We have a Stove from the Keeley Stove Co. That smokes when starting - We open the chimney draft to be straight thru from the firebox to chimney. -Light a wood fire with paper and kindling (all ok to this point) - Add larger wood to fire let it get started good (the whole top of stove is good and warm -Close top draft to send heat around oven. The stove smokes terrible. Can anyone offer advice?

-- Lee Masteller (lmastell@bloomu.edu), March 27, 2002

Answers

Any stove will smoke if the top draft is closed, try closeing it in little segments allowing time for the heat to build up more.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), March 27, 2002.

If your woodstove smokes at start up you should try two things: (1) get the draft up the chimney going by lighting a piece of wadded-up newspaper in the firebox. Place the newspaper as close as you can to the stovepipe connection. Once the draft has started up the chimney, then you can light the firewood. The other thing that might help is to crack a window or door open before lighting the fire. Once the fire is going you can close the window or door.

-- Cabin Fever (cabinfever_mn@yahoo.com), March 27, 2002.

Try these 2 links ;-)

http://www.freetechsupport.com/csr/woodcookstove.htm

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-one-category.tcl? topic=Countryside&category=Kitchen%20(Cook%20Stoves)

-- Peace and Carrots Farm (wsm311@aol.com), March 27, 2002.

I would just play with the drafts as mentioned before. This is a new stove to you right ??? You will just have to learn to know your stoves as I have found each are different in some ways. Give yourself some time and I'm sure you'll be making chicken and biscuits in no time !! Good Luck !!!

-- Helena (windyacs@npacc.net), March 27, 2002.

Maybe your chimney is not tall enough?? My first attempt with one was much as yours and we found we had to extend the chimney.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), March 27, 2002.

Lee -

Asumming that you have done all the things everyone else has already suggested - chimney is tall enough, let the chimney warm up good, then I have some questions. Is your stove airtight? Do you close the chimney draft before you close the top draft on the stove to send the heat around the oven?

We have the Heartland Sweetheart cook stove. For the last 2 years we've had a horrible time with it sooting up within 10 days of dis-assembling the stove pipe and cleaning it up. And then, it would begin to smoke when we would use the oven damper. It would get to the point where we had to burn it with the chimney damper more than half-way open. A terrible waste of wood!

This year - same thing all over again. Didn't matter what we did! Most fustrating!! I asked some friends I know who also use cook stoves, and they set me "straight". We no longer have any smoke problems AND cut down our use of wood by more than half! Here's what was going on - The stove is "air tight". But it comes with directions for installing a damper in the stove pipe. With an air tight stove, a damper in the stove pipe is always left wide open! All air flow is controlled with the cook/wood stove's dampers! (we knew this from burning an air tight wood stove, but for some reason it never dawned on me that it was the same for cook stoves! DUH!) The only time the stove pipe damper is closed is if a chimney fire occurs. It helps to choke out the fire quicker.

Learning this - we immediately adjusted how we had all the dampers. And PRESTO! No more smoke!!! Made this woman one happy camper I got to tell you! :-) Stove burns nice and hot wen I want it to - PLUS - now I can damper it down at night and it will burn thru the night! No more cold kitchen.

I hope I explained this right. If this is what has been causing your problem, then maybe this will be of some help.

-- dottie - in E Shore MD (mother-ducker@webtv.net), March 27, 2002.

Make sure that your stove is cleaned good. Take the inspection plate off the front of the stove under the oven and clean if needed. Clean all the way around your oven. There may be a small inspection plate on the back of the stove also.Smoking when starting could be caused by having a cold chimney. Place paper in stove not a large peice and buun to check draft. Also good seasoned wood is a must. Let dry for one to two years. Green wood will build suit and creasote,I hope I spelled that right. Happy cooking and have a Happy Future, jim

-- Jim Raymond (jimr@terraworld.net), March 28, 2002.

I as going to say the same thing as the one above me. i did not know for a long time that there was a little clean out under the oven. Mine is one of those enamaled ones so it all looks the same but one of the peices under the oven door comes off and there is a little door hiden under. You need something resembling a tiny hoe to drag through and bring out the crud that builds up in there.

My stove also won't allow the stovepipe damper all the way shut. Most of the way after it's burned a while. I have to adjust it a little more closed every little while.Also if you have an airvent damper on the firbox, that needs to be shut down more as the pipe damper gets shut down. Mine is not airtight though so if yours is it may have differant rules. Even the weather seems to affect mine. I swear if the air is to heavy the darn thing won't draft well for quite a while and it takes an hour to just get it burning warm and steady! Or maybe that's just cause I don't have the "the touch"!hehe.

Good Luck!

-- Novina in ND (homespun@stellarnet.com), March 28, 2002.