Fireplace help...

[Jim O'Dell]

I grew up with out "natural" heat :rolleyes: , so with the house we bought in May 2004, we have our first fireplace. Didn't light it up until today (had the chimney sweep come out and go through it in November) I'm basically burning some deadfall limbs, mostly small stuff. It burns them fast and bright. Is there supposed to be some adjustment to the damper to control this somewhat? I tried moving it and it seems to be weighted either open or closed. I'm going to brave the rain (our first measurable rain in 9 months!!) and try to cut a couple of the bigger limbs for longer running fuel. Any ideas you can help me with will be greatly appreciated! Jim.

[Steve Clardy]

Do you have a lever to open and close damper, or a turn knob?

[Tyler Howell]

Tightly sealed glass door will keep you from loosing more heat than you gain and slows down the burn and keeps your expensive room heat from shooting uo the chimny. Adjustable external combustion air is also an important feature. It can be adjusted to regulate burn.

[Joe Pelonio]

Tightly sealed glass door will keep you from loosing more heat than you gain and slows down the burn and keeps your expensive room heat from shooting uo the chimny. Adjustable external combustion air is also an important feature. It can be adjusted to regulate burn.
Most dampers (all the ones I've seen) are either all open or all closed. On both of my fireplaces I installed glass doors, with adjustable air intake vents at the bottom. They are not that expensive ($100-300) and add a nice look as well as letting you control the burn speed. They also have the screen doors for when the glass is open to let more heat out. Just draw a good diagram with a lot of measurements when you go to buy it so you get the right size.

[Jim O'Dell]

Do you have a lever to open and close damper, or a turn knob?

It is a lever. In fact, I should have mentioned that this fireplace has an insert, with fan to push the heated air into the room.
Tyler, it also has the glass doors, not sure how tight a fit is tight. :D :D And, Joe, it has the screens behind the glass doors, but I've kept the glass doors shut all day. From what the chimney sweep told us, the flue has the separate air for combustion, so as not to pull from the house. I think my big problem now is burning deadfall limbs. Nothing over about 3" diameter. It's a mixture of Pecan and Elm, and mostly wet since TLOML didn't mention she wanted to burn a fire today until after dark last night. Started raining about 1:00 and has been raining ever since (FINALLY!!).
Thanks for the replys. Jim.

[Andy Hoyt]

Jim - Don't mean to insult your knowledge base, and apologize if I do; but since I'm not sure what your stuff is like, I thought I better throw this out to you.

There are only two things one can do with green wood. Turn it or dry it.

Burning green wood is not only an exasperation but also dangerous in that if you do get it going it will produce an over abundance of creosote. That's the stuff you have your sweep remove so as to avoid chimney fires.

Up here, an ideal protocol is to have all firewood cut, split, and stacked by Thanksgiving so that it will be dry and ready to burn one year later. And this is based on a typical chunk of 16" long red oak that has two freshly split faces and is roughly 5" x 5".

Be sure you're only burning dry wood. Woodcraft and Rockler sell lots of it:D

[Tim Morton]

Jim - Don't mean to insult your knowledge base, and apologize if I do; but since I'm not sure what your stuff is like, I thought I better throw this out to you.

There are only two things one can do with green wood. Turn it or dry it.

Burning green wood is not only an exasperation but also dangerous in that if you do get it going it will produce an over abundance of creosote. That's the stuff you have your sweep remove so as to avoid chimney fires.

Up here, an ideal protocol is to have all firewood cut, split, and stacked by Thanksgiving so that it will be dry and ready to burn one year later. And this is based on a typical chunk of 16" long red oak that has two freshly split faces and is roughly 5" x 5".

Be sure you're only burning dry wood. Woodcraft and Rockler sell lots of it:D
that was going to be my comment as well..only burn dry wood, even if you have to buy it cut and split the first couple years. And if you buy itmake sure to ask when it was cut and how long its been split.

[Jim O'Dell]

Thanks! That is good info. The wood I'm burning I can break over my knee, or the big ones cut 1/3 through and then break. It breaks clean. It is deadfall from the trees. Probably has been that way for 3 or 4 years (this house sat empty for 2 years before we bought it and nothing was done to the trees to keep them clean. Vines growing up in several of the Pecans. We got rid of the vines asap). Note that I'm not cutting this out of the trees, it is falling out on it's own. Thanks again for the info. You didn't insult me at all. On the contrary, you were looking out for me, and I appreciate that. Jim.