Minimal Heat coming out of my Fireplace

[bigealta]

ok good idea. I will try that. it'll be next week sometime. i'll report back.

no it's all going just inside this cavity made of sheetrock. this is a pic from the manual. the vent ends...then there is that broken tar paper...then another 4 inch gap with nothing...then a grill covering it all.


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then I felt this wall...and the wall is warm. it's just all going in there

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Ok interesting. Let us know how patching the holes works out.
Then later we can see if maybe adding a baffle plate to the inside of your stove can get it to run a bit cleaner and hotter.

 

[begreen]

ok so I only have a random room thermometer...I stuck it in the vent where it turns (about 2 feet in) and it got to ~140 degrees in < 1 min. (It was still climbing but I took it out cause i was afraid the thermometer itself melt).

when I move the thermometer back to where the grill would be (after the hole in there) it goes down to like 85 degrees.

so I think a lot of heat is just escaping in that hole

can I call an HVAC company to fill in that gap? or should I call a fireplace company? (I'm guessing the fireplace company is gonna wanna charge me 10x to install a simple aluminum vent - obv want to keep it safe though.)

There's your heat loss. It won't take much to fix this. If you don't have any DIY skills then yes, see if you can get a decent tin knocker out to extend the ducts to the grille openings. That should make a notable improvement. If you want to fix it yourself then measure the distance from the duct to the grille face. Is this 8" ducting? If so it looks like a 12" section of 8" warm air pipe might be all that's needed.

Your fire looks good so the wood is ok. Don't run it with the air control wide open for extended periods of time. It may overfire the fireplace and is the least efficient burn level. A medium level, with the air control approximately 2/3ds closed, is recommended once the fire is burning well.

 

[vicuna]

Well maybe, but a stovetop can easily run at 500-600F, That's way way more heat than those vents are putting out, but that said that stove must be kicking out heat thru the glass and metal front and hopefully somewhere else as well.

yeah exactly. it's a fire should be heating stuff up.

there is for sure some heat out the front. but you basically need to sit 5 feet away to feel it.

we'll see how the tin foil does. I'm not super handy so I'll wait til next weekend when I have a bunch of free time probably.

I am pretty confident the faulty venting is the biggest culprit here. there's a frame with just drywall where the chimney pipe goes through. that hole escapes into that. the whole thing is warm to the touch on the second floor. almost all the heat is just heating up that cavity.

I'll work on testing that and getting a moisture meter and learning how to select better firewood.

thank you everyone!!

 

[vicuna]

There's your heat loss. It won't take much to fix this. If you don't have any DIY skills then yes, see if you can get a decent tin knocker out to extend the ducts to the grille openings. That should make a notable improvement. If you want to fix it yourself then measure the distance from the duct to the grille face. Is this 8" ducting? If so it looks like a 12" section of 8" warm air pipe might be all that's needed.

Your fire looks good so the wood is ok. Don't run it with the air control wide open for extended periods of time. It may overfire the fireplace and is the least efficient burn level. A medium level, with the air control approximately 2/3ds closed, is recommended once the fire is burning well.

ok will do on the 2/3 closed. tyty.

i'll put that manual on my morning reading list.