Old, open fireplace and draw

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We have a very old open fireplace with a completely open chimney (I.e. you can see straight up from the heart and out the top). It is currently set up with a large, rounded hood and a fire basket below. Ever since we have lived here, we have struggled to get the fire to draw, and the room becomes a bit smokey and we have to put the fire out. We have tried seasoned logs and open the window a crack to create a breeze.

Our old chimney sweep suggested a device to fit on top of the chimney which would stop down-draught (there are some big trees directly opposite us). He has since retired, and our new sweep has said that he doubts anything would work, and that we need a stove fitting.

Has anyone had similar issues with a big open chimney and found a solution, other than switching to a log burner? Or, does anyone have any suggestions of things we could try to get the fireplace drawing correctly.

Many thanks in advance.

yes, we moved into a house with this when I was a kid, every time we lit a fire we got smoked out!

The problem is probably the size of the gap between the hood and the basket. If it is too wide, there is no draw.
In our case it was a stone built fireplace, and the way we sorted it in the end was to get a metal hood fitted which came down low to the basket and funnelled the smoke up.

So, you could try raising your basket, or lowering the hood.

We have since had another similar fireplace, stone built and with quite a high entrance. The difference on that one was that the fire basket sat high, about 2-3 feet off the floor, there was a sort of stone shelf. That drew perfectly.

when I say wide, I mean the height from fire to the hood

I had exactly the same problem when I opened up an old fireplace, bought a lovely basket for it and promptly smoked out the house. Raising the hearth worked - actually I bought a regency type basket/hob which was about 18 inches higher. You can experiment by holding a smoking twisted piece of newspaper at different heights to see if the draw is better higher up.
You might find though, that a stove is a better option, as the trouble with big old chimneys from which you can see the sky let in a lot of sinking cold air in the winter. You can get a plate put across the hole with the stove pipe going through it (it's a bit more technical than that, but I'm sure you get the idea).

The relationship between the size of the hearth and the height/diameter of the flue is important to the draw. You can fit a Eurocowl at the top of the chimney to help a bit, but you may be better off with a stove, as PPs have suggested.

Any particular reason you don’t want a stove?

We tried a big log grate and never could get our fire to draw. We also had problems with smoke in the room. You forget what people put up with years ago!

The only solution is to get a wood burner or similar and exclude the fire. We have a wood burner and a Parkway inset fire in our other fireplace and both work perfectly. Yes a big fire looks great but unfortunately it’s not always going to work.

Parkray inset! Autocorrect!

Thanks everyone. So it looks like we might have to go for a log burner. It’s a shame to change the look of the place and an expensive outlay, but I guess we’ll just have to suck it up.

Had an open fire, house was draughty

Upgraded to a log burner, with chimney liner- immediately warmer, no draughts !
More efficient, used less fuel too
Well worth the money spent !

There are some very good looking log burners now. Some allow you to open the door for the effect of an open fire while directing the smoke up the chimney not into the house.