HELP...old wood burning fireplace questions.

[Mike_45]

Here are two pictures...one of the vent above the mantel and one of the top of the firebox inner with two levers (the lever on the left says "out open, in closed" and might have something to do with the piping seen in the picture? The lever on the right says "out closed, in open" and I can see that it controls the damper.) What is the vent for?, What are the pipes for?, What does the lever on the left control?, Some smoke gets into my basement where the ash dump is, is this preventable? Lastly, If I were to buy a fireplace plug (inflatable pillow) would I leave the damper open and inflate it where the damper is above the piping? Please help...I had a chimney sweep look at it and well lets just say my money was NOT well spent. I can post more pictures if
need be. Thanks to all who reply!
MIKE

 

[webbie]

This is a heatform fireplace -
https://www.hearth.com/talk/wiki/heatform/

My guess is that the other adjustment may be for an outside air inlet. This may bring in air through the ash dump or somewhere similar.

You certainly should not be having smoke in the ash dump - but it's possible that before your chimney is warm there is some downdraft and smoke leakage which makes this happen. Best bet is to make sure you warm up the chimney quickly by stuffing newspaper up in between those tubes and lighting it....to get things headed upward.