My Barometric Damper Is

pulling too much air out. I had a 6" RC mounted and the house was cold. Took it out and put a cap in place on the tee. Thinking about buying a 4" barometric damper and a reducer from 6" to 4". Do you think that will help?

Have a mechanical damper in place. On my last instalation really liked how they both worked.

What's the draft reading? If you haven't measured the draft with a gauge (manometer) you are just guessing. There are countless topics dealing with chimney draft here. Do a search.

What is a "mechanical damper"? Do you mean a manual damper?

So you say, a Baro damper really doesn't allow you to make the heat you normally can make with out one?
Maybe it's purpose is to prevent too much draft thus slowing down the burn? Everyone around here claims it holds the heat in the stove. I never believed it.

Cap it for these cold stretches but carefully adjsut the manual air damper for good heat control. Take care.

Changing from a 6" to a 4" is a waste of money. Just get a manometer and adjust the 6" damper. There really is no way for a barometric damper to cause your house to be cold because of it letting too much heat out of the house.. It lets room temp air up the chimney instead of 4-600* air from your stove. A correctly operating baro damper saves heat and saves coal, and lets the heat stay in the stove longer. It also provides a consistant draft so you can find consistant settings for your air, giving consistant heat from your stove.

Greg L

I had found that the baro was sucking so much room air out that it reduced the heat in the house.

I don't buy it. I think what you actually experienced is the lack of a baro caused higher draft which made your stove run hotter. With the baro the stove ran cooler as less air was being pulled through the fire, a situation that could have been remedied by adjusting air in and or feed rates.

fastcat wrote:I had found that the baro was sucking so much room air out that it reduced the heat in the house.

Then your one of the lucky ones that has more draft available than necessary. Bring in outside air - pipe it to within a foot of the barometric damper and let the device do its job.

OR -- and I don't like this one as much -- put a coupe fire brick in the chimney thimble to restrict the natural draft to a point that the barometric damper can still control the products of combustion purchase on the appliance, but you then have to be VERY watchful that your restriction remains open. Even with this - I would provide outside air to limit the drafts of a negative atmosphere swelling - side benefit of outside air make up - your cloths dryer will work better

put a coupe fire brick in the chimney thimble to restrict the natural draft

Bad idea, I wouldn't do it. Both of my chimneys draft like all hell, the colder it gets the more they draft. Both baros are moving around a lot today. Last night I was checking the stoker when a gust of wind hit. I saw the draft go up over -.05" WC and then the baro swung wide open and stayed there. I have it set for -.03" WC. The same chimneys will lose draft or even reverse draft when it suddenly gets warm out after a cold spell, unless there is a reasonable fire burning and plenty of hot gases going up the chimney. Restricting the flow up the chimney is asking for trouble.

I think what is happening here is that Nosmoking doesn't have the baro set correctly and the draft to the stove is too low. We don't know for sure because we need to see actual draft readings, otherwise we are just guessing.

Your right

I don't like the idea - And its I like your statement that it isn't a suggested practice -

BUT - what are you going to do? Some chimneys are just 'Unique" and draw too much. Not many Not many - but they are out there.

Outside air is the answer to a strong chimney. It will cool the products of combustion and slow the draft so the a good barometric damper can maintain control.

Agree with Mr. Farm et al. Baro not prob, size of baro not issue.

Agree with Mr. Farm et al.

BUT - what are you going to do? Some chimneys are just 'Unique" and draw too much.

Bigger baro, or multiple baros. http://www.fieldcontrols.com/draftcontrol.php

NosmoKng wrote:pulling too much air out. I had a 6" RC mounted and the house was cold. Took it out and put a cap in place on the tee. Thinking about buying a 4" barometric damper and a reducer from 6" to 4". Do you think that will help?

This is certainly not the way to do it.
You have to rely on the known principles here, you can't use intuition.
I just put in my first stove and I agree with the guys and gals on the forum.
Definitely, put your damper back in place.
In order to get it to do the job *correctly* check and adjust using a manometer.

If your stove is really cranking (in this cold) then the damper should most likely be somewhat open all of the time.
If you can't get your hands on a manometer, right away, maybe you can get a second thermometer
to place on the flue, before the baro-damper.
You can adjust the damper to open more readily and watch the heat of the flue go down...
Which means more heat is remaining in your house.

Bob

ps I'll say it again, Great looking stove.

As I look at the picture of your stove, I think I see one small drawback.
Your damper looks like it is in the stream of hot air rising from your stove.
Some of the heat from your stove might thereby be drawn up the chimney.

I believe you will still come out far ahead with an adjusted baro-damper.

Bob

I have to admit that I have not adjusted the damper with a mano. I like the idea about a stack thermometer to test if the lost heat decreases with the right setting. That would be a nice demonstration of how good these work. Need to get it out of the airstream of the stove.