiting until he returns but he says we should run it and see if it stops (while we go somewhere else). This just doesn't seem right. You can't tell me this happens to everyone who gets one installed. I'm searching the internet and not finding much about this issue. The smell was really bad. I think it either wasn't installed right or the stove has a problem.

I would love to hear about other's experiences after installation.

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