Wood Stove Damper

The wood stove damper is a critical piece to consider and is often a point of failure. These are the parts that control the air flow up the pipe. Many issues with lighting and smoky fires can be attributed to the damper.

At a basic level, dampers are simply metal pieces that fit either inside the pipe or the stove itself. The piece swivels to allow air flow. To properly ignite your fire and keep the heat building keep the damper open. This maximizes the flow of air out the pipe. If your fires are smoky, especially when first lighting, many times the issue is a closed damper. This essentially traps the smoke in the stove. Similarly, a fire that is hard to start may not be getting a proper oxygen flow. A damper in the vertical position is usually considered open. Check for sure before lighting!

Obviously, an issue with this part will cause a lot of problems with your fires. If you need a replacement, you'll need to know what type of damper you have. If the manufacturer isn't sure or your don't have a manual handy, here's how you can tell. However, understand that stoves can have multiple dampers of the same type, or possibly no damper on some models.

A bypass damper is located in the stove itself and connects to the flue collar. An open damper leads straight out through the flue collar to the pipe. When closed, the air is channelled through either a catylitic converter or another piece of efficiency technology in order to re-combust the gases and fumes. Many times you can see this in the stove directly but if a converter or other equipment is covering it it may be missed. These are most common with new stoves.

A pipe damper sits in the pipe and can't usually be seen. However, in a few cases this may actually be on the flue collar, not the pipe itself, although it is still called a pipe damper. This is controlled by a knob or lever that rotates the metal parts around to block or unblock the pipe. There should be an indicator to show open or closed. As a safety measure, these tyoes don't completely block the pipe even when closed, so that some smoke can escape and reduce the chance of accidental smoke poisoning. These are more common on older non-EPA certified stoves.

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