A Comprehensive Guide to Air Dampers for Single Wall Stove Pipe Wood Burning Stoves

What is an Air Damper and how can it improve my Wood Burning Stove?

What is an air damper?

First, let's learn what an air intake damper is. An air damper is a device used to regulate the amount of air that flows into a wood burning stove pipe. It’s an important component for those who own or use wood burning stoves. Understanding its benefits can help you get the most out of your system.

The Atmosfire Air Damper is a device that easily installs over single wall stove pipe that helps create draw when starting a fire. This reduces backdrafting on fire die down and eliminates cold airflow when the wood stove is not in use. 

The Atmosfire Air Damper uses electricity to power a heating element controlled by a thermal sensor.  Installation is simple-all you have to do is clamp it around a single wall stove pipe and plug it in.  This air damper is only for use on single wall stove pipe.

Single wall wood burning stove pipe

Now let's define what "single wall stove pipe" means. A single wall stove pipe consists of two components:

1) The exhaust pipe 

2) The air intake damper

The exhaust pipe allows smoke from burning fuel to be released outdoors, while the air intake damper regulates how much oxygen enters through this same channel. By controlling airflow in this way, it helps ensure efficient combustion within your fireplace or wood-burning stove. This results in better heat output overall.

What type of stove pipe do I have?

It can be difficult to know what type of stove pipe you have just by looking at it.  There are however, a couple of ways you can determine what type of pipe you have. 

1) A single wall stove pipe will terminate on the INSIDE of the collar on the stove, and double wall stove pipe terminates around the OUTSIDE ridge of your collar. 

2) If you are still unsure, take the stove pipe apart and look inside. Single wall pipe is a single piece of metal, where double wall stove pipe has an air gap and two metal "pipes".

The Flue

A wood burning stove pipe is also known as the flue.  The flue is the exhaust mechanism that takes the smoke and guides it from the wood burning stove to the exterior of the home.

When installed without the Atmosfire Air Damper, cold air can sink into the flue and create a barrier that can be difficult to reverse when you attempt to light a fire-which causes smoke to come back through the open door of the stove. This cold air can also leak through the door when the stove is not in use creating cold spots in the room. 

Benefits

When an Atmosfire Air Damper is installed on a single wall wood stove pipe, it uses heat to keep the air flowing in the proper exhausting direction - outside the home. It has no moving parts-which means fewer parts to break-and operates quietly.

Another benefit of an air intake damper is improved safety. Chimney fires often happen because too much oxygen enters the system and causes excessive flames or smoke buildup in the flue. By limiting airflow into your single wall stove pipe, there’s less risk of a chimney fire.

Having an adjustable damper gives you greater control over how quickly exhaust gases are released outdoors-which means that you can keep your home's air quality at a safe level.

How to Install Atmosfire's Air Damper 

At Atmosfire we strive for ease of use and simplicity. That being said, installing our air damper on a single wall stove pipe couldn't be easier!

There are only 5 simple steps!

1) Unscrew the 2 bolts and separate the two halves.

2) Unscrew the 2 long screws out 2"-3" out of the air damper

3) Place the two halves on either side of the pipe

4) Screw both bolts back into place, one at a time to ensures the air damper stays in place.

5) Connect to a power source and enjoy!

Prefer to see it in action? Watch the video below!