A quick question regarding a flue damper for a wood stove:

In my two story house I have a wood buring fireplace on the first
floor and a wood stove in the basement. Both have separate 6" metal
flues inside the same framed chimney shaft, with openings about 24"
apart. When I use the fireplace, the basement smells like smoke. I
realize it's probably the backdraft of a make-up air going down the
woodstove flue, but somehow this does not happen when I use the
woodstove and not the fireplace. Anyway, chimney top dampers would
probably work the best to fix this problem, but I'd rather avoid going
up on that tall chimney. Can an air-tight damper be installed inside
the 6" round flue just above the wood stove? The only types of dampers
I've seen that go inside a metal flue are the cast iron disks, but
they don't provide an air-tight seal. Are there any other flue dampers
for round pipes that provide good seal? I'm considering using a 6"
metal blast gate user for dust collector ducts, any opinions if that
would work? Other than the occasional smell, both the fireplace and
wood stove work great, although on a cold day it's can be tricky to
start a fire in the woodstove, lot of cold air to push out through
that tall chimney.

Thanks in advance.

(John) wrote in message . com...
A quick question regarding a flue damper for a wood stove:

In my two story house I have a wood buring fireplace on the first
floor and a wood stove in the basement. Both have separate 6" metal
flues inside the same framed chimney shaft, with openings about 24"
apart. When I use the fireplace, the basement smells like smoke. I
realize it's probably the backdraft of a make-up air going down the
woodstove flue, but somehow this does not happen when I use the
woodstove and not the fireplace. Anyway, chimney top dampers would
probably work the best to fix this problem, but I'd rather avoid going
up on that tall chimney. Can an air-tight damper be installed inside
the 6" round flue just above the wood stove? The only types of dampers
I've seen that go inside a metal flue are the cast iron disks, but
they don't provide an air-tight seal. Are there any other flue dampers
for round pipes that provide good seal? I'm considering using a 6"
metal blast gate user for dust collector ducts, any opinions if that
would work? Other than the occasional smell, both the fireplace and
wood stove work great, although on a cold day it's can be tricky to
start a fire in the woodstove, lot of cold air to push out through
that tall chimney.

Thanks in advance.


i have had a similar problem. was told that the wood stove in my
basement heats up it's own seperate flue as well as the flue for the
fireplace. i was told to burn the woodstove long enough to heat both
flues then light the fire place - this worked perfectly. was told that
when i used the fireplace without heating the woodstove flue the smoke
was exiting the fireplace chimmney and being sucked back down the cold
wood stove pipe. if your stove is air tight a damper is not
reccommended