Check Damper in Flue

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larryhollenb

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Jan 19, 2006
21
Hello all,

Just set up a 50's circulator in like new condition other than a crack in a support for a leg to the cabinet. Going to have to figure out how to fix that as it is the support to the cabinet just under the door and it is rubbing on the surrounding porcelain opening.

But the reason I wanted to inquire is this.. At first the stove burnt way to hot.. I discovered some of the caulk was gone around the inner fire box and the window in the door leaked some. I fixed all those aspects and it is much more controllable now. It has a rather large fire box and in the cast flue section it has what I have been told is a check damper. Its a sliding type. It admits air right as the gases leave the stove. I wondered what its purpose was, and figured it might be a source of cooling a hot flue. It was frozen in place but with some work I got it to work correctly. I tried it tonight and when the stove was running about 375 in the flue pipe I opened it a bit then all at the way. It dropped the temperature to 275. So that theory is right and I can see where it could come in handy in over firing situations. Not that I want one.. But I wondered if the addition of cooler air at that point in continuous operation might not cause creosote to form more readily. That is one advantage of this stove, no automatic damper so common to this kind of stove today.. I had several and they were terrible creosote forming beast. I think since this stove will always burn a steady even if lower flame, will not be nearly as bad about that.

Any experience here with that kind of damper.. Or any ideas how to fix a cracked support?

Larry
 
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