Question about damper and new stove.

[smitty81]

Im a bit confused right now.

One guy said the newer stoves do not need pipe dampers and some say to go ahead and put them in.

We have a PE Super 27 stove that was just installed about 2 months ago and the guy never put a damper in the pipe and I never really thought about it at all.

Should I or should I not put damper in?

Wont a damper help hold the heat in better?

 

[soupy1957]

On these new EPA-rated stoves, the damper that is installed is more than sufficient to handle the airflow.

We own a newer stove, and I considered a damper in our stove pipe, but .........in the end, it wasn't necessary. I have enough control of the fire with the damper installed as part of the stove.

I understand your concerns and desires, and will just say.........let it go. It's not worth doing.

-Soupy1957

 

[oldspark]

Im a bit confused right now.

One guy said the newer stoves do not need pipe dampers and some say to go ahead and put them in.

We have a PE Super 27 stove that was just installed about 2 months ago and the guy never put a damper in the pipe and I never really thought about it at all.

Should I or should I not put damper in?

Wont a damper help hold the heat in better?

The only time you need it is if the draft is too strong, are you having any issues with the burning of the stove and do you use any temp sensors?

 

[smitty81]

500 is about all i can get her up to generally not packed full. Sometimes it seems as if my draft is to strong. It seems that sometimes I have to close the air controll all the way down to get a lazy fire but then I loose my heat............

 

[smitty81]

anyone elses thoughts?

 

[NH_Wood]

Put in the damper! There is no reason to not have the damper in the pipe. It is cheap and looks just fine. You'll read lots of posts here about (newer) woodburners having a fire 'run away' on them. An extra tool to help control the fire can't be bad. BUT...don't abuse it by trying to get your fires to burn longer by REALLY restricting the air. Only use it when you need a bit of an extra choke if the primary isn't closing enough of the draft for the best burn. My 2c. Cheers!

 

[oldspark]

It is a simple install as NH_Wood says, been thinking about trying one myself.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

500 is about all i can get her up to generally not packed full. Sometimes it seems as if my draft is to strong. It seems that sometimes I have to close the air controll all the way down to get a lazy fire but then I loose my heat............

Ah smitty81, if it isn't broke, don't try to fix it!

You have to close the air control all the way down to get a lazy fire....but then you lose heat. Well, you just closed the draft too far. That heat is not going up your chimney and remember that the chimney needs a certain amount of heat in order to function properly.

I'd leave things alone if it were me.

 

[NH_Wood]

You don't have to worry about installing the damper and breaking something that wasn't broken. If you end up not needing the damper, keep in wide open and no harm no foul. But, if you need it for any reason, well.....there it is! Cheers!

 

[firefighterjake]

Unless you have an issue with excessive draft you really do not need a pipe damper . . . I never have seen a need for one myself . . . you could potentially use it to help control a run-away fire . . . or you could control that same fire by loading the stove a bit smarter (yeah, that was me who did a dumb thing by reloading the stove while it was in middle of its cycle) or just blocking off the incoming air inlet with a piece of aluminum foil.

That said . . . while not necessary . . . as NH Woods says . . . they are pretty cheap to install.

 

[snowtime]

They do restrict the air flow a small amount even when fully opened. So they normally do no harm "unless you have marginal draft". If your stove behaves itself and is easy to control then I would not do it.

 

[begreen]

Not as cheap for double wall pipe. I put one on our stove, tried it for a month, then took it out. It never really helped and was one more thing to forget on reloading. Unless the pipe is very tall, don't bother.