On a dual lever appliance, the bottom control is the Primary air and the top control is the Secondary. Read your manual for other configurations such as 2 levers on the base.
The primary source of air in many wood stoves is an air intake under the grate that provides oxygen to the fire bed. Many wood stoves will have a lever under or beside the door that controls this valve.
#2 Check for a draft.
Maybe you can't see the damper or aren't sure whether it's a little open or closed all the way. A second way to know is to stick your hand near the opening of the fireplace. If you feel a breeze of air, the damper is open. If you don't feel a draft, it's closed.
You need to open the damper when you start a fire to allow for proper airflow and let the smoke out. A closed damper can restrict airflow and become a safety issue since smoke would fill your house.
What you may not already know is your stove has a damper whose job it is to control the amount of air you're letting in to feed the fire. Depending on how far open or shut you have the damper, your fire will be smaller and cooler (and burn for longer), or larger and hotter (and burn more quickly).
If you don't feel any cold air coming down the chimney, it means that the damper is closed. Another way to find out if the damper is open is to do a visual check. If your chimney has a traditional damper, all you need to do is shine a flashlight up the chimney. If you can see the sky, it is open.
Don't shut off the air vents completely but close them right down as this will limit the amount of air that gets into the chamber so the fire will slowly die out. Once the embers in the fire start to go orange then you then it will start to die and you can sleep without worrying.
Adequate Air Supply: Adjust the stove's air vents and consider slightly opening a window in the same room when starting the fire to introduce fresh air and help balance the pressure. Regular Chimney Maintenance: Ensure your chimney is clean and free from obstructions.
The closed design allows the stove to radiate heat into the room more effectively, and some stoves have built-in fans to distribute heat further. Open wood fires, while they can provide warmth, tend to generate more radiant heat that primarily warms the immediate vicinity rather than spreading throughout the room.
Should You Leave the Damper Open or Shut? This concept is simple: you should leave your damper open on your wood-burning fireplace until all the embers are extinguished, but leaving it open overnight is definitely not efficient. Cold air will float down the flue and make your home cold, increasing your heating costs.
When lighting your stove, open both air vents fully. On initially lighting, it can be an advantage to crack the door open slightly to provide additional air flow through the firebox. Once the fire is established, close the door and then close down the bottom air vent gradually.
The damper and flue are two different parts, but they are related and involved in the same function. The flue is the inside tunnel of your chimney that brings gases from your fireplace out of your home, while the damper closes or opens the access to the flue.
The lever opens and closes the vents on the bottom of the fire place to control the airflow.
The bottom lever is the air intake from below the fire, it helps to make the fire start faster, but it also makes it consume faster! The top one is for exhaust like, again open makes it burn faster but will last shorter, also if you have problems with smoke add a good pile of wood and open both until it's clean.
The primary air is therefore closed down once the stove is fully lit and the airflow controlled with the secondary air control. As above in "Air", confusingly the "secondary" air is the one you will primarily control the stove with when burning wood! Coal burns best with a supply of air from below.
To extend this duration, reduce the air supply to a trickle, ensuring the vents beneath the fuel bed remain open for airflow. Avoid overloading the stove beyond the fuel retaining bar, and do not obstruct air holes at the stove's rear. Leave space between the top of the fuel bed and the baffle plate.
In extreme cases like yours it is possible that during an overnight burn when the stove is turned down, draft can collapse and stack effect can pull smoke out of the stove. Once this kind of spillage starts, it can quickly become a full hot backdraft.
As we've mentioned above, a stove fan can increase the efficiency of your stove and because it circulates heat for your fire you're less likely to experience cold spots in the room.
If you feel a draft, your damper may be open. Another way to check is to roll up a newspaper or match and light it up. Place it inside your fireplace, near the top section. An open damper will pull up the smoke and flames upward, while a closed damper will not.
Q. Can I burn my stove safely with the doors open? It certainly will not cause damage to the stove, but the efficiency of the stove drops considerably. The fire chamber/box is rapidly being cooled down so the stove does not retain its heat effectively.
yes! You can leave your wood burning stove on overnight, and in most cases, this is actually safer than trying to extinguish the flames manually.
The handle to open and close the damper should be above the fireplace opening. To open it, slide it to the right. To create fires that produce more heat, open the damper as wide as possible when lighting a fire. A wide-open damper will increase the amount of air reaching the fire and improve combustion.
The damper should be kept closed when there is no fire or coals burning. Warm air from your home will not be lost up the chimney when the fireplace is not being used. Fully open the damper before your start a fire and keep it fully open until all embers and coals have burned out.
Dampers are usually installed in attics or basements, but some may also be located inside walls near an HVAC system's filter. They're typically made out of metal, so they can rust over time, but some newer models are made of plastic instead.