wood burning stoves and smoke alarms

[Lefty Two Drams]

Finally got round to doing the flue pipe for our stove today, it's a villager A flat-top, rated at 14kw.

I lit it at 2pm and from about 5pm the smoke alarm in the living room has gone off every half hour or so. The house doesn't smell smoky and there's no visible smoke coming from the stove or the flue.

I should add, the stove is at one end of a big room, maybe 17m x 5m x 5m high and the room has 3 smoke alarms (hard wired with battery backup).


Should I get a sparky to come and remove the alarm nearest the stove?

Or should the stove not be setting it off in the first place?

I could cut the breaker for the smoke alarms and remove the battery from the one nearest the stove but I don't really fancy doing this...

Cheers
Lefty

[TooLateForAName]

Is it just a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide?

[Lefty Two Drams]

TooLateForAName said:

Is it just a smoke alarm or carbon monoxide?

Just smoke, I have separate CO alarms and they haven't gone off.

[Z4monster]

If the fire is new it's probable volatile chemicals burning off the finish and setting it off.

Alternatively the fire is leaking small particles and causing the alarm.

Some types of alarm are more sensitive than others so you might want to change the style of detector for one more suited to a kitchen enviromment (IE doesn't react as easily but will still trigger)

Try and persist with it for a few burns and see if it stops by itself. If you're confident the fire isn't leaking then once the surface coating has gone it should all be OK again.

[Hereward]

I agree with Z4monster that it's probably the paint finish of the new stove burning off. Same thing happened with my new stove and I was convinced there was a leak but after 40mins it had stopped. Keep a window open the first few times you run a new stove.

If it carries on then it's worth getting an installer in to check the connections, it should be totally room-sealed.

[Ferg]

Hereward said:

If it carries on then it's worth getting an installer in to check the connections, it should be totally room-sealed.

I'm not convinced of that.
The last wood-burner I had certainly wasn't, like most fuel-burning open flued appliances, but they rely on a good chimney draw. They aren't bad, but tolerances, construction and the properties of glass rope mean they are rarely that good.

[Lefty Two Drams]

Thanks for the input chaps, I'll light it again today and see how we get on.

[Hereward]

Ferg said:

Hereward said:

If it carries on then it's worth getting an installer in to check the connections, it should be totally room-sealed.

I'm not convinced of that.
The last wood-burner I had certainly wasn't, like most fuel-burning open flued appliances, but they rely on a good chimney draw. They aren't bad, but tolerances, construction and the properties of glass rope mean they are rarely that good.

Sorry, I used a piss-poor choice of phrase. I was trying to say that the flue/register plate should not allow any smoke leakage into the room. The stove will, of course, draw air from inside the room for combustion.

Edited by Hereward on Sunday 18th April 21:43