Damper in Chimney pipe... How many have them?

[1project2many]

Do I have a damper, or do I use the damper?

I did have a small fire in the flue due to the ashpan not being closed completely creating quite the draft. After I figured out what was going on I closed the flue damper and starved the fire. I have a 22' run straight up. The installer told me it wasn't necessary to have a damper, I argued with him and proved my point. Its cheap insurance

Finally someone's mentioned the safety factor. As per the suggested method for my little Englander, I use only the intake air control to adjust the fire. As per the advice of a few well seasoned burners, I have a damper to starve a fire in the chimney should it ever happen. I have little worries about chimney fires after using the stove for four years, but I still keep the damper installed.

 

[Highbeam]

The dampers won't shut off the flue 100% they are a loose fit with holes in them so you can't totally snuff a fire. You wouldn't want to since that smoke will then billow out the intakes.

The modern non-cat stoves have a single draft control that controls primary air which flows over the glass and through the little port at the bottom of the window. You can't shut this air control off, it is built to always flow enough air for a clean burn. In addition, the secondary air system in all but one stove is wide open and full throttle all the time. That system will happily feed a chimney fire.

A pipe damper is a great idea. The only negative is that it will be in the way when cleaning.

 

[borat]

My inserts don't have chimney dampers but they do have bi-metal draft control that does an excellent job of controlling the air intake. The insert on the main floor has approx 15' of straight vertical insulated chimney. The one in the basement has around 23 ft of straight vertical insulated chimney. Both function well and the fire is easily controlled. Intake air comes from outside.

Here's an excerpt from the Opel manual:

"THE COMBUSTION CONTROL SYSTEM
Since the doors are sealed, all combustion air must come through a draft control. This control has a bimetal coil to allow more air when the unit is cold, and less air when the unit is hot, guarding against overheating. It can be controlled either manually through the lever below the door handles, or automatically through the optional electric wall thermostat.
For the first few days, it is best to operate the fireplace with the manual control fully on (moved to the right as far as possible). Just control the fire as you would any normal fireplace using two or three large logs at a time for a smaller fire, or more logs for more heat. Once you become familiar with operating the fireplace with the control open, you can start experimenting with lower settings. Remember: when the fireplace is hot, the con- trol will not need as much movement to reduce the fire as when it is cold. The bimetal coil will already have shut the damper part way."


At camp, I have a 30 year old air tight Elmira wood stove in very good condition. Door gaskets seal fairly well although, there is a bit of a crack at the very top and bottom at the seal where where the two doors meet. Intake air is from inside the camp. The stove has approx. 10 ft. of smoke pipe going into six feet of insulated chimney with a damper approx. 5' above the stove. In this application, a damper is certainly nice to have. It adds another element of fire control and also slows heat loss up the chimney. Being that the camp is solely heated by wood, it's nice to facilitate a long slow all night burn and gain additional heat from the chimney on cold winter nights.





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[Gypo Logger]

I know it's an old thread, but with a pipe damper you'll use half the wood, twice the burn time and more heat radiating from the stove as oppossed to the heat loss vented thru the pipe to the outside. The pipe damper also allows you to win the too hot, too cold fight. Since my only source of heat is wood, l couldn't be without a damper unless l wanted to burn twice the wood, a saving of 1000$/ year, wood l would have otherwise sold.