Strange wood burner problem.

[Benway]

Hi.

Had a wood burner that has been working fine for years. Today I lit it and smoke just blew into the room. Put it out and could feel a noticeable draft coming down the chimney with the door open. Put my thinking cap on and the only thing different was the loft door was open as had been reorganising crap in there during the day. Sure enough closed the loft door lit the fire and everything back to normal.

Any ideas? As it's confused the hell out of me!

 

[Diver Fred]

Does the roof have felt underneath the slates/tiles? Sounds to me that the air flow isn't supporting the fire

 

[Benway]

Felt under the tiles. 90's built house. Loft never smells of smoke. Chimney is "external" IE built onto the side of the house and doesn't actually enter the loft.

 

[MJN]

It is likely down to the 'stack effect' - warm air rising up through the building and into the loft (and subsequently out through the roof). This causes negative pressure on the ground floor hence the sucking of air through your wood burner.

 

[SpecialK]

As MJN says! If you open the burner door and its cold inside then the chimney is not drawing air. Crack a window open in the same room and it should warm up inside the burner to show air is being drawn up the chimney and not down... It can happen if you have a powerful bathroom / kitchen extractor...

 

[Tetrarch]

This is the oposite of the problem I have been having with my stove.

In my case, especially during the very cold weather my (external) chimney was suckihg freezing cold air into the house. When I tried to light it smoke poured into the room. It took ages to warm the stove sufficiently to reverse the flow.

Our 1914 house is very leaky and my theory is that hot air leaking out of the upper storey is pulling in cold air, partly down the chimney

I warmed the flue with a hot air gun and opened a window downstairs to reduce the chimney downdraft. These actions, plus upping the quantity of kindling seems to have stopped us becoming kippers.

I would guess that your problem is the same, but only temporary when hot air is rushing into the loft!

Regards

Tet

 

[Mr Chibs]

Maybe this:

Log Burner billowing smoke

Hi All Had a log burner installed for 3 years, worked fine until recently. Now even just lighting it results in smoke billowing back into the room from underneath it. Chimney has been swept and logs are good. Any ideas?

www.diynot.com

 

[Benway]

Thanks all. Makes perfect sense now. Draft up the open loft door was greater then the draft up the chimney so was sucking air from where ever it could.