Stove Damper... yes or no

Try it without first. Yes pipe dampers are a good way to control over drafting stoves on taller chimneys. When they test stoves they are tested on a straight up 15’ chimney so I believe the manufactures engineer their stoves for best performance at that height.

I have a straight up 22’ chimney and my stove mostly ran pretty well but there were times it took off on me so instead of a pipe damper I played around with restricting some of the secondary air with magnets. I found about 20% more restriction gave a little more control without a dirty burn. I also shut off the unrestricted primary boost air in the dog house coming from the front bottom of the fire box.

 

Happy to report an INTAKE damper, at least on a Hearthstone Heritage, works! I now have full control over the burn, and don't have to worry about overtemps anymore.

Yes, no doubt manufactures build their stoves to achieve their best results in the testing environment with a 15' chimney. I'm sitting at 31', so damping is a must.

 

Yes damper.
Have you ever had a stove run away on you?
Once you see your stovetop melting it changes your perspective.

 

No need for a damper with the Woodstock. They are tight enough to control the air

 

No damper on the regency hampton. Air control with one lever, have not seen the need for additional control.

 

With my previous stove I had plenty of control and never felt a damper was needed. But I'm glad I ordered it.

 

I've got an Ideal Steel, and have had the thing run away on me multiple times. Hard enough to control it even with the damper and the air completely shut.

Granted, I've got 31' straight vertical after the T. Nearly 34' above the stovetop.

Even at normal temperatures, a strong wind can peg the draft meter at 0.25" H2O unless the damper is nearly closed.

 

I 100% agree. I have a very similar setup and the first night it hit single digits here running the Ideal steel it nearly scared me. Thankfully I had the OAK installed and dampened it there. I added it just a few days after that incident. The amount of control gained by adding a stack damper is very useful.