Here's a copy of the email I sent to Heat-N-Glo this morning. It should explain my problem.
Hello,
I have a problem that I hope you can help me with.
A year and a half ago, we built a new house and had a Northstar wood burning fireplace installed.
A month ago, it didn't seem to turn down to a slow burn as it used to.
Three weeks ago, it started leaking in more and more smoke when I open the door.
Last week, when starting a fire, it seemed that NO smoke wanted to travel up the chimney. It was so bad, that it started leaking through a gap/hole in the fiberglass seal around the right window. Once I noticed this, I thought this might be the cause of the fire not slowing to a quite burn. I fixed this last week.
The first time I experienced this problem, it was quite windy. Not as windy as other times in the past, but still. Last week, after finally getting the fire going, I went outside to check the chimney. A good amount of smoke was visible exiting the chimney, but not as much as I had anticipated.
Today, when attempting to start a fire, the smoke was so thick behind the glass, that I had to press on the doors to keep smoke from coming into the house from every place.
My house is not too tight. I wish it were. Opening a door does not help. There is no wind today.
When attempting to learn more about how this fireplace works, I removed the front grate, beneath the doors. The lever that changes the air intake is connected to a triangular metal plate. The plate should be connected to a fixed pivot point. It is not. It seems to have fallen off the peg it should be attached to.
The outside air kit that was supposed to come with the chimney was not installed. Regardless, prior to three weeks ago, this had never happened
We have no damper to close the flue. This seems odd to me, but that's the way it was installed. Very cold air is coming into the house from the bottom of the fireplace right now. This has never happened to the extent it is right now.
Since attempting to start the fireplace this morning, it has been ticking like a clock. Playing with the slide (which I mentioned earlier, seems to be broken) seems to have some affect on this. Pushing it to the extreme right seems to occasionally make the ticking stop momentarilly. There's no fire and hasn't been for a week. It's not coolong down. It's just been ticking for 55 minutes.
Can anyone tell me what is happening to me? Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Kary
Hello,
I have a problem that I hope you can help me with.
A year and a half ago, we built a new house and had a Northstar wood burning fireplace installed.
A month ago, it didn't seem to turn down to a slow burn as it used to.
Three weeks ago, it started leaking in more and more smoke when I open the door.
Last week, when starting a fire, it seemed that NO smoke wanted to travel up the chimney. It was so bad, that it started leaking through a gap/hole in the fiberglass seal around the right window. Once I noticed this, I thought this might be the cause of the fire not slowing to a quite burn. I fixed this last week.
The first time I experienced this problem, it was quite windy. Not as windy as other times in the past, but still. Last week, after finally getting the fire going, I went outside to check the chimney. A good amount of smoke was visible exiting the chimney, but not as much as I had anticipated.
Today, when attempting to start a fire, the smoke was so thick behind the glass, that I had to press on the doors to keep smoke from coming into the house from every place.
My house is not too tight. I wish it were. Opening a door does not help. There is no wind today.
When attempting to learn more about how this fireplace works, I removed the front grate, beneath the doors. The lever that changes the air intake is connected to a triangular metal plate. The plate should be connected to a fixed pivot point. It is not. It seems to have fallen off the peg it should be attached to.
The outside air kit that was supposed to come with the chimney was not installed. Regardless, prior to three weeks ago, this had never happened
We have no damper to close the flue. This seems odd to me, but that's the way it was installed. Very cold air is coming into the house from the bottom of the fireplace right now. This has never happened to the extent it is right now.
Since attempting to start the fireplace this morning, it has been ticking like a clock. Playing with the slide (which I mentioned earlier, seems to be broken) seems to have some affect on this. Pushing it to the extreme right seems to occasionally make the ticking stop momentarilly. There's no fire and hasn't been for a week. It's not coolong down. It's just been ticking for 55 minutes.
Can anyone tell me what is happening to me? Any comments/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
Kary
