Woodstove problem, Vermont Castings Defiant

[fireweed farm]

I've had my VC Defiant since new for three years and use it as my main heat source for my house.
The last two nights I woke up to the smell of smoke, went down to look at the stove but nothing seemed unusual.

I do fill it up before bedtime, make sure it's burning well, then close the damper all the way. Have always done this. It wasn't overheated or anything like that.

Any ideas? Is there a specific seal I need to look at, or?
I should add, the first time this happened I will admit the ashes were really building up, so yesterday morning I cleaned it thoroughly, and it smoked again last night.

Thanks for any help.

[Irish Pixie]

Have you cleaned your chimney lately? When it's really cold and we're burning a lot of wood we'll clean it every 6 weeks at the longest.

[bluefish]

Is it the stove itself smoking in your house? If so, I'm no help, but often here we get a bit of an inversion layer as the nights cool down and the smoke stays down low after it leaves the chimney. Then it creeps in through windows or where ever and makes the place smell like smoke.

[Danaus29]

When we start smelling smoke we clean the pipe going out the back of the stove. It's surprising how little of a buildup you have before the chimney doesn't exhaust properly.

[fireweed farm]

Well the chimney is clean, and it's definitely not seeping from outdoors in through windows.
I'm confused myself, this hasn't happened in the past and it's a bit unnerving.

[glenn amolenaar]

it sounds like the chimney and/or the rain cap screen have build up of creosote. When closing damper over night it builds up and only takes a little to have smoke back up into house, also damp/snowy wood will cause it to build up. It does not take much, our pipe is about 21' tall, we get about coffee can of soot/creosote a cleaning every time it backs up we run our Fisher 24hr a day in use since 1978.

[DutchAcres]

We have the same stove. Vermont Casting Defiant. It's our only source of heat in our house. Ours has been doing the same thing for the past 2 days. The chimney is clean. We finally figured out that the wind was blowing from the east (very unusual), and that the smoke was coming in through the dryer exhaust vent (we haven't been using the dryer). The dryer door was open a bit, and the smoke smell was strongest in there. Our house is so snug that we think the stove draws air in through the dryer exhaust vent. Opening a window might help you guys.

Plugging up the dryer exhaust vent and cracking a window a little has solved our problem. However, we put a very large sign on the dryer start button that we can't miss "REMOVE THE PLUG BEFORE STARTING!"

Good luck.

[Missy M]

IF you have the catalytic version make sure your catalytic converter has not become plugged.

[Phil V.]

Have you had any amount of wind the past few nights? Sometimes the wind will push back some smoke into the house; not a lot but enough to notice. Had this happen to me before and everything was clean.

[HuskyBoris]

although I don't have the same stove every once in awhile if the wind is right or the pressure just right it burps out through the door seal,I have found by leaving the damper open just a hair helps alot,,as long as your chimney isn't plugged or your catalytic screen I wouldn't worry tremendously but would still keep an eye on it.

[fireweed farm]

So many great ideas coming in and seemingly none are the problem!
I think I'd better have a second look at chimney sweeping as I was worried about the top 1 foot or so, just nearly out if reach.

[mink]

Open the. Clean out door and use a mirror to look up the chimney. If it's clear you might have gotten a little bit of downdraft.of course check the stove pipe from the stove to the chimney

[farmrbrown]

Originally Posted by fireweed farm

I've had my VC Defiant since new for three years and use it as my main heat source for my house.
The last two nights I woke up to the smell of smoke, went down to look at the stove but nothing seemed unusual.

I do fill it up before bedtime, make sure it's burning well, then close the damper all the way. Have always done this. It wasn't overheated or anything like that.

Any ideas? Is there a specific seal I need to look at, or?
I should add, the first time this happened I will admit the ashes were really building up, so yesterday morning I cleaned it thoroughly, and it smoked again last night.

Thanks for any help.

I saw on a thread in another forum a similar problem coupled with overheating, 35 ft. flue. After checking everything and cleaning, he discovered ash pan was in position, but not latched securely, causing an air leak.
Worth a look since you mentioned ash buildup and cleaning it out.

[MichaelZ]

Could be that the trees around the house have now grown to a height where they can interfere with the draft. Just a possibility. Does your chimney run inside or outside your house? Generally, this is only a problem for chimneys that are on the exterior.

[farmrbrown]

Double post.

[CountryCabin]

Fireweed
I had the same problem of smoke coming back, different stove tho.
Turned out there was a hunk of crap up top, that fell down just enough to plug it by the damper and worse with the damper pretty well closed already.

When it had been cleaned the time before, the guy was in a hurry and missed something. That some thing came back to haunt him and he was called the next day as soon as it was day light!

That was the first time it ever did that.
Was it not for my JRT barking her head off and bouncing up and down on me, I might not be here typing this.

So please people...
Make 100% sure the chimney is really clean/cleared of anything up there.

[Ramblin Wreck]

Originally Posted by Missy M

IF you have the catalytic version make sure your catalytic converter has not become plugged.

If your wood is not dry enough to keep a fire burning hotly you'll sometimes see a catalytic stove expel smoke through the air intake openings. The converter needs a hot fire to help it "consume" the particulate matter in the smoke being produced. Absent the hot fire and with the converter engaged, the smoke has to go somewhere, so it seeks out any opening it can find. Just a guess, but I saw my Vermont Castings stove do this before I got timely with my wood cutting, meaning at least one year in advance of the need.

[Big Dave]

OK so here we go. The house has filled with smoke twice in the last week. Air inversion has some thing to do with it I think. We have an older cast iron stove called KING brand. Been just fine having used it for several years now. The first time DW had the Central heat turned on and it kicked on drawing in the smoke from the outside????? Second time it was found coming out of the flapper we have in the flue pipe. We are getting a soapstone one next season and a new flue. Hint when you have ferrel cats they will come in @ 2-3 am when the doors are open and you have no screens.

[logbuilder]

I have the VC Defiant myself. Bought new 10 years ago. It has the catalytic option which I thought would make it more efficient. After about 2 years, I quit using the catalytic feature because it needed a new catalytic cartridge and they cost about $200 and you are supposed to replace them every few years. It wasn't worth it to me.

Here is what I learned in the process.

1. Only turn on the catalytic once the stove is burning really not.
2. When you need to load new wood, open up the air vent all the way and turn off the catalytic. Let it sit this way for 15 seconds or so. Then you can open it up. Don't turn the catalytic on till it gets up to high heat.
3. If you are going to load up for the night, turn off the catalytic. This is because when the fire starts to burn down, the catalytic will clog up.
4. If it clogs, next fire, bring the temp up real hot and it will often allow the catalytic to burn off.
5. The stove will run just fine without the catalytic turned off. I haven't used mine for 7 or 8 years except to kick it in when I have a really hot fire. This is just my attempt at keeping it clean.
6. When your fire is hot enough and the catalytic is working properly, you can look in thru the glass doors and see the honeycomb of the catalytic glowing bright red.
7. If your catalytic is clogged and old, when you turn on the catalytic, it will just rob the fire of draft and eventually might put the fire out.

If you don't have the catalytic option, never mind the above.

[greeneyes]

We had this happen and found out if we messed with damper that was where smoke was coming from ,we adjusted the damper and have had no more trouble. Hope this helps.