Smoke in the room, Stovax County 5 Wide

[treeworld1203]

Good afternoon 

We have a Stovax County 5 Wide, installed about 3 years ago. Every time we open the door to put new logs on, we get smoke coming into the room.

We are in a bungalow and the flue goes up from the lounge, through the loft and out from the roof. 

We have a flue swept every year, and very little soot or residue is found.

We only burn dry, hardwood.

When we open the door, we unlatch the door handle and pause a moment, before opening the door slowly.

We have a Stovax thermometer on the flue, and keep the temperature within the "clean operation" band.

There is a plastic vent in the room, low down near the skirting board which is left over from the old gas fire that we had prior to the wood burner. We assume this is important not to cover it up as it stops creation of negative pressure in the room (depsite being fed up of the cold draughts which come from it during the winter!)

We are fed up of smoke coming into the room every time we want to put new logs on - are we missing something?

Any advice or the answer would be really helpful!

TIA

[woody paul]

As you live in bungalow get on roof and check flue they tar up right at the top and no matter how much you sweep you can't dislodge it. 

[treeworld1203]

8 minutes ago, woody paul said:

As you live in bungalow get on roof and check flue they tar up right at the top and no matter how much you sweep you can't dislodge it. 

What even after two or three winters of burning decent wood? The problem has been for the whole life of the stove BTW.

[GarethM]

Get the installer to fit a room seal kit, if Stovax do one, so you can seal up the old gas fire vent.

 

Plus get them to check the flue with a camera, any decent sweep has one.

 

The draw might be a bit poor on a bungalow, but that's for the installer to check and suggest.

[treeworld1203]

2 minutes ago, GarethM said:

seal up the old gas fire vent

So the vent is not helping then?

[GarethM]

4 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Get the installer to fit a room seal kit, if Stovax do one, so you can seal up the old gas fire vent.

That's what a room seal kit does, provides fresh air to the fire without going through the room.

 

And only seal it if you have a room seal kit fitted!.

[treeworld1203]

The stove is not against an outside wall, so I don't think we can fit a room seal kit?

[woody paul]

If you open damper and wait does it still smoke. 

Another thing is baffle plate the right way round. 

[treeworld1203]

Which do you by mean the damper? We have the + or - adjuster at the top which the dodgy installer told us was to make the smoke get burnt better before it went up the chimney (airwash i think he called it) and then the sliding vent at the bottom of the door...

[woody paul]

Air wash cleans glass on doors and throughs heat out of stove more, open both and see if it smokes when door is opened.