Why Bypass the Vent Damper?

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

They can cause problems, i.e. prevent the boiler/furnace from firing. When it gets cold and busy in the Winter, you don't want to be dealing with a silly nuisance call, you being either the homeowner or service tech.

<A HREF="http://www.heatinghelp.com/getListed.cfm?id=53&Step=30">To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"</A>

Michael Stoic

The Vent Damper

which was at once point installed in my forced hot air furnace system went bad (damper motor failure). It was turned to "open flap" and the white wire bypass on the furnace CB was rebridged.

I have seen comments from some hvac techs that they would disable even a working damper. Why?

Steamhead (in transit)

More recent vent dampers

seem to be more reliable than some of the earlier ones. I've installed a few Effikal dampers over the past few years without problems. But I did see a Field damper go bad after only a couple years.

I like the damper principle, especially when working in an area with a lot of chimneys constructed with enough power to draw air thru a coal bed. Such a chimney can pull all the heat out of an oil or gas boiler or furnace during the off-cycle simply because of the strong draft it produces.

But like anything else, vent dampers have to be reliable.

Dale

vent dampers

First, if they don't work they should be completely removed or at least the butterfly and shaft. We replace them with a 6" length of vent pipe. We would never just wire one open. They get removed instead of replaced when the customer is given a choice of waiting till tomorrow with the heat off and spending at least $250 or, having heat now for the normal 1/2 hour minimum of about $60 to remove it. Given todays fuel prices I think the new ones are OK on a boiler or commercial water heater.