coal smell

Hi everyone. Last weekend my buddy installed a Harman Mag stoker and with your help it is burning just fine Thanks Again. The new problem is the strong coal smell lately. I am new this year to the coal family and so is he, i have a l.l. Pocono with a power vent and was installed by a dealer. We sorta coppied that but took a wood stove out and replaced it with a stoker. Is there something we are missing? or should he call a service tech he is going to get a co dec today Help Jeff

If you are smelling that dreaded egg smell shut down the stove at once until you can measure your draft and ensure you have a good one! Sounds like your draft is bad and CO is leakin into the house. Not something to play with. Shut her down.

Shut it down and open some windows to air it out until he gets a CO detector in place.

It could be that he doesn't have the combustion fan plate closed far enough and he is blowing more air into the stove than the exhaust pipe can get rid of so it is leaking out into the room. That can be adjusted, but he should wait until he has a CO detector before firing it up again.

On warm days with low draft it may pay to crack a window open in the room the appliance is in.

Are there any trees or buildings around your house that could cause the wind to blow down the flu? Can we see a picture?

jkabdoors wrote:or should he call a service tech he is going to get a co dec today Help Jeff

If he has no CO detector he should immediately shut the stove down. Get someone in with the proper equipment to adjust the draft and properly setup the stove.

Shut down the stove immediately as you have a very serious and potentially deadly problem . CO is nothing to mess around with as it is a colorless and odorless deadly gas. No coal appliance should ever be operated in a home without at least 2 CO detectors. One should be placed in the room with the stove and opne outside the sleeping area. What you are smelling is sulfur dioxide which is another by product of the combustion of coal. THis flue should never be present in the home and signals you have low draft situation which can be caused by a number of things ranging from to much combustion air, an incorrectly set baro damper to a poor drafting chimney. If you don't have access to a manometer (draft gauge), then you need to call in a professional. Was the chimney cealned after the wood burner was removed, if not that would be a start. However the draft needs to be set with a gauge for proper operation.

And I'll add....get a CO gauge that has a peak CO display