Are stove pipe dampers ok?

[kennyp2339]

invest in a real magnet or bite the bullet and put a damper in the flue.

That brings up a good point, maybe someone can help me understand the idea for a flue damper on a modern stove. A flue damper seems like a no thought process of slowing a stove down due to a strong draft, but I've read, and reread an article that says a flue damper on a modern stove does more harm than good. I don't remember the article but it went something along the lines that newer stoves are designed for there own air flows, whether its an air wash system to keep the glass clean, secondary re-burn for epa tube stoves, proper temps for catalytic combustion, ect. Adding a flue damper hurts this whole process because it creates a turbulence that impedes the stove design of exhaust air leaving the stove, it causes lower burn temps and affects the passages on stoves with baffles to the point that efficiency declines (particulates / smoke / creosote build up). Can someone help me out to understand this?

 

[begreen]

It depends. Modern secondary stoves are built with the requirement for a certain amount of draft to adequately pull air through the secondary tubes and airwash. They are designed to burn cleaner by not smoldering the wood, but instead reburning incompletely combusted wood gases. Improper use of a flue damper can thwart this design. It can prevent secondary burn, just when it is needed most. This is an awareness thing. Closing the flue damper may be appropriate when the stove has come up to temp and has a 28' straight up flue, and the outside temp is below freezing. But closing it when its 50F outside may prevent secondary combustion, thus defeating the clean burn technology of the stove. Conversely, installing a flue damper (and closing it) on a 15ft flue would be ill advised as 15ft is typically the minimum flue height requirement.

 

[Smoked]

I ran dampers on mine for the first time this year. Like BG said, I did not use them at all unless it was below 30 f. Cleaning this spring or fall will help tell the story but I do not think I hurt my performance. The glass stayed clean so I think it worked well. I have a 22 ft vent on on install and 31 on the other. I was happy with the way I was able to control the fires of hell at full off gassing stage about 1.5 hours in This also helped me keep STTs below 600 easily. Iron/Steel will be ok hotter obviously but that is where I need to keep mine.

You do have to remember to open them when reloading...else unhappy wife and kids...

 

[Lcback]

Why not just get a baro damper. Set your draft accordingly and forget about it.

 

[begreen]

Barometric dampers on wood stoves are not a great idea. They cool the flue gases which can lead to increased creosote condensation. There's also an energy penalty. In very cold weather when draft is going to be strongest and the baro-damper open the widest, the most heated air is going to be sucked out of the room.