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I have a 6 year old house, and a gas fireplace with no blower.
I can't find any manufacturer's name, but there's a tag behind the removable little "vent" cover on the bottom (another cover on top) that shows:
ANSI Z21.50b 2002 CSA 2.22b-2002 VENTED GAS FIREPLACE
Model: DVDT-4542R-1
Looks like the front glass is pulled onto the whole combustion chamber by four bolts, two on the top outside edges, two on the bottom outside edges. The chamber itself is completely sealed as far as I can tell. It's vented up by an 8 or 10" pipe that goes up a bit, then out to a side mounted exhaust on the wall of the house.
Gas fireplace part works fine, but I've got a horrible draft that comes in around the unit.
I've spent the last four years with the shrink plastic stuff you tape over windows on this, because the first year I had little ice crystals building up on the bottom left corner.
So obviously there's infiltration coming from outside, but there's not a lot of places it can be coming from. So my question is which of these is the likely culprit?
On the bottom of the unit, the sheet metal that's against the floor, there are a couple 1.5 or 2" diameter holes facing downward, I'm assuming there for power lines or gas lines or whatever if they were needed.
Also, on the top, the pipe is obviously fitted to the top of the combustion chamber. Then there's space between the top of the combustion chamber and the top sheet metal of the entire housing of the insert where this pipe goes up into. Now, the sheet metal of the housing that this pipe goes through up there has about a half inch gap between the cut edge of the hole for the pipe, and the actual outer diameter of the pipe itself. I can only see up there a little, but it looks like there's more sheet metal around it, as if that "upper" piece I see isn't actually the very top of the insert.
Since my fireplace is on an outer wall, there's a build out that protrudes from this wall, like a regular old fireplace rectangular shape that runs up the side of the house. There's no actual chimney in it, though, as the vent is on the side of this protrusion on the side of the house.
I'm guessing that this protrusion has something that's letting air in, maybe even around the vent exhaust or something, or maybe on the bottom since this is raised off the ground three or four inches, it doesn't come all the way down.
I was contemplating taking some of the metal ducting tape I have and sealing up these gaps, both the holes, and the gap all the way around the exhaust pipe on top, but I don't want to do that if those are critical to airflow or something around it.
But I hate not being able to use the fireplace in the winter (I live in Wisconsin so it gets chilly up here) because of having to keep the thing sealed with plastic to keep the cold out.
Any ideas on what I could look for? I can post pictures if it would help, just figured I'd see if the description would be enough.
Thanks for any help, I'd love to resolve this 6 year old problem.
John
I can't find any manufacturer's name, but there's a tag behind the removable little "vent" cover on the bottom (another cover on top) that shows:
ANSI Z21.50b 2002 CSA 2.22b-2002 VENTED GAS FIREPLACE
Model: DVDT-4542R-1
Looks like the front glass is pulled onto the whole combustion chamber by four bolts, two on the top outside edges, two on the bottom outside edges. The chamber itself is completely sealed as far as I can tell. It's vented up by an 8 or 10" pipe that goes up a bit, then out to a side mounted exhaust on the wall of the house.
Gas fireplace part works fine, but I've got a horrible draft that comes in around the unit.
I've spent the last four years with the shrink plastic stuff you tape over windows on this, because the first year I had little ice crystals building up on the bottom left corner.
So obviously there's infiltration coming from outside, but there's not a lot of places it can be coming from. So my question is which of these is the likely culprit?
On the bottom of the unit, the sheet metal that's against the floor, there are a couple 1.5 or 2" diameter holes facing downward, I'm assuming there for power lines or gas lines or whatever if they were needed.
Also, on the top, the pipe is obviously fitted to the top of the combustion chamber. Then there's space between the top of the combustion chamber and the top sheet metal of the entire housing of the insert where this pipe goes up into. Now, the sheet metal of the housing that this pipe goes through up there has about a half inch gap between the cut edge of the hole for the pipe, and the actual outer diameter of the pipe itself. I can only see up there a little, but it looks like there's more sheet metal around it, as if that "upper" piece I see isn't actually the very top of the insert.
Since my fireplace is on an outer wall, there's a build out that protrudes from this wall, like a regular old fireplace rectangular shape that runs up the side of the house. There's no actual chimney in it, though, as the vent is on the side of this protrusion on the side of the house.
I'm guessing that this protrusion has something that's letting air in, maybe even around the vent exhaust or something, or maybe on the bottom since this is raised off the ground three or four inches, it doesn't come all the way down.
I was contemplating taking some of the metal ducting tape I have and sealing up these gaps, both the holes, and the gap all the way around the exhaust pipe on top, but I don't want to do that if those are critical to airflow or something around it.
But I hate not being able to use the fireplace in the winter (I live in Wisconsin so it gets chilly up here) because of having to keep the thing sealed with plastic to keep the cold out.
Any ideas on what I could look for? I can post pictures if it would help, just figured I'd see if the description would be enough.
Thanks for any help, I'd love to resolve this 6 year old problem.
John
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