Bad draft?

Hi I jus got a harman sf250 off a friend , I finally got it hooked up and ready to fire up , I have burned coal in a harman fireplace insert for the past few years and had great results with that stove , so I thought this would be same , yesterday I fired it up had a decent fire to start everything was going well , the stove is hooked up to a new ss chimney liner so , after a few hours of running I had to go to work for a couple hrs , I opened the door spinner 1and1/2 turns and went , a while later my wife called and said that the house smelled like rotten eggs. I came home a little while later and it smelled bad and the fire wasn't going that well and then all the co2 detectors went off , this never happened with my other stove could this have happened bc the fire was just lit that day and didn't have a good bed of coals or will it happen every time the fire gets low ? The stove is currently not burning any advice would be appreciated . I live in Scott twp. and have never had a draft issue before.

This certainly does sound like a draft issue. There may be a partial to near full blockage. Did you inspect the chimney to assure that no birds made a nest in it? Does it have a cap? What is the diameter of the chimney liner? Do you have a manometer so you can measure and monitor your draft?

You may have something else in the house that is making a better chimney than your chimney. Do you have a whole house fan, or an exhaust fan running anywhere?

If the house is tight, or there is inadequate ventilation near the stove, perhaps your stove needs to have a nearby window cracked open to allow it to breathe and draft properly.

Thanks for the reply , but the chimney isn't blocked I jus installed the liner 3 days ago it is a 6 " ss 316 ti liner with a cap on top when I put my face near the stovepipe coming out of the wall I can always hear and feel a draft I don't understand why this happened

Welcome to the forum,

Don you have a manometer to measure the draft? You can't tell what the draft is by listening. I'm assuming since you say that this is a new liner, the Harman insert didn't use a liner? Adding the liner and a chimney cap could hurt your draft.

The SF250 is a big stove. Is the flue outlet 6", or is it bigger?

-Don

If the 250 is anything like the 260, it could easily have fly ash blocking the exhaust. If you have not done so, reach into the breech with a vacuum and make sure it's clear. It can become almost completely blocked in one season. They called it the "swirl chamber" in the 260 and you have to really reach in there to get it clean.

The Sf250 manual I just looked at recommends a tile lined chimney and then it says "a minimum flue size of 8" x 8" is necessary for proper operation". That's the equivalent of a 9" diameter round chimney.

8 x 8 = 64 sq-in

4.5^2 x Pi = 63.62 sq-in

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/679857/Harman-S ... e=7#manual

As Larry points out, it could be that the products of combustion are just overwhelming the ability of the chimney to exhaust them. One and one half turns open on the primary air is a lot. Stove drew well on starting fire but full fire seems too much for the chimney.