Hi all, I just purchased a house with a wood stove in the basement. I guess I have a couple questions here so thanks in advance for your time and patience. I am anxious to get my stove burning. The stove is a Hearthstone I. The previous owner lived here 10 yrs and said he never used the stove. I am new to wood stoves so I downloaded the schematic and realized the baffle and damper have a massive curves in them and the rod holding the damper was broken. It would appear there was an extremely hot fire in the stove at one time and bent these items. The replacement parts are expensive, is it just as effective to put a damper in the stove pipe leading from the stove to chimney?
I inspected the chimney and there were no signs of animal nests, creosote or other blockages in the chimney. It was actually very clean for a chimney. Next I took apart the pipes from the stove to the chimney to make sure no animals made nests in the pipe. This airways are clear and ready for action. I decided I didn't need a damper to start a small fire just to see how this thing works. When I did this smoke came into the room and didn't appear to go up the stack at all. As I am new to this I was wondering if there is something I am doing wrong. There is a clear air path from stove to chimney top w/ no dampers.
One more thing, when I took the stove pipe out the chimney some of the material between the pipe and chimney seemed to be deteriorated. I attached a link to some pictures. Should I be concerned with this? If so is there I way I could do the repairs myself? Money is tight and I consider myself fairly handy.
Thanks again in advance for any help offered!
Link to pictures - (broken link removed to http://picasaweb.google.com/frank.brown/Fireplace?feat=directlink)
I inspected the chimney and there were no signs of animal nests, creosote or other blockages in the chimney. It was actually very clean for a chimney. Next I took apart the pipes from the stove to the chimney to make sure no animals made nests in the pipe. This airways are clear and ready for action. I decided I didn't need a damper to start a small fire just to see how this thing works. When I did this smoke came into the room and didn't appear to go up the stack at all. As I am new to this I was wondering if there is something I am doing wrong. There is a clear air path from stove to chimney top w/ no dampers.
One more thing, when I took the stove pipe out the chimney some of the material between the pipe and chimney seemed to be deteriorated. I attached a link to some pictures. Should I be concerned with this? If so is there I way I could do the repairs myself? Money is tight and I consider myself fairly handy.
Thanks again in advance for any help offered!
Link to pictures - (broken link removed to http://picasaweb.google.com/frank.brown/Fireplace?feat=directlink)