Chimney help

[buc74]

This is a picture of my masonry fireplace during the install of my Summit insert. Can anyone tell me what the devise is next to the liner? It was left as is after the install and my fear is that its a damper of sort and we may be losing some heat. The installers are in fact returning (when it warms up a bit, below 0 the next week) to correct it. They could not tell me exactly what it was but felt it needed looking into. I can't believe I missed it during the install, but then should't have to baby sit the pro's.

Oh, the reason I had them out was I felt the insert was not putting out the heat it should. They said it was my wood and even brought their own to prove it. Tested my woods moisture too. All my wood is 3 years plus old thus <14 moisture. They still felt it was performing correctly since it got the living room up to 78 in <2 hours.

Any thoughts would be great.

 

[rwhite]

It is a damper, can't tell if the chain goes up the flue to a cap dampener or not. There should be a block plate installed or at the very least some more roxul used to plug around the liner. A block off plate will keep heat in a lot better. Is the liner insulated? Are there 2 flues there I'm seeing? If it's not in the way there may not be any need to remove it

On another note; I would be very concerned having someone install a liner that didn't know what that was.

 

[double-d]

The chain is attached to the damper door. It appears that there is just one flue and the liner is going up on one side of the damper door. IMO I would have removed the damper door and it would have made the installation a lot easier. Not sure if that is insulation or a cat caught in the flue, but either way it should be removed. Definitely there should be a block off plate installed or at least some chimney blanket insulation to close of the opening.

 

[buc74]

The liner is not insulated, and I plan install a plate later.

Agreed, I'm not feeling real good about these guys.