I'm here to beg for answers.
We have a brick fireplace on an outside wall of our house. It has a 24"x24" opening and is 18" deep. The damper was about 12" above the top of the opening. It has a ~7' of 8"x12" clay flue. It smoked every time we used it. So it didn't get much use.
In the Fall of '09 I installed my first insert. The Robin Hawke smoke dragon insert that is still in my signature. It heated our home adequately for 4 years. It had a by-pass damper. It was installed with 8' of 6" stainless liner and panels around the face of the insert. It drafted well (I guess). With the damper open and the air inlets open, it would take off from minimal coals when reloading. But it smoked. We could not burn with the door open, you know, for that crackling fire for guests and the cave man appeal of staring at the flames. It would smoke almost as bad as the open fireplace did. I added 2' single wall to the top of the stack in the hopes that it would increase draft. The difference was negligible.
Then in the Fall of '13 I scored a Lopi Answer on Craigslist. Its what I really wanted originally but couldn't justify the cost of to the CFO. I installed it with a block off plate and the same 10' of 6" liner. I use about the same amount of wood. But I get shorter burn times because of the smaller firebox and the inability to smolder the fire like I could with the smoke dragon. I can tolerate this because it is a better looking insert. Bigger window, better blower, neat-o secondary flames. I like it. But it smokes. Still can't burn withe door open, not that I want or need to. But sometimes on reloads it will puff out enough to trigger the smoke alarm. Not cool when it goes off in the evening when I'm loading before bed and it wakes up the whole house and the dog goes b-a-n-a-n-a-s.
So Lopi Answer owners/ experts, HELP. Please.
Opening various windows gives no benefit. Do I need more flue?
I had a thread about utilizing the outside air kit.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/lopi-answer-insert-oak.76847/#post-1558301
Would that help?
We have a brick fireplace on an outside wall of our house. It has a 24"x24" opening and is 18" deep. The damper was about 12" above the top of the opening. It has a ~7' of 8"x12" clay flue. It smoked every time we used it. So it didn't get much use.
In the Fall of '09 I installed my first insert. The Robin Hawke smoke dragon insert that is still in my signature. It heated our home adequately for 4 years. It had a by-pass damper. It was installed with 8' of 6" stainless liner and panels around the face of the insert. It drafted well (I guess). With the damper open and the air inlets open, it would take off from minimal coals when reloading. But it smoked. We could not burn with the door open, you know, for that crackling fire for guests and the cave man appeal of staring at the flames. It would smoke almost as bad as the open fireplace did. I added 2' single wall to the top of the stack in the hopes that it would increase draft. The difference was negligible.
Then in the Fall of '13 I scored a Lopi Answer on Craigslist. Its what I really wanted originally but couldn't justify the cost of to the CFO. I installed it with a block off plate and the same 10' of 6" liner. I use about the same amount of wood. But I get shorter burn times because of the smaller firebox and the inability to smolder the fire like I could with the smoke dragon. I can tolerate this because it is a better looking insert. Bigger window, better blower, neat-o secondary flames. I like it. But it smokes. Still can't burn withe door open, not that I want or need to. But sometimes on reloads it will puff out enough to trigger the smoke alarm. Not cool when it goes off in the evening when I'm loading before bed and it wakes up the whole house and the dog goes b-a-n-a-n-a-s.
So Lopi Answer owners/ experts, HELP. Please.
Opening various windows gives no benefit. Do I need more flue?
I had a thread about utilizing the outside air kit.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/lopi-answer-insert-oak.76847/#post-1558301
Would that help?
