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3 easy steps to fix bad burnt smelly fireplace odors and foul smokey chimney ash stink

3 easy steps to fix bad burnt smelly fireplace odors and foul smokey chimney ash stink

by | Jun 7, 2023 | Chimney Problems

Fix bad burnt smelly fireplace odors and foul smokey chimney ash stink

So you had a fire or two over the winter months, and even as it sits dormant your unused chimney smells bad. You made sure to clean out the old ash and leftover charred logs from your firebox, but the chimney smells when it rains. You even took out the vacuum hose and really cleaned out the firebox super well. But you are still trying to fix bad burnt smelly fireplace odors and the house smells like smoke from fireplace.

Most of the time, home owners go right to scheduling with their chimney sweep to stop the smell. But a chimney scrubbing can sometimes make the burnt smokey smell worse. Here are a few DIY cheap things to try first to help you stop the smokey chimney stink:

Here are the 3 steps to fix bad burnt smelly fireplace odors and foul smokey chimney ash stink:

1) Seal the chimney low and tight. Your chimney operates like a dirty snorkel for your house. It breathes in and it breathes out. Even if your metal damper is closed, they do not seal tightly. Metal dampers warp when they are heated and cooled repeatedly. Also, the negative pressure in your house from clothes dryers, HVAC, vent fans, etc.. can suck outside air right down the flue and drag in chimney smells. By installing a Flueblocker or Chimney Balloon as low as possible in the flue, you can seal much of the smell outside.
Ash pit causes smokey smell

Ash pit causes smokey smell

2) Look for an ash pit. Look at the floor of your firebox. Is there a metal flapper there or an open hole that leads down into an ash dump pit? You may have to pry up and remove the flapper cover of the ash pit to get access to the hole itself. That chute will need to be sealed up tightly too. You can inflate a small Chimney Balloon into the pit to seal it off tightly.

3) Baking Soda to deodorize the firebox. The firebox may be clean and vacuumed out, but the creosote glaze or leftover ash could still be releasing acrid acidic odors. This is how to make fireplace smell good and how to get rid of soot smell in house. Take a full box of baking soda and sprinkle it over the floor of the firebox, and throw it against the walls of the firebox.
You can use a little spray bottle of water to damper the walls to get the powdery baking soda  to stick, but don’t go too crazy with the sprayer. Let that sit in the firebox for a few weeks, and use a vacuum hose with a VERY good filter to vacuum that up.

99% of the time these 3 tips work and eliminate the odor issue, but If you still need to fix bad burnt smelly fireplace odors and foul smokey chimney ash stink contact us for personalized troubleshooting over the phone. You may have some chimney or home related issues to take into consideration.

There are a million variables, and we can help you get to the bottom of it, so you can close the burnt fireplace smell out of your home.

#101: I Have Wood Stove, How Do I Plug the Flue?

#101: I Have Wood Stove, How Do I Plug the Flue?

by | Sep 6, 2017 | Fireplaces

#101: I Have Wood Stove, How Do I Plug the Flue?

101-1 Double-Door Wood Stove

101-2 Double-Door Wood Stove Firebox Damper

101-3 Avalon Wood Stove

101-4 Firebrick in Burning Chamber on Avalon Wood Stove

101-5 Franklin Wood Stove

101-6 Chimney Pipe Connection to Firebox

Woodstove #101: Wood Burning Stove

Here are some characteristics of wood stoves, so you don’t confuse them with gas,  pellet, or other kinds of stoves:

  • They are free standing units with a tube chimney attached to the back or side.
  • There is a door on the front of the firebox that you can open to put logs into.
  • Some models have a blower unit that pushed heated air into the room.
  • In the Spring and Summer chimney odor is often an issue with wood stoves.

The variety of sizes, shapes and efficiency of wood stoves is endless. I can’t possibly show them all, so lets look at the common ones.

Look For the Chimney Pipe Connection

Open up the door to your firebox and look around in there. See if you can identify a damper (image 101-2), or see if you can identify where the flue pipe is connecting with the firebox (image 101-6).

If you can see where the pipe connects to the firebox that is a perfect location to install a Chimney Balloon or a round Flueblocker. Use a ruler to make a quick diameter measurement of the entry point so you know what size plug to get. The Flueblocker is a more durable plug, but if you need a plug that has an auto-release feature if someone accidentally starts a fire without removing the plug first, then go with the Chimney Balloon.

There is Something Blocking My Access to the Flue Pipe

Sometimes there is a damper (image 101-2) or baffles that are in the way of giving you access to the flue pipe. If this is the case, see if there is a way around it. Sometimes firebrick baffles can be moved (image 101-4) to give you access to the area behind it. In the Avalon stove (image 101-3) there are firebrick baffles on the top of the burn chamber, but they are loose and can be lifted and removed. Getting them out of the way gives you access to the chimney pipe connection.

In many wood stoves there is simply no access to the chimney pipe through the burn chamber. It may be possible to access the chimney though an ash clean-out port, but this gets a little complicated. Contact us through phone or email, and we will see if there is a solution.