Smoking fire..is a burner the answer?

[motherofluvlies]

our fire smokes most of the time I.e. if the wind is blowing or we look at it the wrong way.This is having a serious effect on our health ( children with asthma e.t.c.) not to mention the soot on all the walls . there are no cracks in the chimney and nothing has showed up.I think the answer is a burner but worried that after spending a few grand the problem will persist.Has anyone any experience of this?I have a fire in the other room that works perfectly.

Is the chimney tall enough, above apex of roof? We had this problem and raising the chimney helped a lot. Not entirely though, due to local geography. We did end up with a burner , built in and with doors you can take off. In most conditions we can have the doors open or off but if the wind is in a certain direction then not. It has a back burner for the water and is more efficient than an open fire, these are things definitely in its favour.

it might be the chimneypot that needs changing. Chimneys do not often need to be extended unless a tall house has been built very close.

Ask the chimneysweep next time he comes, he will either do that sort of thing himself or will know who, locally, is to be relied on.

You do have it swept once or twice a year, don't you?

Maybe not once or twice a year its an old house and when we had it last swept he broke a load of the tiles which we were unable to replace .so very nervous about having another.i was going to get a heftas qualified person to have a look but we have been so ripped off re tradesmen and we don't have the money so very nervous about getting opinions from people we don't know or people we do for that matter as it was an acquaintance who was dishonest before.where do I even look for an honest skilled sweep that won't charge us a fortune?we are in colchester but cause we have a big house ( with lots of children people assume wrongly that we have lots of money) we are not orinally from here either so tend to not do rather than spend but this is getting fairly serious as I have young children.

We installed a woodburner last year and I love it!! We had the same issues with smoking fires when the wind was blowing in the wrong direction or the doors were closed - no more problems there. It's also much cleaner and easier to control and warmer. We're in N Essex so not far from you and have the same issues with getting work done on the house.

sickandsad which burner did you get and how did you find your workmen?

Ours is a Hunter Midi 8 which DH bought and installed himself with help from a knowledgable friend.

Do you not have to have your chimney swept annually to meet insurance conditions?Our sweep always gives us a certificate of the date he swept it.

walk around on a frosty morning and see which of your neighbours has a working chimney, gather up the courage to ask them who they recommend.

For some reason the Parish magazine small-ads are supposed to be a good source.

I thought that was just thatch

Thank you PJ what a good idea.

I have contacted someone and they are coming to survey the chimney on Thursday.RFC services John Roper from Woodbridge.He got good reviews on checkatrade.He sounded nice so fingers crossed.

When we had a new fireplace we had professional advice.
Apparently there's an equation do with the size of the room, the height of the basket, size of the flu etc.
It might be that you just need a hood, or to raise the basket. Hopefully something straightforward.
HTH.

We had exactly this problem.

I'm assuming you have some ventilation in the room? An air brick? If not, you need to keep the door slightly open.

Also you may need a new cowl. We had the wrong type of cowl, having the right one fitted solved the problem. They cost about £60 plus fitting.