A quick chimney question, pardon if this covered somewhere else, didn't see anything:
Would a trap-door for cleaning out creosote affect the draft characteristics of a chimney?
My Specifics: Old (20? yrs) King sheet-metal stove, 6" outlet pipe , two 90 degree bends before going into wall, small exterior masonry chimney with 6" square flue, trap-door at ground level ~4 ft below entrance of pipe from stove ( trap closes, but doesn't quite seal air-tight when closed ). Not the greatest set-up or resulting draft, but it does well enough for me in my climate not to bother changing it to a straight hole-shot through the roof.
My gut feeling is the trap door makes no difference being below the main exhaust flow resistance, just wanted to know if it makes any difference one way or the other if it was sealed tight, cracked or wide-open.
Would a trap-door for cleaning out creosote affect the draft characteristics of a chimney?
My Specifics: Old (20? yrs) King sheet-metal stove, 6" outlet pipe , two 90 degree bends before going into wall, small exterior masonry chimney with 6" square flue, trap-door at ground level ~4 ft below entrance of pipe from stove ( trap closes, but doesn't quite seal air-tight when closed ). Not the greatest set-up or resulting draft, but it does well enough for me in my climate not to bother changing it to a straight hole-shot through the roof.
My gut feeling is the trap door makes no difference being below the main exhaust flow resistance, just wanted to know if it makes any difference one way or the other if it was sealed tight, cracked or wide-open.
( said the smoke-blinded man ). I never considered the flue temp. dilution before (doh!) only worried about the resistance of the bends and the main flue being outside. Might be all I need to achieve utter draft heaven, we'll find out. Now, I'd still want to have access with the door occasionally ( even though it would probably take me 20 years to fill up the bottom with cleaned out 'sote) so when you're talking about caulk are you meaning 'closing the gaps on the fit' ( ala weatherstripping on a door ) or 'hermetically sealed' ( like one's final resting place ). The trap-door is a swinging cast-iron type job, fairly old, and just has a crude friction type latch that just doesn't catch very good, so it pops back open slightly if left to it's own devices. I'll look closer at how the fit is when it's closed, I might be able to get it sealed pretty good just by propping something heavy against it. Perhaps some of that braided-tape strip stuff I've seen on the inside of stove doors (or some similar thing) for any leftover cracks?
