HELP - Smoking Chimney

[buzzoosbuzzoos]

 -Please has anyone any ideas on my chimney.   We live in the Mayenne area and have a large farmhouse with a very large open fire in the lounge.  Over the past two years we have paid quite a lot of money having a steel shelf and then a canopy put in to draw the fire up and close the very large opening.  When we lit the fire we found that the smoke was coming out in our bedroom which is over the lounge.  Last week - we had a flexible liner put in.  -  IT STILL SMOKES!!! - not in our bedroom anymore but it comes out of the canopy.  It is very strange because for the first half hour after it is lit the smoke goes straight up the chimney.   After an hour when the chimney is hot and the fire is really going and giving out quite a bit of heat  - the smoke starts to seep out around the canopy.  We have tried lifting the basket up so the whole fire is higher but it seems to make no difference.  Has anyone any ideas.  We have spent such a lot of money on this blessed fire and am loath to spend even more in having a woodburner put in.  Any suggestions would be gratefully received.[*-)]

[La Guerriere]

On the basis that air out = air in, are you actually getting enough air into the room ? Big open fires do not go with modern ideas of draft-proofing.....

 

[Deimos]

I used to have a large open fire.  The previous owner had put in a shelf to raise the fire – but I

still got smoke in the room, again, not immediately but after a bit of time.

When the fire got really going it was really hot.  However, when it have enough ventilation to

keep the smoke going up the chimney, so all the hot air went up the chimney as

well.  If I left the kitchen door open

(again, to allow adequate ventilation, the actual net effect of the fire was to

remove all the warm air from the house and throw it out the chimney.  Very good for ventilating the house but no

good for heat.

Professionals advised against fitting tubes and the like but

wanted to increase the ventilation.  In

the end I decided to purchase a wood burner and thus have confidence that the

money spent would work properly.

I’m sure there are solutions, but just recounting my own

experiences here.

Ian

 

[Gyn_Paul]

What's on the top of the chimney? Is there a problem with downdraft? What was the cross-section of the original chimney, compared with the diam of the tube? Maybe the diam of the tube is really too small to carry the volume of hot air.

Agree with previous poster about possible lack of feed air. A builder starting from scratch to build a fireplace would sink a 100mm pipe into the concrete from the outside to the fireplace to ensure there's sufficient air even with all doors and windows closed.

However.....

I'd still rather have the economy and controlability of a woodburner!

p.

[buzzoosbuzzoos]

Thanks to all who tried to help.   The liner was quite  a large one so there is no problem with that.  They also put a cowl on the chimney as there was not one before and the rain always came down.  I am  managing to have a fire as long as I do not make it too big and use very dry logs that dont smoke.  It really gives out a massive amount of heat.  I think perhaps the draw on the chimney is not too good so we will think about a woodburner but not this year.  We have spent too much money on this already.  Anyhow.  Thanks once again for everyone's suggestions.

[BIG MAC]

Hi,

I am a wee bit engrossed with my own combustion appliance problems at the moment nevertheless a thought occured that may have some validity to your backpuffing chimney.

is there any potential for dropping another liner through the stack terminating in transfer grilles top and bottom (Suggest the bottom one on the side of the chimney) and the top as low on the stack as is possible to prevent drawing combustion fumes into the room) this Heath Robinson affair would  give almost a "Balanced flue" effect with the possible bonus of intake air being preheated using the chimney as a primitive heat exchanger, just a thought but relatively cheap to have a go...

 

Kind regards,

Trev Mac