Wood stove: Cant get the draft going in my flu.?

Question

I have a woodstove and the flu pipe make a right angle to go out of the house and another right angle to the stainless steel chimney.
I cant get the draft going for the first 5 minutes no matter what I try. Smoke just fills the house, coming out the air intake and door until the heat convection starts working, then it's fine all day. Is there any technique or device that will make starting a fire less smokey? My old house had a straight flu and chimney and there was never a problem.

Answer 1

My chimney takes a little time to get going like that. I've had some success blowing into it a few times, and then holding a newspaper at an angle in front of the fireplace for the first few minutes of the fire.

It takes longer if I've got a huge pile of wood set up, so you might start smaller... but your setup sounds tough to begin with. You might try setting a fan up to push air into the oven before you light it.

If that doesn't work, it might be worth your money to see about getting someone make a straighter connection for you. Too many bends in the chimney pipe is never a good thing.

Answer 2

We have a wood stove too and my husband has the same problem. I don't. We differ in how we start our fire. I like to build my little teepee with a small piece of starter log sandwiched in between the kindling and a small log on top. Then I douse the whole thing with Rutland One Match Gelled Fire Starter. When I light my fire it goes up... voom. I close the door and everything starts to burn. I have my door shut before the smoke comes out. The kindling burns, and once the log gets going the heat kicks in and the updraft starts to work. (doesn't always work - but it does more than not) p.s. got the stuff at an Ace Hardware.

Answer 3

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