TOPIC: Chimney Balloon

Nice video and illustration. Let us know if it works!

I am hopeing that David read this part.

Outdoor Air Intake
Installing an outside air intake is probably the most overlooked money saving solution.  Just like any fire, your fireplace requires oxygen for the wood to burn.  When in use, your fireplace will draw inside air to combust the fire.  Whether it be heated air sitting dormant in your home or pulling in outside air from the small cracks in your doors and windows, this situation is very inefficient.  The best way to solve this problem is controlling where the outside air is drawn in from to eliminate uncomfortable drafts and high gas bills.  Let's face it, who wants to spend hundreds of dollars each month just to watch all the heat get sucked from your home and up the chimney?  By installing an outside air intake next to your fireplace you can reduce the amount of space that the cool air has to travel through the home and reduce uncomfortable drafts.  The results are amazing, lower gas bills and a comfortable living environment.

Overview
We have taken the time to go over all of the different solutions for making a wood burning fireplace more efficient and now have a good understanding of what these products can do for us.  Now comes the hardest part, weighing out the choices and making a decision on what product or products will best suit your needs.  The first step I always take before making a purchase is deciding what product will best fix my problem.  Which product will not only suit my home's need for efficiency, but which one will save me the most money.  The next step is cost.  Don't get caught up in the initial price.  Remember these products will save you money!  Just because a product is the most expensive doesn't mean it is always the best solution for you.  Finally, is what I like to call "Ease of installation."  Basically, how easy is it to use this product?  A Draft Eliminator is a great product that is relatively inexpensive, but requires installing it over and over again as opposed to a top sealing damper that is more expensive but, you only have to install once.

Your factors in purchasing a product might rank different than the steps I use, but surely if you take all of them into account you will be getting the right product.  More importantly, you will be solving the problem of having a beautiful but inefficient fireplace.

My chimney is in between a slab and attached garage and it would be difficult to do a fresh air intake. My fireplace is very efficant as it is 40,000 BTU. My only issue is with the soot odor and I think the balloon is worth a try.

Worth a try David
Is your fireplace burning wood or gas?

Make sure that there is no creosote build-up if it is wood.

When I lived in Northern Maine 30 years ago, the smell of creosote would leach in the house when I did not clean on a regular basis.
Closing the damper when not in use usually helped.

Let us know how it works and don't forget the little red tag reminder to remove the balloon before the ignition.  ;D

Marcel

Dave - you have a top of the chimney damper, a damper at the top of your fire box and an insert, with doors presumably.  What more would you need?  With all those air stoppages, you are still losing heat through the fireplace?

With a stop at the top and bottom of the flue chamber, you have dead, sitting air.  That is insulative by itself, like the front tube on an igloo.  The insert and doors there creates another air buffer, much like the double doors going into a grocery store.  Coldness does not move down the flue unless the air is moving.  The damper on top of the chimney controls air movement, and the fire box damper at the bottom should control air movement up from inside.

How will a balloon in the middle of that do more for you?  Maybe there is something I am not understanding, but another block in the middle of things does not change the physics.

Lemmino how it comes out!  Or goes in, as the case may be...

It is the odor the fireplace has when raining or windy that I am trying to eliminate. Even after professional cleaning it still stinks. I am trying white vinegar as suggested by the moderator of the chimney balloon site.