Does anyone have an open fire?

[hopless500]

We've had an open fire and now have a stove and never had puffs of smoke. However my paremts cottage smokes like a mad thing. Very small and bendy flue is apparently the cause.

 

[Tail End Charlie]

We have always had an open fire. Although we don't light it all the time, I do recognise the symptoms you are describing there. Ours does it if the wind comes from a certain direction but only if it is above a certain strength. It either seems to go well (most of the time) but occasionally it is a bit of a dog. We have let it go out and put an extra jumper on.

Depending on your house layout a rapidly opened or closed door could also cause it to puff smoke.

I think the bit @Tail End Charlie is thinking of is a cowl.

Yes I think you're right, I've googled revolving anti down draught cowl and it's what I've got.

 

[Tin Pot]

Yeah and draft is only a problem when I have cleared the ash away.

I think we're losing a decent amount of heat through it when not using it too - a constant draft through the house into the front room.

 

[JtB]

The weather here is also awful tonight, but we are warm and cozy sat around the open fire, and no need for TV either.

 

[ayceejay]

There's nothing in that bottle mate - time to go to bed.
Once upon a time I lived in a very old cottage that had an inglenook fireplace that smoked like hell.
With some help from people who knew I discovered that my place and the house next door were once one
meaning that the room with the inglenook would bace been twice as big, the only way to get it to draw was to
open the windows. I installed a wood burner with a properly lined chimney and the problem was solved.

 

[Mile195]

Thanks all for your replies. Reassuring that some others have had the same thing.

I live on a street where there is no new development- all the houses are 30s, and the chimneys not in the shadow of higher buildings so all ok on that front.

I opened the patio door about an inch to begin with which seemed to help. But since then the fire is burning properly so there's not much smoke being produced. Also, the wind has dropped significantly in the last 90 minutes or so and now all seems to be well... So I've cracked open a beer, let the dog curl up right in front of hearth and stopped worrying about it for the time being!

I'll see how it goes over the next few days but hopefully will be ok, and it was just me being paranoid. If it recurs though when the wind isn't high I'll consider getting the installer back.

Thanks again for all your input!

 

[mjr]

So I've cracked open a beer, let the dog curl up right in front of hearth and stopped worrying about it for the time being!

Remember to turn the dog half way through its cooking!

 

[Broadside]

I'll see how it goes over the next few days but hopefully will be ok, and it was just me being paranoid. If it recurs though when the wind isn't high I'll consider getting the installer back.

Our fire only ever smokes before it has got going properly. Have you got a wall vent in the room near the fire? This allows enough air in to feed the fire and allow the chimney to draw fully.

You can tell if it's an airflow issue by cracking open a window or door, if that solves the smoking then ventilation is likely to be the problem.

Either way you should get a carbon monoxide alarm and put it in the same room as the fireplace.

 

[raleighnut]

Some fireplaces do need a fair bit of heat to get the fire/chimney drawing properly

 

[Ian H]

We went for wood-burners on the grounds of thermal efficiency, and the relative lack of dust.

 

[Drago]

Wood burners here, problem neatly solved.

 

[Cuchilo]

I have a 1930's house and an open fire . I get a whiff of smoke now and then but its not normally a problem .
When the houses where built they didn't have all the doors and windows sealed up with seals etc . As said this all helped with airflow and the reason for the fire in the first place .

 

[snorri]

Throughout my childhood we had an open fire, getting away from it was one of the incentives for getting a place of my own.

 

[Tin Pot]

I heard a crook in America hid in the chimney and was burned to death at the weekend.

 

[PK99]

Has the stack height been reduced? My mum had a problem with smoke coming back into the room after a bodger builder redid her open fire without checking that the chimney was the right height. Got someone else out who spotted the problem - mum's chimney was about 5 feet lower than others around, so he built it back up, and no problems since.

Have a look here for regs.

I was going to say the same thing. Happened to discuss this with a Surveyor friend at their place in France a few weeks ago who explained the technical details - they have a closed wood burner for the reason that the chimney stack is not high enough to be in the "negative pressure zone" and they got blow-back from an open fire