moved montpelier vermont castings insert an inch, and sorrow followed

[dorset]

my insert wasn't centered in my fireplace. it was perfect in every way except for that. you could literally throw two pieces of wood in there with one piece of fat wood and you would get a roaring fire in 5 minutes. but i foolishly had the guys who installed come back and move it over an inch.
and the party was over, just like that.
insert will not draw. strong, good, decent men from all over the area have come and scratched their heads and made fire after fire and added two feet to my chimney and nobody can figure it out.
it takes forever to get a good fire going, but the amount of big black coals it ends up making means i can't burn for longer than about 6 hours, because none of the wood will actually burn all the way down. then i have to just forget about it and let it put itself out. of course there is a fair amount of back draft, etc, along the way, but that's not even the depressing part at this point.
can anyone tell me what i can do? if i pay to have the insert completely reinstalled, will that make things better, or did something get broken when they slid it over that tiny, tragic inch?
if anyone has any thoughts--would really love the help.

 

[begreen]

Just a guess but it sounds like the liner may have been compromised by pinching, buckling or a tear?

 

[dorset]

Just a guess but it sounds like the liner may have been compromised by pinching, buckling or a tear?

thanks for your answer. unfortunately i have to ask...what is the liner? is that the "pipe" that they put up your chimney when they put in the insert? and is there anyway to check that out short of reinstalling?

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah it is the flexible pipe they put up the chimney. This sounds like the old damper frame at the top of the firebox crushed the liner when they moved the insert. Easy for it to happen. It can be verified by taking the surround off of the front of the insert and looking at the liner. Alternatively the baffle can be removed from the inside of the insert and using a mirror and a flashlight the first few feet of the liner can be examined.

Another possibility is that the connection of the liner at the flue outlet of the insert was compromised when they shifted the insert and air is being sucked into the liner instead of being pulled through the stove.

As to "loc". It is your location that you put in your forum profile. It helps when we are answering questions to know the climate you are living in.

 

[dorset]

Yeah it is the flexible pipe they put up the chimney. This sounds like the old damper frame at the top of the firebox crushed the liner when they moved the insert. Easy for it to happen. It can be verified by taking the surround off of the front of the insert and looking at the liner. Alternatively the baffle can be removed from the inside of the insert and using a mirror and a flashlight the first few feet of the liner can be examined.

Another possibility is that the connection of the liner at the flue outlet of the insert was compromised when they shifted the insert and air is being sucked into the liner instead of being pulled through the stove.

As to "loc". It is your location that you put in your forum profile. It helps when we are answering questions to know the climate you are living in.

 

[dorset]

thanks for responding. i think they did take the surround off and look at things. they did everything, as far as i can tell, except reinstall the insert.
when i open and close the flue, it makes a scraping noise. is that normal?
i thought loc meant location...but then i thought, what if it is some mysterious wood stove code....i live in vermont, of course, and really hate having a wood stove that doesn't work.

 

[BrotherBart]

If you mean the air control, yes it is common for them to make a scraping sound. Metal sliding against metal.

 

[dorset]

thanks, that makes sense.