Print

[AirForcePOL]

Ok guys, I've had my 5000e going since October.  I really like the stove so far.  Here recently though it's been puffing out some thick black smoke like I'm burning a tire!  The only thing I can think of is that the fire isn't getting enough oxygen to allow for a complete burn.  When I open the firebox door when the black smoke is coming out and while the blower is running, all of the gasses inside the stove ignite and the flames get bigger and the fire seems to burn much better.  Once the door is closed back up though the smoke comes right back.  I have emptied the ash drawer and cleaned some of the coal bed out because is was pretty thick.  The next thing i was going to try is take the blower off of the stove and just verify that there isn't anything blocking the flow.  I was just curious if anyone has had this issue or not.  Thanks.

[CountryBoyJohn]

Sounds like the exact problem I had last winter. I didn't stir my coal bed nearly enough and a crust formed on the top and starved the firebox from air. Lots of puffy black smoke that looked anemic and I could tell the fire wasn't roaring. Open the door and it would take off.

What I did was literally push every ounce of coals to the back of the stove all the way down to the grates. Then pull them all to the front.  Empty the ash pan and she should come back to life. To prevent it from happening again, plunge your rake all the way down to the grates every time you load. Really stir up those coals.

Let me know if this works for you!

[atvalaska]

I have gotten that to.... it was the fire just getting going good ...it had something to do with me filling it with smaller stuff '''lots of it to

[AirForcePOL]

Thanks for the tips.  I cleaned out quite a bit if the ashes last night but I had some stuff going on so I didn't have much time to work on it.  This weekend I am going to clean out all of the fine ashes that are in the stove and see how well that works.