How far do you dampen down?

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DeanBrown3D

DeanBrown3D

New Member
Oct 16, 2006
193
Princeton, NJ
How far do you dampen down your flu? I've got a Charmaster whole house furnace, and it flus through an 8" SS pipe up 2 floors in an interior chimney. I keep the damper valve open about 45 degrees, and even when close it lets through 20% around a gap, so I assume it pull about 60% of the total area of the 8" circle.

But I have no idea if this is optimal or how to tell, other than days and days of testing and measuring wood consumption. So just let me know where you keep yours! How many % open at a guess?

Thanks!

Dean
 
Okay, I'm going OT here, too. I thought this was a web site for people who burn wood, coal, etc. Not someplace for men to be drooling over women's body parts. There are many web sites dedicated to looking at women's body parts - this is not one of them. If Dean is into scrawny teenage girl butts, and a lot of the rest of you are, that is fine, but I am not interested at all, and I don't see the relationship to wood stoves et al. It is objectifying to women (clearly we have body parts only of anonymous women, don't know how else you could describe it) and I am pretty tired of it. If Dean won't grow up and change it, then could the rest of you at least stop drooling and talking about it all the time. Like I said, plenty of other web sites for older men drooling over young women and their body parts. (I say teenage girls/young women since women past high school/college age typically do not wear such trendy/stupid fashions.)
 
Some Like It Hot said:
Okay, I'm going OT here, too. I thought this was a web site for people who burn wood, coal, etc. Not someplace for men to be drooling over women's body parts. There are many web sites dedicated to looking at women's body parts - this is not one of them. If Dean is into scrawny teenage girl butts, and a lot of the rest of you are, that is fine, but I am not interested at all, and I don't see the relationship to wood stoves et al. It is objectifying to women (clearly we have body parts only of anonymous women, don't know how else you could describe it) and I am pretty tired of it. If Dean won't grow up and change it, then could the rest of you at least stop drooling and talking about it all the time. Like I said, plenty of other web sites for older men drooling over young women and their body parts. (I say teenage girls/young women since women past high school/college age typically do not wear such trendy/stupid fashions.)
Click to expand...

Leave him alone he's a guy - he can't help it! And what on Earth are you on? Its probably the softest fluffiest pink bunnyrabbit fully-clothed porn on the entire internet.

Anyone who's been to their Stihl dealership this year has seen that pic plastered all over the walls. Its part of their 2006 calendar, so I think its most appropriate.
 
Relationship to wood stoves? I see a relationship: That avatar and my wood stove are both really hot! That avatar is allot milder then allot of things I see on TV!

I'm just wondering how Dean got a picture of my wife?? I am kind of proud he is using it for an avatar though. KD
 
Drool drool... leer leer leer... drool... more leering... drool...more drool...

I don't want him to stop, I was actually hoping to egg him on to post more! If anyone in Wisconsin doesn't like it, sorry, but they can go suck a cheese curd!

Now, on to the actual topic... when I damper down for the night I think the primary air is at about 20%. Experience has shown me that is the best position to obtain an overnight burn with plenty of coals 8-9 hours later, and a clean burn. When I put it any lower, I do not see an appreciable increase in coals in the stove in the morning (or if I do, they are not glowing, so they are useless), and it keeps the glass 100% clean, no soot whatsoever.

-- Mike

leer leer.

PS - KD, tell your wife she has a nice... stove.

leer leer leer
 
Hey Mike,

I'll give it a shot. My damper is a circle of steel cut about 1 cm smaller than the 8" flu, which according to the manufacturer is still gapped about 20% open when its fully shut off. Based on this I could close the damper 90 degrees and let it run all night. I guess I have to try it and see what happens.

Thanks for the reply,

Dean
 
We're talking flu damper here right?? I got rid of mine when I had the chimney relined and never looked back. I never used it to control the heat output. It was either wide open when burning or closed when not. I can tell ya though...that thing was crusted with creosote when I removed it.
 
Some Like It Hot said:
Okay, I'm going OT here, too. I thought this was a web site for people who burn wood, coal, etc. Not someplace for men to be drooling over women's body parts. There are many web sites dedicated to looking at women's body parts - this is not one of them. If Dean is into scrawny teenage girl butts, and a lot of the rest of you are, that is fine, but I am not interested at all, and I don't see the relationship to wood stoves et al. It is objectifying to women (clearly we have body parts only of anonymous women, don't know how else you could describe it) and I am pretty tired of it. If Dean won't grow up and change it, then could the rest of you at least stop drooling and talking about it all the time. Like I said, plenty of other web sites for older men drooling over young women and their body parts. (I say teenage girls/young women since women past high school/college age typically do not wear such trendy/stupid fashions.)
Click to expand...

I entirely sympathize with your POV, Marcia. The best one can do is just ignore them... and do your part to make this a comfortable place for all. But the occasional jab at narrowmindedness can be very satisfying, too... :)
 
I'm going to be horribly non-politically correct here, and point out that my observation is that there is a definite inverse relationship between the volume of those complaining about "the objectification of women's bodies" and the likelyhood of the complainer getting "objectified" - Perhaps they're jealous?

Me, I figure that if the gods hadn't intended guys to enjoy looking, they either wouldn't have given us eyeballs, or wouldn't have occasionally made such nice looking scenery.... (And I absolutely support the "look but don't touch" rule....)

Back on topic, I keep my Pre-EPA sort of airtight damped down 70 - 90% most of the time unless I'm loading or trying to get the fire going. If I don't keep the draft mostly closed, I get major flames going up the chimney (visible through a couple small holes in the draft collar and the joints between the stove and the chimney "T" box) However I think I have a better than average draft setup.

With my draft closed, and the air inlet spinners mostly closed, I get ~4-6 hours between reloads where the stove is hot enough to keep theblower on, and will keep enough coals for an easy restart 24 hours or better.

Gooserider
 
Gooserider said:
I'm going to be horribly non-politically correct here... <snip> Perhaps they're jealous?
Click to expand...

Boy... chauvanism abounds...

Me, I figure that if the gods hadn't intended guys to enjoy looking, they either wouldn't have given us eyeballs, or wouldn't have occasionally made such nice looking scenery.... (And I absolutely support the "look but don't touch" rule....)
Click to expand...

Another jewel of crotch-wisdom... today must be the day for you to show us your most enlightened thinking.

Yeah, you're free to do whatever you want, whenever you want... so what? This isn't the street... or a bar... and I would hope that what you bring to bear here is at least a step above what you'd bring to those places. There is such a thing as context-appropriate behavior. The thing is, here, you have to help create that context.

You ride Guzzis, so we know that you at least have some taste... why not use some of that discernment into helping make this an environment that's comfortable for all who participate?

I am completely in favor of more forum participation by females. If a simple thing like removing from the walls images that they find offensive will encourage that, then let's clean up the walls, guys. Are you in?
 
precaud said:
Gooserider said:
I am completely in favor of more forum participation by females. If a simple thing like removing from the walls images that they find offensive will encourage that, then let's clean up the walls, guys. Are you in?
Click to expand...

I just have to speak my mind on this "off topic" topic. This is getting really blown out of proportion if you ask me. I think that ideas like the above mentioned are a real problem in this country today. What ever happened to the notion of "if you dont like it, dont look...." I just cant stand this whole idea of having to please the minority at the expense ofthe majority. You see it in the news every day. They want to take away any holiday that has religious overtones, take away our right to keep weapons, right to fly our country's flag. It is getting waaayy out of hand. People, relax...... If you dont like his avatar, dont pay attention to it........Read the content of the post, dont fixate on a picture.
Click to expand...
 
hookspacken said:
This is getting really blown out of proportion if you ask me. I think that ideas like the above mentioned are a real problem in this country today.
Click to expand...
Talk about blowing something out of proportion... now you're making it into one of the country's problems.

It's just amazing to me the machinations people will go through to avoid a simple request from one in their midst.
 
hookspacken said:
precaud said:
Gooserider said:
I am completely in favor of more forum participation by females. If a simple thing like removing from the walls images that they find offensive will encourage that, then let's clean up the walls, guys. Are you in?
Click to expand...

People, relax...... If you dont like his avatar, dont pay attention to it........Read the content of the post, dont fixate on a picture.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I'm not so sure those pictures are degrading... I think those women or girls dressed themselves in the morning. If they did not want the attention, then they should have worn something else. They don't bother me in any way, but I'm old enough not to be "drooling" over them either, or commenting on them every time DeanB posts in a thread. The argument on the opposing side about freedom and majority vs. minority, etc. are equally as irrelevant and weak IMO.

That said, it is a sausage fest around here. It would indeed be nice to have more female members and participants on the forum. However, how much of a critical factor is DeanB's avatar concerning female participation? That would be hard to gauge.

Ladies, I doubt you are going to change the mind of anyone on a public forum. I would suggest exercising your rights and freedoms and put something in your avatars that express how you feel. That's what the avatars are for... it's not like every member here has an avatar like DeanBs. If you want to change the rules governing avatars talking to fellow members is pretty useless... do you see where I'm going with this?

Okay, back on the dampen down thing... I'm a newbie so please excuse me... but you guys are talking about dampening on the flue pipe and on the stove? Flue pipe dampers seem illogical to me. If you are limiting the air for combustion, why would you need to limit the exhaust? Or am I missing something fundamental here?

-Kevin
 
velvetfoot said:
scrawny?
Click to expand...

Only in Wisconsin. :)

This seems like pretty tame stuff. I come here for the information about wood burning and wood. If I want to see the other type of stuff, I can get that from the Green Bay Packer bulletin board that I watch.

I can't wait until we move and I get a real wood burner. My big pre-fab wood burning fireplace has a damper with two settings: open and mostly open. The fire burns pretty but not much for heat. Damping it down to mostly open doesn't seem to have much effect.

northwinds
 
wrenchmonster said:
Okay, back on the dampen down thing... I'm a newbie so please excuse me... but you guys are talking about dampening on the flue pipe and on the stove? Flue pipe dampers seem illogical to me. If you are limiting the air for combustion, why would you need to limit the exhaust? Or am I missing something fundamental here?

-Kevin
Click to expand...

When you have a chimney like the one to my basement office a stove pipe damper is pretty much a necessity. Four feet of single wall pipe up to a 90* three feet through the basement wall and then straight up for thirty feet. On a cold day the draft on that thing would darn near suck a small split up the chimney. Without the damper burn times are only half as long with a stove load.
 
Dylan said:
Kevin,

Freedom is never irrelevant. This isn't about yelling "Fire!!" in a movie theater.

With regard to dampering (dampening??), IMO, restricting the flow anywhere, ultimately creates the same equilibrium condition.
Click to expand...

No freedom is not irrelevant, that is true... but I think you are taking my comment slightly out of context. As the topic applies to this avatar discussion... the freedom for DeanB to have whatever avatar he wants, the freedom for Marcia to voice her opinion, and the freedom to ignore the avatar are all equally weighted. Hence, applying "freedom" as an argument is indeed irrelevant.

I doubt Marcia was trying to discount anyone's freedom. I believe she was attempting to appeal to DeanB and others that the avatar was offensive to her, and that the comments surrounding the avatar were childish, etc. She can feel that way, as others can feel the avatar is fine, or like myself, feel that the avatar is neither fantastic or offensive but rather a simple expession DeanB chose to make.

Now on the dampening thing, yes I agree with you, that's why I wonder why anyone has a flue damper. If someone could enlighten me as to the benefits I'd be interested to learn a thing or two.

-Kevin

EDIT: Thanks BB, you've answered my question before I got a chance to post.
 
On Topic:
Maybe it's just because I'm new to burning, but I don't understand why you would need a flue damper. I would think that you would get much more control over your burn from adjusting the air intake.
I can see the benefit of a damper in the flue of an open fireplace to keep room air contained when not burning, buy I'm a bit lost on the benefit to a stove, insert or furnace.
This could be just one more in a long list of things I am learning here.

Off Topic:
In my opinion, Dean's avatar is not offensive. It's just a little good clean fun. I could certainly pull pictures that more people would find offensive from the sale inserts in the Sunday newspaper or the covers of mainstream magazines at the news stand.
I think hookspacken got it right, if it offends you, don't pay any attention to it.
 
Dylan said:
hookspacken said:
precaud said:
Gooserider said:
I am completely in favor of more forum participation by females. If a simple thing like removing from the walls images that they find offensive will encourage that, then let's clean up the walls, guys. Are you in?
Click to expand...

I just have to speak my mind on this "off topic" topic. This is getting really blown out of proportion if you ask me. I think that ideas like the above mentioned are a real problem in this country today. What ever happened to the notion of "if you dont like it, dont look...." I just cant stand this whole idea of having to please the minority at the expense ofthe majority. You see it in the news every day. They want to take away any holiday that has religious overtones, take away our right to keep weapons, right to fly our country's flag. It is getting waaayy out of hand. People, relax...... If you dont like his avatar, dont pay attention to it........Read the content of the post, dont fixate on a picture.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

Hooks,

Ya gotta learn how to handle the quoting protocols, here. Hopefully, you've discovered your mistake.
Click to expand...


ROTFLMFAO... Well done.

-- MW

PS - leer
 
On topic:

I have a screw-adjuster on the furnace door, that I never really need to change. Its about 3/8", but closes to about 1/8" to maintain hot coals when the thermostat is satisfied. With the flue damper open fully, I can open the door and load up and not get smoked out of the basement. With the flue damper nearly closed, I cannot open the door even to peak much. So that's what I am doing.

Now, depending on the length and temperature of the chimney (inside or external, for example), I may not need all of the 8" diameter cross section, maybe 1/4 of that would do. On the other hand, if I had a single story external pipe, I might need more of a suction. Which is why I was asking what a decent starting point might be for my chimney (internal, 2 stories, insulated S.S.)

I guess I could adjust the 1/8" gap to 1/16, and the 3/8" open size to 1/4", but is that a good solution? THe control that opens the door has a chain that can contract and expand and change the opening size away from 3/8", so I don't want to reduce this gap too far or it might get whacky. So that's why I feel I should use the flue damper, which is what Charmaster tells me to do. Just, they don't mention where to begin.

Off topic:

A calendar, or a beautiful girl, can make for a very artistic presentation, and can be a wonder to look at, just as a piece of music can captivate your soul. One's avatar is a personal representation of what one likes to express, and I can assure all the gals here that I have the deepest respect for women in general. My wife likes to show off like that, and I'm absolutely fine with that - she's got it so I encourage her to flaunt it. But even if I didn't like the way someone dressed or expressed themself, I would not take it upon myself to try to change them or point them in a different direction, I'd mind my own business.
 
northwinds said:
My big pre-fab wood burning fireplace has a damper with two settings: open and mostly open. The fire burns pretty but not much for heat. Damping it down to mostly open doesn't seem to have much effect.
northwinds
Click to expand...

My prefab (the one I haven't replaced yet) has notches at those same two settings. There is no visible difference when you look in. I have discovered, though, that if I close the dampler about 90% on the sliding handle (which is more like 75% really), I do get more heat and longer burn times. Indeed, I peeled some paint inside that had previously survived. :eek:hh: No smoke in the house yet, either. Mine has doors and a blower, so that's where all the heat comes from. Still a gratuitous waste of wood compared to a real stove.
 
DeanB said:
A calendar, or a beautiful girl, can make for a very artistic presentation, and can be a wonder to look at
Click to expand...

I suspect that's exactly the point some of the offended parties are making: a piece of art is an object, and a lot of women don't like to be reduced to (or compared to) an object. I also think it's condescending to try to tell them they shouldn't be offended. People don't like to be told what to think, as this thread indicates. Better to just agree to disagree.

Now, if I had been offended I probably would have just fought fire with fire, or let it be.
 
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