Chimney Won't Draw?

Consider the basic physics. A chimney "draws" air because the air in it is lighter that the air that is around it. Why? Because heated air has molecules moving faster, pushing each other away more, making it less dense. On a really cold day, the outside cold air is VERY dense, so normal stack temps have the air really buoyant. (If you know anything about hot air balloons, you know that the pilots like to get up in the air early in the morning, not only because of the reduced air currents, but because the balloons are more buoyant in the cold temps of the morning.) On a hot day, the difference in densities is much less, and there is little or no draw until you have a roaring fire.

So... if you have a gasket that leaks and is allowing room temperature air to mix with your hot stack gasses, what do you think will happen?

Your chimney is drawing when the door is closed but smoke when you open the door. Consider this, on manufactured woodstoves, the size of chimney required is based on the area of the open door(s). For instance, if you have a big double door woodstove, it requires an 8" chimney. If you have a smaller woodstove, only a 6" pipe is required. The chimney has to be large enough to handle the increased air draw when the door(s) is opened, otherwise it will smoke into the room when you load firewood for instance.

With that said, it could be that the combination of the missing gasket and the open door on your stove is letting in too much air for the chimney to handle. In other words, the increased air volume is overloading your chimney.

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Pipe is straight up and clean the house is no tighter now than it has been , We experimented with having the door open and that didnt help.

All that makes sense to me.
EXCEPT that this set up has worked fine through one heating season a summer and most of ANOTHER heating season . Now
suddenly without any changes I can find it QUITS DRAWING!
Its not drawing well even closed.
That gasket is the only thing I can find that changed , I am thinking that with the door closed a bad gasket should let in more air cause a hotter fire and MORE draw.
Perhaps I am wrong?
With the door open the gasket wouldn't make any difference and its never smoked then before.


The more you guys point out the more flummoxed I am!

Do you have a circular damper inside the stove pipe exhaust stack, operated by turning a handle with a coiled wire on it?

If you do, have you checked to see if the internal circular plate has loosened and is just staying horizontal when you turn the handle?

Are you opening the door with the missing gasket, when you open a door and it smokes?

Do you have a surface thermometer on your stove or stack?

Turn off the dryer . . . No, seriously! Our wood stove in the basement is the devil to try to start from a cold stove, especially when the dryer is operating. Usually, I place a propane torch in the back of the stove, inside the first stovepipe to correct the draft and get our chimney (double-walled, insulated, stainless core) to draft. Otherwise, we get a heck of a down draft, due in no small part to the vent/heaters in the upstairs bathroom on our 3 story house.

Couple of weeks ago, I just couldn't correct the draft and had the basement all smoked up. Went outside to clear my head and saw the exhaust from the dryer shooting 10 feet of steam out of the side of the house. Turned the dryer off, placed the propane in the back of the stove, and the draft corrected itself in about 10 seconds.

Our dryer is made from rope I dont think it affects the draft!

When I take off the 90 at the stove to clean the chimney flue for the annual cleaning, I can actually hear the air pulling up thru the chimney, well, that's on the two-story part. But on the other chimney it also will pull a good draft, and it's about the same height as yours. I read all the comments about cool air/hot air and all that and I get it....but I clean mine in the fall so the weather is fairly warm. So, I'm thinking most decent chimney's pull a draft..... fair/good/better/best depending on the weather, but it does always pull a draft. So I guess I'm asking did your chimney pull a draft from the bottom with the stove unhooked? If so, seems the likely cause would lay somewhere within the stove, somehow or other.

.............Surely someone makes a sucking device that will fit on top of your metal pipe with an electric motor too pull the warm air up the pipe and push it out ! Although I suppose this could create a blockage too free air flow as well . , fordy

A longer chimney will draw better. But still yours should draw.

You could do a jerry rigged blow dryer duct tape and ash pit door to supercharge the fire, just to get it started. I'm thinking that once the fire gets burning, it'll draw just fine.

Have you tried it WITHOUT the cap?
Does the cap have a screen inside?

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If you have a elbow or two between the stove and the straight shot up...it's blocked and that's yout problem, if you haven't taken it apart and looked. it's the only place I ever have a prob.

No and No.
Its a very open type cap.

I did beat on it some....not much effect except to make me feel better.

Gas or electric?

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disconnect it from the stove and check the draft.

Solar power

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