I have a short (read minimum height), triple walled chimney chase with a six inch insulated liner installed within it. The flue makes a nice 90 degree bend into a clean out tee at the bottom. The draft is sluggish, (or even reversed), unless the temperature differential is fairly high, or there is a breeze blowing, or the chimney is warmed.
I also have a nice wood stove which would be useful some chilly mornings, if I could light it without filling the house with smoke. So, clearly, I need a taller chimney but that would be a pain because nobody makes chimneys like the one I have the liner running through any more. Besides, that might not do a thing for me, as then I would have to warm up even more air to get it to draw.
So, I could spend 300 bucks and put one of those draft inducing fans in for use during spring and fall, or I could just use the gas furnace, or I could just choke until it got going, or I could redo the entire chimney for a whole lot of money. Or, I could try something else.
I used to buy those expensive little cans of air to blow the fly ash out of my electronics, but decided to buy an air compressor for those odd jobs around the house, like filling all 14 tires around here. And it is great for blowing the ashes out of the electronics and chasing the dog around too. I wondered if I could force a little air up the chimney with it as well. I bought 4 feet of quarter inch copper tubing, a compression fitting and a cap for the exposed end, and then removed the cap at the bottom of the clean out tee. I drilled a quarter inch hole in the bottom of the cap, forced about a foot of the copper tubing through it, bent the tubing 90 degrees, and secured it to the cap with a copper pipe clamp. I then ran the tubing out of the old fireplace to where it could be reached. As installed, there is a quarter inch pipe aimed more or less straight up the chimney, with the nozzle end a little more than half way up the tee.
Getting my trusty air hose, I opened the stove door and blew air up the pipe. It does come into the stove with the door open. I then put crunched up newspaper in the stove, and lit it. It started burning, ran out of air, and started smoking as usual. I put the air hose in the end of the compression fitting and blew two seconds worth of compressed air up the pipe.
It worked very well to get the air going the right way up the pipe, and the pipe continued to warm up as the paper burned away.
Knowing the inhabitants of this forum from previous experience, and how picky they are, as well as knowledgeable about many things, I must now put in the disclaimers:
Disclaimers:
For the inhabitants of California, the brass compression fitting contains lead, known to cause cancer in California.
No, the installation is not to code, I checked, and there ain't any thing about copper pipes blowing air up a chimney. When there is, I will apply the code.
I am not afraid the copper will melt, or clog with soot, or do anything bad. There are two different metals in contact in an acid environment, and eventually, there will be corrosion. One of the metals is 316L, the other one is copper. Given my age and life expectancy, I do not need to concern myself.
I am not going to lug a heavy compressor around. I will use the little tank I use for tires for the two seconds of air I need. Failing that, I will get my wife to do the heavy lifting.
There is no air leakage. The quarter inch copper pipe fits very snugly into the quarter inch hole. The other end is capped.
I am not going to blow embers up the chimney to excite the neighbors, or set fire to the snow. The chimney works just fine when there are embers.
What do ya'll think?
I also have a nice wood stove which would be useful some chilly mornings, if I could light it without filling the house with smoke. So, clearly, I need a taller chimney but that would be a pain because nobody makes chimneys like the one I have the liner running through any more. Besides, that might not do a thing for me, as then I would have to warm up even more air to get it to draw.
So, I could spend 300 bucks and put one of those draft inducing fans in for use during spring and fall, or I could just use the gas furnace, or I could just choke until it got going, or I could redo the entire chimney for a whole lot of money. Or, I could try something else.
I used to buy those expensive little cans of air to blow the fly ash out of my electronics, but decided to buy an air compressor for those odd jobs around the house, like filling all 14 tires around here. And it is great for blowing the ashes out of the electronics and chasing the dog around too. I wondered if I could force a little air up the chimney with it as well. I bought 4 feet of quarter inch copper tubing, a compression fitting and a cap for the exposed end, and then removed the cap at the bottom of the clean out tee. I drilled a quarter inch hole in the bottom of the cap, forced about a foot of the copper tubing through it, bent the tubing 90 degrees, and secured it to the cap with a copper pipe clamp. I then ran the tubing out of the old fireplace to where it could be reached. As installed, there is a quarter inch pipe aimed more or less straight up the chimney, with the nozzle end a little more than half way up the tee.
Getting my trusty air hose, I opened the stove door and blew air up the pipe. It does come into the stove with the door open. I then put crunched up newspaper in the stove, and lit it. It started burning, ran out of air, and started smoking as usual. I put the air hose in the end of the compression fitting and blew two seconds worth of compressed air up the pipe.
It worked very well to get the air going the right way up the pipe, and the pipe continued to warm up as the paper burned away.
Knowing the inhabitants of this forum from previous experience, and how picky they are, as well as knowledgeable about many things, I must now put in the disclaimers:
Disclaimers:
For the inhabitants of California, the brass compression fitting contains lead, known to cause cancer in California.
No, the installation is not to code, I checked, and there ain't any thing about copper pipes blowing air up a chimney. When there is, I will apply the code.
I am not afraid the copper will melt, or clog with soot, or do anything bad. There are two different metals in contact in an acid environment, and eventually, there will be corrosion. One of the metals is 316L, the other one is copper. Given my age and life expectancy, I do not need to concern myself.
I am not going to lug a heavy compressor around. I will use the little tank I use for tires for the two seconds of air I need. Failing that, I will get my wife to do the heavy lifting.
There is no air leakage. The quarter inch copper pipe fits very snugly into the quarter inch hole. The other end is capped.
I am not going to blow embers up the chimney to excite the neighbors, or set fire to the snow. The chimney works just fine when there are embers.
What do ya'll think?
