If you have a chimney
that is outside your home, you may have had a downdraft in your
chimney that resulted in your home being filled with smoke when you
tried to light the fire! Several things can cause this: an
exterior chimney, trees near your home, or buildings near your home.
Here is how I solved the problem in our home. I built a manifold out
of wood pieces that fits around the air intake. I have thin foam
weather stripping on the wood in order to form a nice seal as shown
above. When I start the fire on "down-draft" days, I get the fire
set up with paper & kindling, start it, close the door, and insert a
shop-vac in the round opening and run it on "exhaust" so as to force
the smoke up through the chimney - it only takes about a minute or
so and things are drafting nicely. When the fire gets going I
of course take the wood manifold off! When I am not burning wood in
the stove, I place the wood manifold back on and plug up the opening
with paper tissue - it blocks nearly all of the creosote smell and
cold air from venting back into the house.
