Permanently fix your drafty living room with an airtight cap you control from inside the house.
Do you have a wood-burning fireplace or a woodstove that’s installed in a fireplace? If the answer is “yes,” you might benefit greatly by having an airtight chimney cap installed on the top of your chimney.
What is an airtight chimney cap, and why do I need one?
Smart solution. An airtight chimney cap enables you to shut down a major source of air leakage when your chimney isn’t being used.
There are different types of chimney caps, and they’re designed to do different things. Some caps are integrated into the chimney’s masonry construction –like a flat stone top or a brick arch, for example. This type of masonry chimney cap does little more than deflect hot embers and keep out some of the rain. A metal cap with screened sides will perform the same way, while also preventing squirrels, raccoons and large birds from making a nest in your chimney.
An airtight chimney cap is quite a bit different. It’s designed to seal the top of the chimney when your fireplace or wood stove is not being used. A spring-actuated mechanism holds the cap in the open position until you pull down on a steel cable that extends down to the firebox inside your house. By fully sealing the top of the chimney, you prevent a major cause of energy loss and cold winter drafts in your house.
A fireplace chimney provides a major pathway for warm air to escape outside. The standard fireplace damper does little to curtail this loss of heat because it isn’t designed to form an airtight seal. As warm interior air escapes out the chimney, and equal volume of cold outside air is sucked into your house through different gaps and cracks in exterior walls. An airtight chimney cap can put an end to this comfort and energy problem.
Benefits of an airtight chimney cap
- Airtight seal. When properly installed, an airtight chimney cap will effectively seal the top of the chimney. This helps to keep warm air inside the house rather than having it escape up the chimney.
- Easy to operate. The cap’s spring-actuated mechanism is controlled with a steel cable that’s attached to a bracket in the firebox of your fireplace.
- Attractive. When closed, the chimney cap has an unobtrusive, low-profile appearance.
- Eliminates pest problems. Animal and insect pests will not be able to access the top of the chimney when the cap is sealed against the top of the chimney. Nor will they want to enter the chimney when the cap is open to operate the fireplace or wood stove.
To see a chimney cap installation in action, watch this video!
