Hi all, I have two non rotted 1950’s heatilators in my home (convection type) I had a fireplace company come check them & clean them, and I told him of an issue where one would smoke out of one of the vents. He started to use this white wool packing around where the masonry & the firebox met. I’m happy to say that there is no longer smoke escaping the firebox, but he only had enough to do one. He said it was just wool packing. An internet search, and calls/trips to several hardware stores has netted confused looks and nothing else, and they won’t tell me what it is, because I’m sure they want the service call money. It was white, looked like cotton candy, and I just need to know what it’s called , and where to buy it ASAP. Thanks so much.
Old heatilator
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Most likely ceramic wool which goes under the tradename of kaowool. Given the description, I would strongly think about putting inserts into these fireplaces, both for safety and health reasons. I am assuming that these are heatform style fireplaces with a masonry chimney. Is that correct?
Actually it’s steel lined through masonry all the way to the top. How come a gas insert is a bad idea? Where can I find this Kaowool?
I got my hands on some of that stuff, to insulate around the fire box. And unfortunately it still smoking. The weird thing is, there are two of them in this house. One of the basement and one upstairs. If I run the one downstairs it’s smoke so bad I have to open the windows up in the house. If I run the one upstairs it’s still smokes and smells like fire but not as bad and this particular vent is about 6 feet away from the fireplace. The fireplace downstairs is directly beneath this one but the steel liner that goes from it goes off on an angle and then straight up out of another outlet in the chimney. I had a fireplace guy over here last week, and he said that none of the steel looked rotted or cracked or broken. But any of the heatilator stuff, that I’m used to looking at, From this era it looks like the cold air is drawn in through the masonry, which is just a series of concrete blocks, And then convicted out of another set of events which are also just concrete blocks. I’m gonna get one of those little cameras and go in the inside of the inlet, and follow it up to the top of where the heat convects out. It’s just so weird that it’s only happening on one side, which happens to be the same side for both fireplaces. But it doesn’t smoke downstairs, on that fireplace due to the size of this fireplace which is like the center structure of my house, it would be a nightmare to bust it all apart and take these out. So my thoughts are either do a firebox insert with a triple wall insulator going all the way up through both chimneys, or a vented Zero clearance gas insert. I would prefer the wood because of the power ever goes out, I’ll always have heat. Even though I know that some of these gas fireplaces are millivolt systems, some of them require 110 for ignition and for a blower. A natural fire requires some starter wood and a match, LOL.
I just don’t know what to do, I’ve been in this house for three years, and I refuse to pay $4000 for a gas insert fireplace, installed or even a wood one. I am more than capable of doing these things myself. I just don’t know where to look to shop online, because it seems there anybody around here that may have put in a system like what this is right now, is either dead, retired, or doesn’t wanna be bothered to work on it. I just get people to come out here and say yeah, I’ll put into gas inserts for $9000. I look at them cross and told them to get out, LOL help?
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