Dumb question, probably, but you guys have come through for us in the past…
Our house has a fireplace installed by the previous owner with two sliding knobs. Our question is, what are these?
http://oi52.tinypic.com/dzj7ec.jpg
The top slider is probably the flue. If so, is convention that the in position is opening or closing the air to the chimney?
The center knob is obviously for opening the door.
Finally, what do you think the bottom right slide does? If you had to guess, what is the difference between the "in" position" and the "out" position? We've played with it when the fire is working but we don't notice a difference.
There is some kind of electrical blower on the bottom which, when you plug it in, forces air out the vents on the bottom. However, it doesn't seem like this slider on the lower right controls the air coming out of those vents, at least not obviously.
Any ideas from the world of Stack Exchange?
Best Answer
The upper knob is logically the flue control. You really don't want to close off the flue with a roaring fire going. The exhaust gasses need to go somewhere. If not up the flue, then...
The lower knob is logically air intake. It might be from inside the house, or if the insert is externally vented (best) then the air for the fire comes from outside. In either case, shutting that down will dampen the fire, but it will do so gradually as the oxygen in the cavity is depleted. And I don't know if it is designed to completely shut down the incoming air at all.
Personally, if I were the previous owner who installed it, I would have kept the instructions for the insert around. And then when I sold the house, I would have passed on (to the new owner) a whole pile of instruction manuals for every item in the home. Read the manual.