Prevention of Fine Soot Entering Room

[CharlieBill]

After 25 years of burning wood in the basement of my l828 house, I installed a Whitfield Optima Pellet Stove."Let's make life easier as I move into retirement. Fine. No more fussing with wood, creosote, etc. PROBLEM: Stove works fine but after three months of burning I have discovered the presence of "fine black soot" everywhere in the room! Where is the soot coming from ? What is the solution for its prevention? Clean the stove? Yes, on a daily basis with brush and vacuum. Despite the work and mess of the wood stove, I never had this problem. Can anyone help me? [email protected]

[Bernius1]

WHEN cleaning it, you're probably releasing a trace amount of dust, which accumulates over time. Elsewise, be sure your flue has some backflow prevention. An ionic filter near the door should catch alot of it.
Can you say chee$$$$$$e ?

[josmith]

When a heater operates at a high enough temperature it will burn the dust that is already in the air and cause soot. If your stove uses ducted hot air the solution is to use filters in the cold air return.Otherwise you'll have to bulldoze your house and build a nice new one with no dust.

[CharlieBill]

Soot problem not the result of using ducted hot air. Only air from the room is used. Second, I suspect the fan on my stove is partially responsible for the problem as the soot is literally carried thirty feet away from the stove. Anymore suggestions?
CharlieBill

[haklesup]

OK, I'll join this guessing game (since most of us here have no idea how a Whitfield pellet stove works)<p>Do you by any chance have an air ionizer in the room. If it has become saturated with dust (or otherwise malfunctions), it may begin charging all the soot/dust floating in the air. Now the charged soot is attracted to all the grounded surfaces (instead of the collector in the air cleaner) like the walls, floors, curtains etc.<p>Daily cleaning with a vacuum, maybe you are the source of the soot. Check your vacuum's air filter.<p>I have no advice about the stove itself, you should call a HVAC service technician with appropriate experience to check that all dampers are set for optimal burn conditions

[Ron H]

Are you sure there is no leakage in the heat exchanger? I once had an open wood-burning fireplace that I added a forced-air tubular grating to. After a short time, the fire burned out some of the screws holding the tubing to the grate. The fan apparently sucked combustion products from the flame, which left soot all over the house. I never noticed any soot in the house until I added the heat exchanger.

[josmith]

If you are fan forcing air past the stove that's enough to cause dust based soot. Try to filter the inlet air.

[CharlieBill]

In response to the last three replies.
#l. No air ionizer in the room
#2. Leak in heat exchanger? NOw that sounds like a possibility worth investigating. I only need to find how "how to do it."
#3. No fan forcing the air.
_______
As for checking with the mfg, that's also in the works and I will share whatever info I receive from them.<p>ONce local heating expert informed me that the problem could reside in my flue--I vent my pellet stove out through (from 3" pipe to a 6"gal used formerly for wood burning) a 38 foot run (basement to attic and out) of 6" galzanized stove piple which runs inside my old brick chimney. According to the local heat man, "that could be too long a run for your little pellet stove....the motor is not large enough to help push smoke up and out,....and sook simply drops from chimney, etc." Problem with his analysis is this. There is no evidence of any soot at the base of the chimney where the pipe enters the room, or at any of the joints of the 3" pipe which connnects to the stove. The search goes on but I definitely want to investigate the possibility of a "leak in the heat exchanger."

[jimandy]

Good grief, I gotta get me one of these stoves. Seems like everyone else has one.

[haklesup]

If you have a leak like RonH described, I would also be concerned about Carbon Monoxide (CO) gas entering the living space. If you do not already have one, A CO detector is a good idea.

[Chris Smith]

As far as just collecting the soot, assuming you don’t have another problem, purchase an old muffin fan from a computer surplus store/supplier for very old computers that had 7 or 9 inch fans, and place a “Filtron” foam piece in front of it. Place this about two feet from the heater.<p>The fan will displace a positive air flow into it, and suck any static or floating dust particles into the foam where it will stick, as long as you lubricate the foam with some type of oil. Mineral oil will do for indoor use.<p>But make sure you dont have a real problem, before using this Idea as a simple cure for carbon dust.

[jwax]

jimandy- me too! I need a few more problems!

My advise is to have a pro look at your installation. No amount of amateur guesswork is going to resolve your potentially deadly scenario. Also, as mentioned, no home should be without a CO detector.

[Bernius1]

Not everything is an electronic problem. I use Chris' idea on my filters. Some 'Lysol' sprays leave an 'adhesive' residue. That said, how well is your house sealed? Is it possible that your dryer, bathroom vent fans, & main heating system are all trying to evacuate the house when the Whitfield comes on ? (The least powerful exhaust fan will suffer reverse flow.)

[terri]

"Endust," the household dusting spray, contains the same "capture" resins that are used to catch dust in things like automotive air cleaners. So I am told.<p>Now I gotta go look up what a Whitfield Pellet Stove is.<p>[ February 19, 2005: Message edited by: terri ]</p>

[frhrwa]

you gotta be kidding.. they just keep coming back and its all my fault.... how about some computer software guru writing a macro that will sniff out the words "pellet stove" and auto send the post off to some marine bacteria site or somewhere... or a header at the top of the page that reads... " NUTS AND VOLTS AND NO PELLET STOVES FORUM...