On 12/25/2012 3:00 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
wrote in :

Why would anyone C clamp all the fireplace flues open?

Those are dampers, not flues. The flue is the passageway for the exhaust gases to leave
the house. The mechanism that opens and closes it is the damper.

Possibly due to a knuckleheaded family member who lights fires without checking the
damper first. Or possibly due to laziness -- easier to just keep it open all the time, especially
if the fireplace is used frequently.

Another possibility is that the house is tight enough that an open damper in a fireplace *not*
in use is necessary to supply sufficient combustion air to one that *is* in use -- could be that
none of them will draw properly unless there's at least one more open damper somewhere.

Should I just remove the clamps?

At least, remove them long enough to find out if the dampers operate properly, and the
fireplaces will draw properly with the unused one(s) closed. If they do, and if you can
remember to check them before lighting a fire, there's no reason to keep them all open if the
fireplaces draw properly otherwise.

A house we own in Redmond, Oregon has a big stone fireplace with glass
doors in the front. The year we moved there we had a big fire in the
fireplace during a winter storm. About 5 degrees, snowing hard and big
wind from the South. One big gust of wind blew open the glass doors and
slammed shut the damper. Guess where the smoke and flames went? We were
in the room and I quickly grabbed a stick of firewood and got the damper
open and doors closed.

Got a piece of wire and managed to wire the damper open.

Later I fabricated a stainless steel latch on the damper handle to hold
it either open or closed. No further problems. The heavy wooden mantle
showed signs that this had happened before.

In my experience, dampers should ALWAYS have some positive
latching/locking mechanism.

Paul