DRAFT CONTROL WOOD STOVE INSTALL

DRAFT CONTROL WOOD STOVE INSTALL

How many times have you seen it installed in the ‘run” of the tee? We used to install the tee so that the flue pipe would make a right angle from the appliance to the chimney, remember? It was so convenient to check and clean out the chimney base, but it was wrong! Well, we were all wrong. To be certain of the terminology, the straight run of the tee is called the ‘run” and the 90 degree connector, in the middle, is called the ‘bull.” The draft regulator is to be inserted into the ‘bull” of a smoke tee between the heating appliance and the chimney, and usually a minimum of 18″ from the appliance.

In this way you adjust the draft over the fire in the appliance. You adjust the weight to control the amount of the opening of this damper which in turn controls the amount of excess air that can enter the flue and chimney when the oil burner is operating. On oil fired equipment, the draft regulator is typically a round device with a swinging door, which will only swing one way, and with an adjustable weight on it, which will allow you to adjust it to control the draft. To be sure you understand me, the draft regulator I am referring to here is used only on oil-fired heating equipment, not on gas-fired equipment. Well, that’s when car bumpers had chrome. Yes, even water heaters! I can’t tell you how many times I have seen water heaters installed without a draft regulator installed, and a stack temperature over 900° or 1,000° F, and a draft over the fire that (as we used to say) would suck the chrome off a bumper.

Draft regulators or barometric dampers are devices used to regulate the draft on oil-fired furnaces, boilers, and water heaters.

Draft control wood stove