Wood Stove through brick to chimney question

[fdb16]

Hi all, I just purchased a house with a wood stove in the basement. I guess I have a couple questions here so thanks in advance for your time and patience. I am anxious to get my stove burning. The stove is a Hearthstone I. The previous owner lived here 10 yrs and said he never used the stove. I am new to wood stoves so I downloaded the schematic and realized the baffle and damper have a massive curves in them and the rod holding the damper was broken. It would appear there was an extremely hot fire in the stove at one time and bent these items. The replacement parts are expensive, is it just as effective to put a damper in the stove pipe leading from the stove to chimney?

I inspected the chimney and there were no signs of animal nests, creosote or other blockages in the chimney. It was actually very clean for a chimney. Next I took apart the pipes from the stove to the chimney to make sure no animals made nests in the pipe. This airways are clear and ready for action. I decided I didn't need a damper to start a small fire just to see how this thing works. When I did this smoke came into the room and didn't appear to go up the stack at all. As I am new to this I was wondering if there is something I am doing wrong. There is a clear air path from stove to chimney top w/ no dampers.

One more thing, when I took the stove pipe out the chimney some of the material between the pipe and chimney seemed to be deteriorated. I attached a link to some pictures. Should I be concerned with this? If so is there I way I could do the repairs myself? Money is tight and I consider myself fairly handy.

Thanks again in advance for any help offered!

Link to pictures - http://picasaweb.google.com/frank.brown/Fireplace?feat=directlink

 

[Pagey]

Welcome to the forums. A common problem with basement installs is "negative pressure". This will cause your chimney to actually pull air into the stove/house rather than venting it out. You can help remedy the situation by: warming the flue prior to building a fire, opening a window near the stove when lighting a fire, and making sure the flue liner is the correct size for the stove you are venting.

The damper/air control on the stove may be an important item. I'm not sure if that model is an EPA certified stove, but the air control on a certified stove is used to regulate the amount of combustion air that enters the stove - a critical element in maintaining a safe and clean fire. A key damper, or damper in the pipe, can only help regulate a situation where you have too strong of a draft. It will do nothing to control the amount of combustion air entering the fire box of your stove.

It's always a good idea for a new burner to have a certified chimney sweep do a thorough inspection of the stove and flue. For example, they may spot some cracks in the flue liner or some other damage that the untrained eye can miss. I would be wary of using a stove in which I could not control the combustion air.