Woodstove "plastic" smell?

[jeepnutt]

Hey guys I realize Im way late to the party but we have lopi endevor have h ad it for 4 years last couple it has been making a plastic chemical smell, I was wondering if any of you have nailed down a true reason. Im wondering about the incorrectly cured paint. When we first bought the stove I had tro uble burning it exactly the way they recomended be our wood ended up not be ing seasoned enough for this stove. Everything I burn now is two years seas oned and I only burn hedge. I have burnt junk mail with some plastic on it but I would think a couple 600 degree fires would deffinently make the smel l go away. would love some feed back the local stove shop were we bought it thinks were nuts.

[HerHusband]

I never figured out the exact cause but I find I can mostly eliminate the plastic odor if I give the wood stove a good cleaning inside and out before firing it up each fall. Scoop out the ash, then scrub down the vent pipes at the inside top of the stove making sure the vent holes are all open. Also, wipe everything down on the outside of the stove, top, sides, and back. I pull the heat deflector off ours so I can clean that area well.

I don't know if it has something to do with dust that collected over the summer, or residue left inside from the previous winter. I still get a minor odd smell the first time I fire it up, but it is much less than before I adopted the super cleaning each fall.

Anthony Watson

[yooper]

replying to HerHusband, yooper wrote: i have had the same problem for over a year since replacing my chimney from clay tile to stainless steel. any more ideas?

James Schultz

[ItsJoanNotJoann]

I knew as soon as I saw the date of the original post it had to be one of the village idiots at HomeMoanersHub dragging this 9+ year old thread back up.

[HerHusband]

Hi James,

I'm not sure what would cause the smell in your installation.

In my case, it seems to be due to dust that settles on the heater over the summer. It will burn off after a warm fire or two and the smell goes away. However, if I take the time to clean the heat shields and wipe down the woodstove, I can start my first fires without any smell.

Anthony Watson

[Mmj]

replying to HerHusband, Mmj wrote: We are havintgthe same problem! So bad that we cannot start a fire! The smell is overpowering andgives us a headache and smells awful! Very plastic burning smell! My son changed the woodstove because we thought it was the stove.. No Luck! We now have a Waterford Erin - then sealed all the openings in the brand new liner... No luck! Replaced and sealed all the gaskets! No luck! The smell is worse than ever once it gets really Hot! This is so annoying, frustrating anddisappointing! It's snowing out! We want a fire! HELP!!!!!

[Bobby]

replying to jeepnutt, Bobby wrote: Any odor from the wood should be going up the chimney and out. If not the stove, it could be the stove pipe. I sometimes get a little odor the first fire of the season, but then anything on the surface is burned off. Try to narrow down where it is coming from and perhaps post a photo. Open the window, turn on a fan, crank up the stove as hot as practical.

[Fireking]

replying to Mmj, Fireking wrote: I sealed the flue connections from the INSIDE of the stove pipe using fire cement if possible. This fixed my plastic/creosote mild smell in room. Clearly the joins on the flue were jaded and it was leaking. Might of been chimney sweeps ramming brush up there disjointed connection slightly as well. Also fire doesn’t over draw now clearly was problem wish had sorted it sooner....

[cbrillsf]

This thread has been ongoing for 11 years with no definitive answer? I have a Lopi Leyden wood stove with plastic smell once unit gets hot. Actually see some black tar like substance in the crease of the top door. I need answers!!!!!! Please

[Clare Snyder]

Creosote? What kind of wood are you burning and how hot is your stack?? If it is creosote it could be dangerous - anf you need to get better wood and let it burn instead of banking it too much.

[Ed Pawlowski]

The black tar substance is creosote. You may not be burning it hot enough to keep it clean. Twice a day I would load up my stove and burn it very hot for at least 15 minutes and then damper it down.

The plastic smell is just burning off some of the gunk that built up. It certainly is not plastic.

Be sure you wood is dried out too. It contains a lot of volitiles that will build up as it burns.

[Terry Coombs]

  The ideal moisture content for firewood is between 15-20% and moisture meters are cheap now . The OP doesn't say what kind of wood he/she's burning but if it's pine ... I burn mostly oak and the moisture content (of what I'm burning eight now) is a little over 20% so if I don't let it burn hot for a while every few days I get some creosote buildup .

[Just]

Yes it is paint. Sure it could be loads of other issues, but the paint is distinct. We had a log burner for years and kept it barely on tick over to avoid the paint smell. We now have a new burner and the smell is so horrendous that I am seriously allergic. At best I am sure it is quite toxic. Some people cannot smell it at all. Last night I thought I was heading to A+E. I really need to know what the toxins are so I can get allergy (LDI) treatment for it. No one seems to be acknowledging the toxicity factor...yet.

[Just]

I have done some more research re toxic fumes from paint on log burners (and anywhere else for that matter). Air purifiers with activated charcoal filters will take out the toxins from the air. The Blueair with smoke filters will take out dozens and dozens of hideous chemicals from the air, including gases from plastics and much more. Most people are not aware how poisonous our atmosphere is from "cleaning" materials, dyes, carpets, fire proofing... which all can also cause allergies and asthma. But these really good air purifiers will clean most of it out. Of course it is best to check out the safety of the chimney and fireplace first, but believe me- paint fumes are distinguishable from smoke. I am surprised some health and safety executives haven't gotten on to this yet. After only a few minutes of burning the fire I have been airing our living room for 3 days now while it is windy outside, and still the smell lingers and my skin starts to sting...it seems to stick to everything.

[Yan75]

Could it be creasote burning off ,

[Ned]

Set a blueberry-sized piece of Limburger cheese on a hot part of the stove. It will hide all the odors in the room.

[Just]

Hi Anthony, It sounds like you haven't missed anything from your check list. I am sorry to say that it really is the chemicals from the log burner paint. I have a couple of suggestions. which may or may not work well for you. I have chemical sensitivity, which means getting totally chemical free is essential. I found that airing the house for a week with all doors and windows open was not enough to remove the chemicals totally, and doing this undermines a couple of hours of log burning to heat the house. In our last house we tried lighting the fire at high temperature with all the windows open to burn off what ever the problem was, and it didn't work. The fire was a major contributor to heating the house. We ended up keeping it at minimal temperature to just keep it alight, and that way we avoided the fumes. It doesn't work so well on this new fire, but you could try that. If that does not completely avoid the fumes for you, this technique could be combined with the use of an air purifier. It would need to have a specification which removes chemicals as VOC's, not just dust particles. My purifier has an activated bamboo charcoal filter, but there are other methods of removing toxins from the air. Unfortunately THESE ARE TOXINS. The purifier will also remove toxins which you are not aware of, so a minor bonus. Why health and safety hasn't yet got around to controlling the substances used on these I do not know, but it really should be in their in tray. I was affected so badly that the second time I went through the room (only access to bedrooms) all my skin was burning. For days I had to wear fabrics over all exposed skin, plus face mask. I enquired about getting the chemicals included in my desensitisation program, and was told that it was too toxic to do this. That means it is very toxic indeed : ( A good air purifier to over match your room size should cope, but do check the spec before buying.

[mr bagoo]

Ive got two stoves in the house which ive run hard a long over 4 years using kiln dried Ash. Both give of an underlying smell when i get the stoves hot mainly when theyve been running an hour or two up to temp and ive closed of the air to reduce burn. Best i can describe the smell, it is like the putty you use to seal off round windows frames or door frames and only goes when the stoves cool off or i open the air vents.

[Sunlove]

Hi Anthony, I think the smell is coming from your stove pipe. The paint requires an incredibly high temperature to cure. I had the same problem after installing a new Jotul woodstove with a new dura-vent single wall stove pipe. I continued having a strong smell after all of the break in burns, along with feeling ill in my lungs and throat from it (these paints are incredibly toxic and the smoke/fumes should never be inhaled- I think the manufacturing companies would be kind to inform people more realistically of this- and cure them in the factory). I ended up taking the stove and the stove pipe outside, using a 6-foot T-post and thick stainless steel wire (for fencing) to secure the stove pipe (I also wrapped the T-post with the stainless steel wire in a couple of places so the paint on the T-post didn't melt into the stove pipe), and burned the hottest possible fire I could in it. It took the box fully roaring until the stove pipe finally began to smoke from the paint curing. The smell was the same smell I had while burning in my house, and I think I just never got it hot enough (even with burning hot fires) to fully get it to cure. I think this is the problem that I have read about in a lot of other forums too. The pipe needs to get extremely hot to actually cure the paint, and if it only gets fired at the normal temperatures one would use for a woodstove, this happens over an incredibly long period of time, emitting fumes into the house every time there is a fire in it. It's horrible and not good for anybody. I am writing this in hopes to help others avoid dealing with unnecessary exposure. Cure your stove and stove pipe outside. Follow the instructions for breaking the stove in properly, and then burn a fire as hot as you can to cure the pipe and do it multiple times. Be careful with enamel stoves to avoid cracking due to excess heat. Ultimately it's best not to poison yourself or your kids because unnecessarily because it will if done inside every time you have a fire. Good luck!

[Jus]

In our last house we tried burning off the smell at very high temperatures for days, and re-attempted it every year. The smell never went. The only answer is low temperature burning. In our new house, with new log burner, it makes me so ill we cannot even light it : ( It took about a week with windows and doors open before I could pass through the room without whole face and hand coverings.