Another question on two Flue's

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CTburning

New Member
Nov 9, 2008
224
Western CT
I have a fireplace upstairs and a wood stove downstairs. The upstairs fireplace has an inside chimney that is probably just triple wall straight up. The downstairs has an outside triple wall chimney that runs almost parallel to the inside chimney. I never use the upstairs fireplace, not even for ambiance. The old stove downstairs would spill a little smoke into the room if I didn't have a hot fire going. I learned to minimize it but never quite eliminate the problem. My question is, could the 2nd chimney be causing a weaker draft with my downstairs stove. I always have the fireplace closed but it is by no means air tight. If you do believe that it could be causing a problem, how much higher should the downstairs chimney be?

I"ll be looking into the product, extend a flue. Nothing is really in the budget right now but if it helps. thanks in advance
 
If they are right next to each other the flue that isn't being used will pull cold air and smoke down with it. I had the same problem and extended my primary flue for my stove in basement and installed a chimney top damper for my fireplace upstairs.
 
Yes, I can plug the unused fireplace as I don't ever plan on using it. If money starts flowing again like it did a couple of years ago I might buy a decent insert and just use it once in awhile. I don't see that happening anytime soon! I'm really hoping the Fireview is enough to heat the whole house like the old stove did. Back to the task at hand. I'm really wondering if the unused chimney is hurting the draft of my downstairs stove. Thanks again!
 
Same problem I have, got lots of good advice, mostly to raise the flue you use the most over the one not used much.

I have the Fiskars splitting axe too, what a great tool!
 
poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
yes, = outside air kit which plugs into stove via hose & can be affected by wind direction

Ah, "kit", that makes sense. And these are not powered by a fan?
 
poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
not powered by fan, powered by draft of stove/chimni

Is it possible to run the intake down the chimney next to the flue ductwork? Intake down the chimney, exhaust up the chimney.
 
poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
Bootlegger said:
poooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooook said:
not powered by fan, powered by draft of stove/chimni

Is it possible to run the intake down the chimney next to the flue ductwork? Intake down the chimney, exhaust up the chimney.
inside chimni intake will get hot & act like a chimni updrafting ithinx maybe intake will suck in exhaust fumes if it actually intakes

Kind of what I thought. My stove is in the middle of the first floor, no easy access for an intake.
 
If your not going to use the fireplace I would just seal the top with a piece of sheet metal and silicone. If draft still seems sluggish and you don't have a good option for outside air kit maybe you could install one of these or crack a nearby window.

http://www.condar.com/asv.html
 
I never thought about an OAK but I guess I could install one. I have plenty of fresh air coming into the basement. The garage doors lead to my finished basement. The door seperating the garages from the basement is pretty airtight. Next to it though is the boiler room. It is vented into the basement and into the garage. I don't know what you call it but it looks like a blind part way closed. There is one in the door and the wall. Any vacumm will suck air right through the garage. The old stove did start better though if I opened the door and garage door.

My basement is a good 5 ft underground so to install an OAK I would have to run pipe up alongside the stove pipe and out next to the chimney. It would look hideous to say the least. But it would work I guess. I'm not going there. The Fireview was purchased partly because of the looks. I'll post some pics in a couple weeks when I get my buddies over to help me lift the "little" stove!
 
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