should it smell??

Greetings,
We just became coal burners. Got a used self stoking "Tri- Burner 86S" stove. Installed it yesterday and it's been burning since. Noticed the house has a slight sulfer smell. Not bad, in fact my wife can't smell it but definetly there. Is this normal? Is it safe?
Thanks,
Don

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No.

Welcome to the forum! There's information that will help you with your tri-burner operation. Just use the search feature or others will be contributing soon.

Do you have CO (carbon monoxide) detectors installed?
Do you have a manometer to measure you draft?
Is it a chimney instalation?

Combustion exhaust gas should not be inside the house. Please post some pictures of your setup, bot inside shots and chimney/PV shots. It will help a lot.

Has your tri-burner been retro-fitted with a continious combustion fan? There are thread on this forum that describe that mod.

Moved this to the Stoker section.

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Might just be I'm used to it but I never get any sulfur smell except for on some very rare moments. Firstly do you have a CO detector?

OK, until I figure out how to do pictures here, I'll give a desciption: This stove has it's exhaust port on the top. 6" pipe straight up for approx 40 inches, then an elbow, horizontal pipe 48 inches with Tee and baro damper thingy, then elbow and then straight out through a block wall (through a tile thimble). As pipe emerges outside we stepped up to 7" galvinized (single wall stove pipe), 24 inches outside to Tee. Bottom of tee capped, and 24 feet of verticle pipe with shanty cap on top. Top is approx 4 feet above roof. Stove came with a continuous combustion blower. I noticed the seal on the bottom of the hopper is not compressed all the way around??? Figure this shouldn't be an issue as the hopper is open on the top.

No, I don't have a CO2 detector
Don't have a manometer

Get a couple CO (carbon monoxide) detectors, pronto. Sulfur smell inside the house, except for brief periods when you have had the stove open, imply you may have products of combustion leaking into the house. That could include carbon monoxide, which is odorless but deadly.

sailbode wrote:OK, until I figure out how to do pictures here,

There's directions here for uploading files: How to Upload Files


You should get a CO detector, I don;t want to be alarming but I'd shut the unit down until you get one. CO is nothing to mess around with and if you have a strong sulfur smell you potentially have other gases venting into the house.

sailbode wrote:horizontal pipe 48 inches

sailbode wrote:24 inches outside

From this I gather you have a total of 6 feet of horizontal pipe..? If there is that much you should try to reduce horizontal runs by running pipe at an angle anywhere you can. Chimneys with limited horizontal sections will function better. What type of pipe are you using for the 24 foot section?

I have CO2 on the brain, it's CO... I edited my posts above because they stated CO2.

The 24 foot vertical is 7" galv. single wall stove pipe.
I talked to the stove store guy (where stove was purchased) and he said it's probably the door gaskets. Also suggested a thorough cleaning to make sure the internal exhaust baffeling system is not restricted.

Got a CO detector and placed it 6 feet away from the stove. It indicates all is fine. After cleaning the clean out door, I believe there is less smell in the house. This weekend I may try disassmebling the stove and try to do a thorough cleaning.
D

Very Good!! There may be some smell to the coal if it's damp, but any sulpher type smell is normally a draft problem or you need to clean it good.

Did you get a Digital one? or just a regular one?

Keep the CO detector working. CO is odorless and colorless. The smell is from the sulfur in the coal.

However, every time I smell something from my boiler I can't help thinking of the Lynyrd Skynyrd song -

CHORUS-
Ooh, ooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell?
Ooh, ooh that smell
The smell of death surrounds you.

Did you check to see if the smell is coming out of the hopper? Also, is it possible the flue gas coming out of the chimney is settling back down around the house?

where do you live? hell if you are close enough to me i can come over with the CO reader that our fire department has and see how many ppm's you have, if any

Is your coal oiled by any chance? I ask this because when I first got my boiler running I had a smell in my basement. I thought it was sulphur (have since realized that the sulphur smell is a bit different from what I was smelling), but none of my CO detectors would register anything. It turns out to be that the oil on the coal would warm up when in the hopper and give off a smell. I don't want to encourage you to think the smell is somthing it is not...CO is nothing to play with, but there is the possibility that it is something else.