LESLIE: Dave in Utah’s putting in a fireplace. How can we help?
DAVE: We have a gas fireplace and the gas fireplace is nice but it’s one of those that has the exhaust that goes – or the vent that goes up the side of the house. And whenever it gets windy it makes some pretty loud noises. It’s like taking a piece of sheet metal and bending it back and forth.
TOM: Hmm. Well, I’m not quite sure that there’s a good solution for this because the specifications for where those vents – you have what’s called a direct-vent fireplace – and by the way, we strongly recommend those over the ventless fireplaces that dump the combustion gas back in the house which is pretty unhealthy for a bunch of reasons. But in terms of the vented fireplace, the specific location of those is dictated by the manufacturer and absolutely no modification is permitted. So we can’t even give you suggestions about, you know, maybe you can modify the vent so that it’s shaped differently or diverting air differently. You just can’t do that because that is all specified by the folks that make these fireplaces and if you change anything you could potentially have an unsafe situation.
LESLIE: Is it worth calling the manufacturer to see if there’s like a flap or a something that can go on the outside that’s activated when the fireplace is in use and therefore open but, you know, closed in a situation where it’s windy and clanging around?
TOM: Certainly that would be the only way that you should be comfortable making any modifications. So contacting the manufacturer is probably the first step; explaining the problem. Chances are it may have happened to somebody else and they may already the solution …
LESLIE: That’s why they moved. (Dave and Leslie chuckle)
TOM: They may already have a solution for it.
DAVE: OK, well I will do that then.
TOM: Alright, thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
Leave a Reply