Cold Flue Syndrome

Occasionally you may have difficulty lighting your stove and may experience smoke spilling back into the room. This is due to the flue (one or more flues run up the inside of the chimney) temperature not being high enough to create a draw for your stove.

Cold flue syndrome is likely to occur in the following instances :-

  1. In the summer months when you light your stove - due to the temperature difference between the flued gases (smoke) and the ambient external temperature, not being sufficient.
  2. When you first light your stove after a long period of inactivity (The flue can become quite damp and cold during a period of inactivity).
  3. On particularly cold days, though this is most likely if you have an external chimney (internal chimneys are better insulated by the heat already in your home/neighbours home if the chimney is between a dividing wall on a semi detached property).

For the stove to work successfully you must get heat into the flue. Hot air rises and it is this action that creates the ‘draw’. It is the effect of the ‘draw’ that removes the products of combustion. (smoke, otherwise known as flued gases).

The reason you may experience smoke coming back into your room and not going up the flue is because the flue is too cold. Until you warm the flue the products of combustion will spill into the room, this creates a ‘catch 22’ situation!

Carrying out the following may help you :-

  1. We recommend you light the stove using firelighters and bone dry kindling as this combination gives the best results (kindling will burn longer than scrunched up newspaper).
  2. On the majority of days you will not need to burn an excessive amount of kindling (you will know by trial and error how much to use)
  3. When you are experiencing an issue with smoke spillage, you have to get some quick heat up into the flue. This means you may need to burn quite a lot of kindling to achieve this (Installers often use portable gas torches to warm up the flue) or you may find that trying some newspaper and or more firelighters helps.

Important

It is important that you have your chimney regularly swept (please refer to the cleaning your chimney page.) as persistent smoke spillage from your stove may indicate a blockage, especially if the flue has not been used for a long period. (It is not uncommon to have nesting material in the flue). We would always recommend having the chimney swept prior to using your stove for the season ahead.

If in doubt always seek advice from a professional chimney sweep.