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If you’ve ever filled your house with smoke just after starting a roaring fire, then you’ve definitely wondered how a fireplace damper works. Unfortunately, a house full of smoke is a common signal that the damper has not been properly adjusted for fireplace use.
What Is a Fireplace Damper?
Like the fireplace itself, the damper is an exceptionally simple concept. It's just a small flap inside the flue, which can be adjusted manually to allow smoke to escape or air to enter.
Fireplace dampers are typically made of metal or ceramic so they can tolerate the heat of the fire without suffering damage. The damper can be opened and closed through a few different mechanisms, including a latch, a pull chain, or a handle.
Location
Fireplaces are constructed fairly simply. The firebox, where the fire is actually burned, is located inside a room of the house, is surrounded by brick, marble, or is sometimes freestanding, as is the case with a wood stove. The chimney houses the flue, which is just the airway in which the smoke rises from the fireplace and exits through the roof. Conversely, outside air can enter through the flue into the firebox.
Diving even deeper down the rabbit hole, the all important damper is located inside the flue.
Function
Unlike the firebox and the chimney, which only serve a purpose when you've got a roaring fire going, the damper plays an important role when the fireplace is both active and inactive.
When the fireplace is in use, an open damper prevents smoke from filling up your home by giving it a way out through the flue. When there's no fire, keeping the damper shut tight prevents cold outside air from entering the house. This helps create energy efficiency.
Lastly, if you use your damper properly, you can control the intensity of your fire just as well as you would from adding more gas or firewood.
If you alter the amount that the damper is actually opened or closed, you limit the amount of oxygen that can enter the flue and interact with the fire. In addition to a fuel like gas or wood, oxygen is a crucial element to maintaining a fire. So, knowing how to control your damper will give you a huge degree of control over your flames that you may have overlooked until now.
Position
Knowing where the damper is located helps homeowners start sufficient fires without filling their homes with smoke first. When the damper is closer to the firebox, it will take longer for the flue to heat up. When the flue is cold, it won’t conduct the smoke up and out of the home, causing it to flow back into the room. If the damper is located just above the firebox, the best way to warm up the flue is by waving a flame, such as a lighted stick or long cone of paper, underneath the damper to create an air current, that the smoke can follow up the flue once the fire is lit.
Dampers located at the top of the flue will allow the flue to stay closer to room temperature, so it will begin conducting the smoke out of the house sooner. Regardless of the position of the damper, it can be adjusted after the fire is lit to control the supply of oxygen to the fire.
By knowing how to operate the fireplace damper, you can control the heat of the fire, the amount of smoke that gets into the house, and make your house more energy efficient by closing the damper when the fireplace is not in use.
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Manual balancing dampers, typically found in round HVAC ducts in sizes ranging from 4 to 10 inches, don’t tend to wear out. After installation, these simple galvanized sheet-metal circles pivot on two pins inserted in small holes you drill in the start collar of a supply duct or the sides of a register can. You control them with a bar called an adjustment handle. You may want to upgrade to fancier dampers, such as automated balancing dampers with integrated electronics. You’ll need to become an HVAC apprentice for an hour or two so you can replace the dampers.
1
Access the basement duct work to locate the existing dampers, either on the supply side of the furnace plenum or in the register boot. Check to see if the first section of duct work nearest the damper has some kind of support -- such as brackets, hangers, straps or wires. Add a support strap if it does not.
2
Score the duct tape or foil at each side of the damper with a utility knife -- one end will connect to the register boot or plenum collar and the other to a duct section or possibly an elbow. Remove the sheet metal screws through the scoring in the tape. Or, if the tape is loose and peeling, just pull off the tape and unfasten the screws.
3
Pull the nearest duct section out of the damper and let it hang suspended safely. Remove the old damper and set it aside.
4
Brush the crimped edge of the damper with mastic; you will achieve far superior protection against air leaks with mastic than with duct tape and may want to retrofit your other duct sections as well. Brush the crimped surface of the duct or boot as well.
5
Slide the crimped side of the new damper either into the register boot or into the uncrimped end of your rigid, round duct section that points away from the plenum collar. The crimped end needs to be pointing away from the furnace, so the air goes past the seam without leaking when the damper is open. With an automated damper, pay attention to the motor actuator’s position, and rotate the damper as needed. For a horizontal duct, set the motor actuator on the top or side of the duct; do not put it on the bottom. You can place the motor actuator anywhere you wish if you mount the damper vertically under a register.
6
Press the uncrimped side of the damper into the other side of the duct run, which will be either a start collar or the crimped end of the duct run.
7
Secure each end of the damper with at least three sheet metal screws, or more for large-diameter dampers.
8
Paint the secured joints with additional mastic. Embed fiberglass mesh tape in the coating, and paint another coat of mastic on the tape, as well as the seams of the damper itself.
Things You Will Need
- Duct support strap
- Utility knife
- Screwdriver
- Mastic
- Inexpensive brush
- Fiberglass mesh tape
Warning
- Always make sure the power to the unit is turned off when you're working on sections of your HVAC system.
References (4)
About the Author
An award-winning writer and editor, Rogue Parrish has worked at the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun and at newspapers from England to Alaska. This world adventurer and travel book author, who graduates summa cum laude in journalism from the University of Maryland, specializes in travel and food -- as well as sports and fitness. She's also a property manager and writes on DIY projects.
Cite this Article Choose Citation Style
Parrish, Rogue. 'How to Replace HVAC Dampers.' Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/replace-hvac-dampers-102446.html. Accessed 20 June 2019.
Parrish, Rogue. (n.d.). How to Replace HVAC Dampers. Home Guides | SF Gate. Retrieved from http://homeguides.sfgate.com/replace-hvac-dampers-102446.html
Parrish, Rogue. 'How to Replace HVAC Dampers' accessed June 20, 2019. http://homeguides.sfgate.com/replace-hvac-dampers-102446.html
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