On Sun, 15 Nov 2009 01:14:47 -0500, "Ed Pawlowski"
wrote:


wrote in message
...
Have a curiosity question that I hope the gurus can help me with. My
house has the typical clay chimney surrounded by brick. It does not
have one of those aluminum caps. The house apparently went decades
with out one. On my street I say only 50% of the houses have chimney
caps.
How vital are these caps? Are they vital?
I'm not comfortable going up there myself, so I'll to pay someone, and
unfortunately they'll charge a pretty penny just for a small job.


Thank you

It depends.

My house did not have one on the chimney for the woodstove. I had a bird
get in there, a year or two later a squirrel got stuck. Both animals had to
be taken out inside the house, a real PITA. After that, I put a stainless
steel cap on.

A cap keeps out the wildlife, but, I get condensation from the woodstove now
when the products of combustion hits the cold cap.

I don't have a cap on the chimney for the oil burner and never had a
problem.


A cap on the oil burner flue helps efficiency slightly. That's because
it helps the chiminey warm up faster, so you get better draft sooner.