Home is 3 years old. Whenever a fire is built, it smokes up the house – smoke just trickles out of the top of the insert.I have tried cracking a window, and as far as extending the chimney 4 more feet (It sits well above the ridge). Yes, the damper is open fully, and there are NO bends in the flue – a straight up shot. What can I do???

smoke comes out the hopper and seepps out the front door and lower pipe I really dont know what to do ?
i heard it might be the flue but i do not know where that is or how to adjust it? alot of black smoke inside the stove any ideas how to fix this mess thanks model is turbo fire 2001 i dont have a manual or know where to get one please help
I do not know what is a damper ar flue? how or where do i find them?
i cant locate the damper or knob

What do I do with the damper, open it fully or only part way? And do I leave the doors open to get more heat out of it or just use the screen that covers it?

The heat does not radiate throughout the house and the house is still freezing. It is an insert, it’s like a woodburning stove in the wall! The damper is permanently open.

I have a wood burning fireplace,and the damper is wide open all the time.When you get up in the morning it is almost as cold in that room as it is outside.There is no place on the out side of the fire place to adjust the damper,what can I do to access the damper with out getting down and having to look up inside the fireplace to adjust the damper.
Thank you,
Freezing in Ohio
So there is no way to hook something on the damper so you can operate it from the outside of the fireplace?With the chimney bag you have to wait for the fireplace to cool off before it can be put in when not in use?Seems like alot of trouble. LOL
Thanks in advance.

I’m looking at the vent-free and vented gas log setup, and was wondering if you can operate the vent-free setup with the damper open. Main reason I’d be interested in doing so is if it’s not too terribly cold, but we still want the fire going for "ambience", and we wanted to let some/most of the heat escape up the chimney instead of just circulating back into the room.

We bought a home with a gas logs fireplace. We have burned it only for the ambiance to this point, but would really like to close the damper if the logs are in fact vented to keep more of the heat. There don’t seem to be any markings on the set. Does anyone know of any pointers on how I can tell. I’m tempted to nominate myself for a Darwin award and just close the damper, fire them up and see if my CO detector goes off. Would there be any professionals that could tell me? Perhaps someone from our gas company or a chimney sweep?

I just moved this past summer into my first home and it has a conventional masonry fireplace. I’ve never had a fireplace before, so I am not too experienced, although I’m learning quickly. I was told that it was still functional by the previous home owner, and I had a chimney sweep come in to clean it in preparation for the cold months ahead. I’ve been using it for about a month now, but I find that the wood doesn’t catch very well, it makes the house smell like smoke and barely gives off any heat. On top of that, it was pretty cold last week and I tried starting a fire, with the damper open of course, but it ended up filling the room with smoke until it warmed up. Very frustrating. The more I read about it, the more I hear about having an advanced combustion insert installed if I want to get the most out of the fireplace. But of course, they aren’t cheap, so I’m wondering, should I bother with the fireplace altogether this season or just leave it be until I can afford the insert?

I have a fireplace insert, and there is vents on the top and bottom, and I can not keep my wood burning more than 3 hours, when I bought it, its said could burn wood for more than 9 hours…. help?
I also get black all over the glass, and I have to use a razor blade… that only takes about a hour once fire is going to get black… but I also want the wood to last longer. I have a vent not top and bottom, do I close off the bottom vent, and leave the damper open more?

We have a fireplace insert, breckwell P23I I believe. We had it installed in the fall with the expectation that it would heat the major living space of our home. The model says that it would heat 800 – 1200 square feet. Our house is a single story L shaped ranch that is only 1700 square feet. We expected the heat wouldn’t make it down the "L" portion of the house very well because of where the fireplace is located but we run the stove at a 3 or 4 level and after hours the house is still in the low 60’s. Yesterday for instance (and it was very cold outside…in the teens) I ran that on a level4 for five hours and it was only 63 degrees in the house. I wonder if we are losing heat up the chimney, maybe not using the damper correctly. We are using hardwood pellets. Is there a video that shows how to operate them effectively? what the flame should like for instance. Our thermostat (not a pellet stove thermostat, the one that triggers the furnace) is only 15 feet away from the stove, it seems that at the very least the area around the stove should be toasty warm. Any advice would be appreciated.