shederr wrote:
On Dec 18, 9:33 am, John McGaw wrote:
shederr wrote:
On Dec 17, 1:10 pm, John McGaw wrote:
shederr wrote:
We recently moved into a home (built in 1982) and it has a wood
burning fireplace. We love having a wood burning fireplace, but
we've recently noticed the hearth gets very cold and there's
quite a draft coming from the fireplace. We've read and been
told to close the flu and hold a tissue in the fireplace to see
if it moves (indicating a draft through the flu). We've done
that and the tissue does not move. We've used fireplace caulking
around the fireplace between it and the brick surround.
The draft seems to be coming from the vents underneath the
fireplace (sorry, not sure what that's called). It's as if the
area around the fireplace itself is letting a draft in. We want
to continue using the fireplace and hate to block these vents,
but we've covered them with towels for now while it's not being
used. Is there a way to remove this vent covering and insulate
underneath there or is there something we should do at the top of
the chimney that will solve this? Replacing the insert is a bit
costly for us right now. Is there anything else we can do to cut
down the draft from under the fireplace?
Thanks in advance for your help!
I'm having a hard time figuring out what you might mean by "vents
underneath the fireplace". Three possibilities I can see are 1) an
ash pit 2) air vents from outside which provide makeup air to the
fire and 3) some sort of heat circulation arrangement but these
probably aren't all the possibilities.

What sort of firebox does your fireplace have (steel, masonry?).
Where are these vents located relative to where the logs rest on
the grate or andirons? Are there other vents than the ones you
mention (like above the firebox opening)? Is this fireplace a
pre-fabricated unit that was inserted into an opening in the wall
with bricks added for decoration?

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]http://johnmcgaw.com

The firebox is steel. I don't have a picture, but found a couple
through MSN images that are close to mine.
The urls a
http://www.royalhomes.com/options/im...-Fireplace.jpg
and
http://www.fireplacesnow.com/gif%20files/11bgd48n.jpg
Hopefully you can get to these url's.

Anyway, the vents that seem to be drafty are below the box area
where you place the logs. There are also vents just inside the
doors on both sides. They each have a chain coming through them
with a pull that says "pull to close". I'm not sure what those are
supposed to be closing. There are also vents at the top above the
box but there is no draft from there.

The unit is not set into (flush with) the wall, it sticks out from
the wall.

If the doors are airtight, or nearly so, then the side vents inside
the doors may be for makeup air for combustion. It seems a good
chance that the vents above and below the firebox are connected and
are for extracting heat from the metal enclosure (in at the bottom
and out at the top when the metal enclosure is hot) to heat the
room. I'd certainly close the side vents when there is no fire, just
in case they are part of the problem.

You can probably get closer to figuring out what paths the draft is
taking if you can obtain a "smoke pen". This item can probably be
found at a well-equipped hardware store although I haven't actually
looked for one myself. It might just be that the firebox is cold
enough that air is naturally entering the upper vents, going behind
the firebox, and then falling out the bottom vents. Of course it
could also be that there is a humongous hole back there somewhere
leading to the outdoors. Does anything show outside the house near
the fireplace -- like a screened air intake?

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]http://johnmcgaw.com

John,
I'll take a look at it tonight and see if there is a screened air
intake outside the house. What if there is?

what you might need is this
http://www.woodlanddirect.com/Chimne...ney-Cap-Damper
I bought and installed it when my throat damper burned out, it is easy to
install and works great, for the metal firebox just use self taping screws
to mount the handle inside.
If you google Chimney Cap Damper you will have alot of good info at your
finger tips!

Clark...
--
Don't you have Google in your part of the world?