OK so maybe a dumb question. I have a CB1200i (aka insert). I need to pull it out to check the chimney/flue due to massive drafts. What's the proper way to pull this unit out of the firebox? Simply disconnect the exhaust pipe and slide it forward into my room?
How to move?
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Remove the surround will make it easier. Yes, disconnect the exhaust, have a vacuum with a fine filter ready to collect the ASH/dust storm thats waiting for you. Ensure you unplug unit prior to any work on it. Slide it out of fireplace, careful not to scratch/damage hearth/floor in front of stove. What massive drafts are you referring to? Does this unit have a full length liner? If so, top of chimney is closed off, and if you do not have insulation or blockoff plate installed at damper, that should be done too. Good luck.
Appreciate the tips! The draft happens when the stove is off... when I open the side doors, or just stand in front of the stove, I can feel significant cold air rushing down the sides of the stove and into the room. Once the stove starts, there's no draft at all.
I suspect, the installers did not install a "blockoff plate"... I also suspect the top of the chimney isn't sealed very tightly (if that's a "thing").
I guess once I remove the surround, I may be able to get my head in there to look up and see if there is a blockoff plate without fully pulling the stove out?
Yes, you should be able to get in there and look up, maybe a light and a mirror will help with that. The install ideally would have a top plate sealing off top of chimney, and a damper area block off plate will help with air lossage. The damper area can be modified to slow down drafts, but if the top is open somehow, that needs addressing too.
Thank you for all the feedback.. as soon as the heating season is over, I need to have this addressed. The draft is like having a door open it's so bad... Just need to find a chimney service that can fix this properly as I'm not calling my stove installers back. I've lost confidence in them.
I sure hope its not the case of someone just running a liner up the chimney and not putting the top plate on, I've seen that and was checking into just what you were describing, drafts when the stove was off. The result was we wound up taking the liner out from their living room (very carefully!), and putting an extension on outside, and re -installing liner after it was cleaned. We then put a damper sealing plate in, and customer was ours after that. The bad part was the store I worked at had originally suggested they use the first installer...
I paid them $980 to rebuild my cap as the old one was 25 years old and beginning to rust... Not sure if it was properly insulated FIRST before they put that cap on.... it was freezing cold when it was installed so I'm sure they were anxious to be quick.
I'm curious- are you talking about a chase's chimney cover cap? That covers the overall chase top and any fireplace or furnace flue would have holes in the cover. Then the pellet insert's liner would come up and through, it would have its own liner termination cap affixed to it as well. Is this what we are talking about?
Pulled out the invoice from the work... All it says is "Custom Stainless Steel Chase Cover".
There's also a line item for a "4" x 35' SS line kiter w/18"x18" top plate and appliance adapter".
Well... it's seriously strong enough it feels like an open window.. but obviously there's no window in there! They even wrapped insulation around the outter edges of the firebox but that didn't do much... and, we haven't used the fireplace for at least 22 years prior to the pellet stove install... and never noticed a draft like this.. so in my mind, something happened during the insert install. When I complained to the installers, they started talking about tearing off the siding and dismantling the chimney to figure it out...
what I'm really starting to wonder........if the cold isn't falling down the chimney, what it if it's just coming in from the bottom/sides... like what's under the "floor" of the fireplace? it's not concrete.. for all I know, it's just plywood and rotted out... perhaps the cold air just pours in through the sides...
I wonder now if this chase (appears to be a chase you're describing) is open enough somewhere that cold air is infiltrating and coming down through the fireplace opening. If so, a blockoff could still help. How about checking the bottom of the chase too? That could lead to something, if it was not or poorly insulated...
Check out these pictures... I'm really starting to think the floor beneath the stove is probably rotted out..
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Even if the floor is not rotted out, the pipe going up through it is open at the top (duh). That allows cold air to get in the pipe.
I presume the pipe is not insulated (as I think it never is for pellet exhaust? - I have no pellet experience).
That means you have outside cold air in a thin walled metal pipe. That cold is going to go through that pipe and will cool the air in the chase.
That air then (without a block-off plate) will sink down and run out around the insert. That will feel like a draft. (And warm air will go up the chase to replace it).
I think that if you add a sealed block off plate, your problem will be gone.
I presume the pipe is not insulated (as I think it never is for pellet exhaust? - I have no pellet experience).
That means you have outside cold air in a thin walled metal pipe. That cold is going to go through that pipe and will cool the air in the chase.
That air then (without a block-off plate) will sink down and run out around the insert. That will feel like a draft. (And warm air will go up the chase to replace it).
I think that if you add a sealed block off plate, your problem will be gone.
I think that if you add a sealed block off plate, your problem will be gone.
That's what I was thinking when I started this thread... and I sure hope you are right..
That's what I was thinking when I started this thread... and I sure hope you are right..
it's quite common for wood stoves too. Folks feeling cold drafts (cold air flowing) from around their stoves. They get adviced here to install a sealed block off plate (with some rockwool, not glassfiber on top), and their problems are gone.
I hope that's it for you. Easier than messing with/in/on top of the chase imo.
I hope that's it for you. Easier than messing with/in/on top of the chase imo.
I'm hoping too that Stoveliker is correct that that will fix the issue, but sounded like the volume of air flow sounded more than a cold chimney liner. I hope that fixes it though.
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