Stuck fireplace damper
Q: Jason,
I’m the guy who talked to you on the phone and had a fireplace damper stuck. Finally got it open. What a pain to lay on your back and look up into the chimney at a stuck fireplace damper. Now I have another reason to hate my fireplace!!
I have two fireplaces. The upstairs fireplace damper is in good shape. The opening immediately above the damper is large, but it tapers down to an ~12″ circular flue. The round flue is 32″ from the top of the damper. Problem is that your extender is only 16″ long. Can you put two of the extenders together, or make a custom long extender?
The downstairs fireplace is the one with the rusted damper. I finally got it to open and now it moves ok. The opening immediately above the damper is ~42″x20″. This tapers down to a circular flue. The flue is on the left side of the fireplace (the two fireplaces share a chimney). I could put a 12×12 chimney plug in the lower fireplace, but the circular opening is 48″ above the top of the damper.
The house was built in California in 1960. It doesn’t match any of your standard sizes. Are the construction details unusual? Can I get a longer extension and use a standard chimney plug? -BE
A: Dear BE,
I’m glad to hear that the damper finally opened up. A stuck damper often requires safety goggles, a whole can of WD-40, some serious elbow grease, and patience.Lets address the upstairs fireplace first… You can make an HEK extender longer by making some non-authorized adaptations to it. See this article on how to make a longer Chimney Balloon extender: http://www.chimneyballoonusa.com/blog/2007/01/i_talked_with_j.html
An easier solution would be to get the measurements just above the damper in this fireplace and install a Chimney Balloon there at a lower point.Now, with the downstairs fireplace…If the dimensions are 42×20 in the smoke shelf just above the fireplace damper then that would be the easiest location to install a Chimney Balloon. We do make a custom size 42×20 Chimney Balloon and you can see it on the Custom Chimney Balloon page of the website: http://www.chimneyballoon.us/customchimneyballoon.html
Be sure to call again if you have more questions on how to measure in the smoke shelf area. – Jason