To Damp or not?

[daldrich]

Last season we installed a 15' SS chimney liner to use on our VC Intrepid. Installers recommended against installing a damper in the liner because we already had an airtight stove.

So now the season is rolling down I've noticed that we've burned quite a bit of wood for what was not all that bad of a winter. Anyone have opinions on if a damper is needed?

Thanks,
-d

 

[swestall]

It depends on how hard your fire is burning with the stove damped all the way down. If you have a strong draft, then the damper will help. The draft gets stronger as it gets colder. You might find that it would help you in the coldest part of the season. Once you get use to it, you might use it all the time. If you keep the secondary burn up, the flue temp at an acceptable level and are damped down a bit; you'll get more heat with less wood.
You've nothing to lose by having it there, you can leave it open worst case.

 

[SPED]

I was thinking of putting a damper in when I put in my new chimney for two reasons.

1. just in case I need it in cold weather
2. In case of out of control fire, it's one more thing to help you bring it back down

I can't see any negatives other than cleaning it to make sure it's not a creosote catcher....

 

[northwinds]

I was thinking of putting a damper in when I put in my new chimney for two reasons.

1. just in case I need it in cold weather
2. In case of out of control fire, it's one more thing to help you bring it back down

I can't see any negatives other than cleaning it to make sure it's not a creosote catcher....

I haven't ended up using mine, even in the frigid weather. But for reason #2, I'm glad it's there, just in
case. I'll see this spring if it's a creosote catcher.

 

[tradergordo]

This has been discussed a lot on the "Florida bungalow" threads. Basically you need some kind of "extra air flow control" IF you've already ensured your stove has no leaks (changed gaskets etc.) AND you are unable to control the fire with its existing air control (i.e. when turned down all the way you still overfire).

Whether you want a flue damper vs. another solution is very debatable. Personally I don't like flue dampers.

You might want to read this article:
http://www.gulland.ca/florida_bungalow_syndrome.htm

By the way, I think ANY stove can get "out of control" under the worst circumstances. This could happen from a combination of super dry wood and massive draft which could result from extremely low outdoor temps or high atmospheric pressure, but the wood alone could do it, and of course an extremely long flue/chimney can contribute to the monster draft, and any stove could develop a gasket leak as well. So in my opinion EVERY stove owner needs to learn how to bring an out of control burn back under control. For most people, its as simple as covering over the secondary air intake. This can even be done using tin foil. You don't need a damper, you just need a plan and something that works.

 

[savageactor7]

HUH! Food for thought tradergordo.

With are old school airtight stove we always had a damper and very, very, occasionally we closed it cause the fire was burning to hot.

When we recently got our QF4300installed they didn't put in a damper...when I questioned them they got technical on the new EPA stoves and I was convinced that a damper wasn't needed.

But in the back of my mind like you said ... 'ANY stove can get “out of control” under the worst circumstances ..." I believe that too and now regard a damper as another safety backup...albeit redundant is still a good thing.

I'm new at with these EPA stoves so I will continue to follow this thread to see what the experts say about dampers.

 

[SPED]

I've seen that article posted before and always planned to read it eventually and now I finally took the time. Very informative thanks for posting that tradergordo, I didn't realize how much a damper could alter the flow. I'll have a minimal chimney height, about 15 feet from the hearth to the cap, so I think I'll try mine without for now, don't want to hurt my already marginal draft. Time to get those balled up pieces of aluminum foil at the ready for safety ;-)

 

[tradergordo]

I've seen that article posted before and always planned to read it eventually and now I finally took the time. Very informative thanks for posting that tradergordo, I didn't realize how much a damper could alter the flow. I'll have a minimal chimney height, about 15 feet from the hearth to the cap, so I think I'll try mine without for now, don't want to hurt my already marginal draft. Time to get those balled up pieces of aluminum foil at the ready for safety ;-)

I know some will laugh, but I keep a piece of tin foil under my stove, it can't be seen at all but I know its there. In two years of burning full time for the winter, I only had to use it one time. Like I said, just unusual circumstances I guess - there were no gasket leaks at the time, the stove was loaded pretty full with dry wood and I just had really strong draft for whatever reason at the time. I covered over the air intake with tin foil, and the stove came back under control almost immediately, and was burning at normal temps shortly after. I'm kind of glad it happened really, now I know what will work to "fix" the situation if it ever happens again and I also understand what Gulland was talking about!

Come to think of it, I think all stoves should come with a mandatory "air off" switch/slider of some kind for this very reason (safety). It would just have to be designed so that it couldn't do more harm than good (our brilliant engineers can come up with something!) and of course would require EPA blessing.

 

[SPED]

I think it really is a good idea, if it wasn't posted here in other threads I would never have thought of it. Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective... And I bet anyone who ends up having to use it won't be laughin at ya ;-)

 

[northwinds]

The article is a good read. I think I just lucked out with my damper. It's probably restricting the draft just enough when
it's being left wide open that I'm getting good results. My installation is 25 feet plus straight up double wall interior chimney.
No smoke spill-over and the primary air control is very responsive. I will be interested in seeing if there is any build-up on
the damper when I clean the chimney after the season is over.

 

[rumme]

well im getting reAdy to install my Napolean, and I already detached the intake air control by grinding down the stop, so it will now FULLY cover the air intake passage. If I hadnt done this, the air intake passage still reamined about 30% open, even though the air adjustment rod showed it being fully closed.

So I can now shut down all the air intake if needed. My concern was more along the lines of having a damper in the vertical stovepipe section, coming right off the woodstove, which would allow me to restrict the heat/ air flow going out the chimney, thus enabling me to use more of the generated heat from the stove, to heat the house, instead of me not having any control over that heated air flow going out the chimney, when using a non dampered 2 ' stovepipe section inside my house.

The one thing I need to mention is, im going up with 2 ft of stovepipe, then a 90 degree elbow and 3 ft of stovepipe out my side wall then another 90 degree elbow and then 15 ft of chimney up. Id also like to know that my installation will allow me to properly run the stove all nite long for 8 hours, while we sleep, to keep the house around the 68 degree mark, and still have hot enough coals when we wake in the morning, to start up a noraml burn without using matches and refiring it up from scratch