Barometric dampers yes or no

[Channing]

I have been sucsesfully using my Harmon Mark III on mostly wood and coal on cold nights for ten years as my primary source of heat. I came here today to address my puff back problem. now I am going to bring up the barometric damper that came with my stove that may be part of my puff back problem when I load my stove on top of hot bed of coals. I have a tall stainless liner 30'-35' with a strong draft. I feel the BD is keeping the draft from sucking my heat up the pipe before the stove has time to absorbe it.

It's realy dangerious when you have a chimmny fire. But if i cut in a damper now thats one more thing to do and then I cant run the chimny brush up from inside. How about some input. Thanks

 

[snowtime]

I would remove the barometric and put a regular damper in. As far as cleaning the chimney goes put in a small section of telescoping pipe right above the damper. I am assuming you will install the damper right above the stove. I say this not really knowing how much chimney you have in the open to work with. Just look at your setup and figure a way to make it cleanable from the inside if that is what you need.

 

[mike1234]

There is a lot of disagreement on barometric dampers in the forum, you might try a search. I will just tell you my experience. I covered mine up with tin foil for a few days, mostly because I was getting so much creosote, and that was one of the suggestions to counter that problem. I burned a lot more wood when it was covered, and the stove company told me this happened because all of the air that went up the chimney had to go through the stove, which used up fuel, instead of being able to bring some of the air in though the barometric damper. For me, I found I used a lot more wood with it covered.

 

[snowtime]

As far as a lot more air going up the chimney a regular damper will control that.