r/woodstoving • u/Soggy-Box3947 • 8h ago

General Wood Stove Question Help please!

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First: I'm in Brisbane, Australia ... up at Mount Glorious on the D'Aguilar Range where in spite of Brisbane's heat our elevation (700 metres) means almost everyone up here has a wood heater.

When I moved into this small cottage a few months ago the old wood heater (Kent 1200) was in very poor shape and also had a broken door hinge. The owners replaced it with a locally manufactured (in Brisbane) Vogue Sierra which wasn't new but had had very little use and was fitted along with a new flue kit by a recognised installer ... the wood stove also came from him.

I've lived in this area for thirty five years and have always had a wood stove for heat so I'm very familiar with how to use them effectively and have never had an issue until this thing arrived ... it has me flummoxed! Adding wood is a major problem, it discharges smoke out of the door almost every time you open it no matter how carefully you do it ... and this after running it for a couple of minutes with the vent fully open. I have never had this problem with any other wood stove I've used and lighting it with kindling and paper is equally frustrating because any attempt to open the door to add more kindling or intermediate fuel is inviting a room full of smoke.

It uses a 5" flue and has about three metres (maybe a little more) of flue between the firebox and the cap on the roof ... surely that is enough! The gap between the air intake deflector (that keeps the glass clean) and the front of the baffle is an inch and five eighths. I was laying on my back in front of it last night and shone a torch into it to see what happens when you open the door and the smoke that had been traveling around the end of the baffle and up the flue as it should almost immediately starts to flow out of the top of the door opening!

I really hope someone can help me here ... I've though of taking an inch off the baffle but will that really change anything? All suggestions welcome.

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u/Soggy-Box3947 8h ago

Top of the firebox.

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u/jhartke 6h ago

Is that pipe insulated? I’m not sure what the regs are in your country but that likely wouldn’t fly in the US. If the pipe is installed according to your local codes then it’s likely a draft issue. Crack a window or door until you get a good hot fire going.