Do I need a damper?

i'm having the same problem with my englander add on furnace. it seems my draft is too good. my chimney guy says i don't need a damper but i beg to differ.

Most of the time the issues I come across are from not having enough draft. It's pretty rare a client has TOO MUCH and would need a damper installed. However, a key damper is so easy to install you really having nothing to lose by giving it a try.

18' of chimney isn't anything unusual, but every setup is different.

called englander today. the last person i talked to gave me incorrect information about the location of the baffle plate. i've never had a stove with one before. we both agree englander needs to add this little tidbit of info to the instructions. i'm getting better performance and it was a simple fix.

I burn a Heritage as well. My stove is on the bottom floor of a two-story home, with a cold attic above the second story. The pipe is about 2' off the ridge, and clears it by a couple of feet, so I'm guessing 23' total, but can't remember exactly.

I have double-wall downstairs to the ceiling, and then chimney from there on up. My stovepipe is interior, with no offsets or angles. It's on the lee side of a house which is on the lee side of a hill, so plenty of cross/down draft up there. The climate here is cold, so the pressure differential works in my favor, and the house is built into a hillside, but it's not a basement, so no chimney effect. In other words, I got lucky--it's just about a textbook installation, and the draft is excellent. In a windstorm, the howl can be heard down the stovepipe.

I had a key damper installed in the double-wall stovepipe, one that was made by the stovepipe manufacturer for the application. I had it installed directly over the stove, thinking the additional heat would help keep it clean. Installer told me I didn't need it, but he'd put it in if I wanted it. I heard enough negatives to use it sparingly at first, only in high winds situations. Talked it over with stove store owner, and he agreed with me that used judiciously, it can be a good thing. My use gradually evolved to my using it to hold an overnight fire, and these days, the only time I don't use it is during my run-up fire or when I'm loading the stove. I can see the thermometer climb when I shut it, and feel the increase in heat coming off of the stove through the huge glass door. Had a storm here last Feb w/40-50 mph winds, and I could not have operated the stove without the damper.

No regrets here. Would do it again.

snowleopard said:

The climate here is cold

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To put it "mildly." :smirk:

snowleopard said:

I can see the thermometer climb when I shut it, and feel the increase in heat coming off of the stove through the huge glass door. Had a storm here last Feb w/40-50 mph winds, and I could not have operated the stove without the damper.

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I used to think that a pipe damper somehow kept more heat in the stove. How that would work, I don't know. Then I began to think that the only way heat escapes the stove is by going up the flue, so the damper keeps more heat in the stove by reducing the air flow...wait, don't people open the air to burn hotter and get more heat out of the stove? Won't secondary burn and flames vs. coaling figure into the equation also? Guess I'm still confused about the whole damper/heat thing. I'm just glad I don't have to understand all this rocket science in order to keep the house warm.
:lol:

Woody Stover said:

I used to think that a pipe damper somehow kept more heat in the stove. How that would work, I don't know. Then I began to think that the only way heat escapes the stove is by going up the flue, so the damper keeps more heat in the stove by reducing the air flow...wait, don't people open the air to burn hotter and get more heat out of the stove? Won't secondary burn and flames vs. coaling figure into the equation also? Guess I'm still confused about the whole damper/heat thing. I'm just glad I don't have to understand all this rocket science in order to keep the house warm.
:lol:

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The way I explained it to my seventeen year old son was to think of the damper wide open as first gear. The air supply almost shut, with the damper partly closed, was cruising in fifth. You want it wide open to start, and you've got to work through all the gears on the way up, and you'll get the most efficient burn at the final setting--however, you can't just start there anymore than you start a car in fifth gear. The point was to try to get heat out of the stove, not flames up the chimney. The car burned more fuel in first gear, but it went faster with less fuel burned in fifth.

He said, "There are some flaws in that analogy, but I understand where you're going with that."

Nice.

I used to know everything. I used to be really, really smart.

I miss that.

rudysmallfry said:

So as some of you know, after a few seasons of trial and error, I finally have good draft on my Hearthstone Heritage. Maybe too good. I can only fill the stove about 1/2 way or else the stack temp climbs to at least 500 degrees with the air completely closed. (I know there is no such thing as completely closed anymore). Anyway, I'd rather have all that heat going up my stack heating the room instead which is where the idea of a damper comes in. I'm using single wall pipe, total chimney height is 18'. Will a damper do the trick or should I not waste my time and money?

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What are the temps if you fully load it? I can run about the same flue temp whether the stove is fully loaded or halfway loaded the only difference is the amount of time it spends at peak temp.
Is the 500° you are seeing on an externally mounted thermo or on a probe thermo? I run betwee 500-600° on a probe thermo with a full load but I have seen others on here saying the Hearthstones seem to run a higher flue temp.
If you wan to try a key damper they are dirt cheap for single wall pipe so just grab one and see what it does. Is it possible you are waiting to long to get the stove shut down? If you let it really get going strong early on in the fire then they tend to peak at a higher temp and hang there for a while.