Fireplace insert blowing cold air

[warmheartcoldhands]

Installed a fireplace insert last year, but just can’t get the wall thermostat above 62F. Part of this may be due to the construction of the fireplace. When the stove was being inserted, we found there was a block of metal above the damper that I believe was supposed to vent heated air out of vents located on the sides of the chimney. Had some “chimney guys” look at it, but they had never seen anything like it. Ended up inserting the stove, however it only has a short piece of vent pipe rather than the standard 3ft. Have been able to get a good fire going w/ flames and such, however when I turn on the blower at the bottom, the blower blows out cold air. If I keep the blower off and leave the door open, have to be right in front of the fireplace to feel any real warmth. Any suggestions? Looking forward to a heat wave …. :]

The construction of the chimney only allowed a short elbow of vent pipe. No one had ever mentioned anything about plates. Other than leaving off the three foot extention, we followed the instructions listed in the manual. There is an ash pit that drops into the basement. Can't recall if that was covered. Will assume w/ the cold air ... not. Something to take care of during this year's chimney cleaning. PITA is right, but beats heating w/ oil .... :]

Yes, it is a heat exchanger. Someone did mention cutting it out, but didn't want to damage the chimney. As long as it's venting, would there be any harm leaving it intact? How do those work?

 

[North of 60]

So no full liner? That means no top plate. How about a lower block off plate at your short section of pipe? Whats stopping your heat from going straight up your chimney? If you had an ash dump, was it sealed off or is that extra cold air is what your blower is pushing out from your insert. Sounds like its going to be a PITA to clean the chimney. What model of insert? Put that into your signature. Welcome to the Hearth and good luck.. Provide some of this info and the guys can help.
N of 60

 

[begreen]

Yes, it sounds like the stove is trying to heat the outdoors. Our neighbor has what sounds like a similar setup. There are a series of heat exchanger pipes tied to upper and lower gravity vents sitting just above the damper. The sweep that installed their Avalon put in a full liner. He took a sawzall to the center exchanger pipes and cut them out so that the liner could run through them. It's not the safest installation I've seen. I would have preferred to have the cut, exchanger pipes capped and sealed permanently.