Smells from wood-burning stoves

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There is nothing nicer than the smell of a wood-burning stove in use, particularly if you’re burning a particularly fragrant wood.

But if your stove starts producing unusual or unpleasant smells it an become a bit disconcerting.

In this article, we will seek to pick out some of the more common unusual woodburner smells to help you to diagnose that pong and determine whether or not it is something you ought to be worrying about.

Egg smell from woodburner
If your stove is producing an eggy smell, that could be due to the sulphurous content of whatever you are burning. For instance, some coals contain relatively high levels of sulphur. This smell might be particularly obvious when you’re clearing out the ashes.

Chemical or paint smell from woodburner
A chemical smell from your wood-burning stove is normal when the appliance is new. This is because the stove paint still needs to cure. Curing is when liquids within the paint start to evaporate when the stove is first heated to the extreme temperatures required for a wood-burning stove. This causes the chemical structure of the paint to change, leaving just the desired finish on the stove, but also creating a paint smell. This smell should go away after the stove has been used three or four times.

If a chemical smell continues beyond that, it could be that something – most likely paint or oil – is burning off further up the stove and flue system.

If you’re burning treated wood, which is not a good idea, that is another possible cause of a chemical smell.

Smoke smell from woodburner
Given that a wood-burning stove involves burning fuel, a degree of smoke smell is inevitable. If you feel the smell is getting stronger or is seeping further into your home it could be indicative of a problem. It could mean that your chimney needs to be swept, that there is a leak in the flue or chimney, or that there is a problem with the draw, which could be caused by conditions outside your home or by a lack of ventilation within your home.

Soot smell from woodburner
As with a smoke smell, a smell of soot from your woodburner could indicate a need to have your chimney swept. It might also suggest that the wood you’re burning is not sufficiently seasoned and has a high moisture content. The soot smell is indicative of a creosote build-up in your chimney.

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11 thoughts on “Smells from wood-burning stoves

  1. Had quite an obscure issue with a strange smell emanating from my burner. Worked out it was the wood i had been storing in my garage. Despite being top notch kiln dried wood, over time it had been gradually soaking up residual exhaust fumes from my bike as it cooled down from the daily ride. Fresh batch of wood (stored elsewhere) and all is normal again.

    • Thank you so much. We have had the same problem. Only started a few days ago. We thought it was the newly installed Christmas tree so that is presently sat in the garden in the snow!
      Makes total sense
      We store logs in the garage and the bottom section of the stack rarely gets used as we refill the store with fresh logs. But the logs we are using presently are from the bottom of the stack.
      We have the car and a motorbike in the garage.
      Also worth noting is that we have ash, kiln dried logs.
      You’re a life saver. With Christmas coming and lots of relatives visiting we were starting to panic. Cheers and Merry Christmas x

  2. I painted my stove with the heat resistant paint and there is still a very bad smell in room even when stove is not lighting.

    • Hi Joan

      Assuming it’s a paint that’s suitable for stoves (and not just a heat resistant wall paint), it could just be the paint curing (in which case the smell should go away after a few burns).

      Thanks,

      Gr8Fires

  3. I have just lit my woodstove for the first time this season. I am getting a chemically smell similar to the first time it was ever lit. I have also added a pine mantelpiece this season.

    What would be the cause of the chemical smell be?

    • Hi Ken

      Unless you’ve put something on the stove over the summer (such as a cleaning product) the mantelpiece would be the prime suspect. Is it a suitable distance away in accordance with the Building Regulations? It might just be a case of something the wood was treated with burning off in the heat.

      Thanks,

      Gr8Fires

  4. Had our chimney swept and ever since the smell of bbq smoke in the house is horrendous. It is worse when log burner is not lit and also behind log burner there is a big patch of black substance which we can’t remove from stone hearth. This wasn’t there before the chimney was swept, any ideas please as we are walking round smelling like we’ve been sat round a bonfire and this is only source of heating in lounge.

    • Hi Andrea

      First port of call would be getting the chimney sweep back to discuss. The black substance is presumably tar or creosote, but this shouldn’t have ended up on your hearth. The smell could potentially be this heating up and burning (but that doesn’t really tally with the smell being stronger when the stove is out of use).

      Thanks,

      Gr8Fires

  5. Hi, we had our log burner installed a couple of years back and we had the chemical smell initially which did go away mostly but did return occasionally (not as strong as previously) but fine for the most part. We had the chimney swept recently and replaced the fire bricks. Now every time we light it (has been 4 or 5 times now it still continues to have a chemical smell every time, goes away when the fire is not lit. We use store bought kiln dried kindling & logs, no chemical fire lighters to light. Thanks

    • Hi Ana

      Have you/the chimney sweep treated the stove or surrounding area with WD40, an oil or anything similar?

      The initial smell is likely to have been the paint curing.

      Thanks,

      Gr8Fires

  6. Hi there,
    I have a very small woodstove, installed with all proper clearances. It has had a noxious smell every single time we light it as it starts to heat up that does go away once the fire has been burning for about 20 min and we’ve aired out the room. (It’s a one-room house). This is the second winter with the woodstove and we’ve had probably hundreds of fires. We took the stove outside and scraped the gasket cement off of the flange thinking that was it. The pipe was clear of creosote but we cleaned it anyway. It still smells.
    The only thing I can think of is that we used roofing tar to seal the plate on top of the roof, but that is on the outside of the roof and is proper clearance from the double-wall pipe. And it wouldn’t explain that the smell goes away once it’s been burning for a bit. It is such an unpleasant and perhaps unhealthy mystery. Any help is appreciated!!

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