Grant back-to-back Rumfords

Buckley Rumford Fireplaces
Grant back-to-back Rumfords

From: "Steve Grant"
To: "Jim Buckley- Rumford Fireplaces"
Subject: Our back-to-back Rumfords
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2007

Jim,

I think the first time I contacted you and we talked briefly about our mountain house fireplaces was summer 2004...

Time moves slowly in the mountains but we now have a finished house and amazing back-to-back Rumfords.

Our builder has serious bragging rights:

Not only did he put in the Rumfords without benefit of a mason, using your materials from Superior Clay and following the specs and instructions on your site, but the real stroke of brillance was putting an outside-air intake pipe into the ash compartment down below, so direct combustion air is sucked in and then up into the firebox and the flue. The ash basin trap door is loose enough that even when closed, the chimney pulls lots of air up through it. The pull is so strong you can't light a match next to the trap door; it's blown out immediately.

The thing draws so amazingly well that when you try to sweep ashes down the trap door, the finest ashes- dust, really - instead of blowing into the room (like they do most everywhere else), are just sucked up the chimney by a powerful column of air that goes from the trap door up the flue.

You can see from the height of the chimney how well it ought to draw, but even so we were suprised; the house sits in a slight saddle on a summit at 3300', and these pictures were taken during over a weekend with constant high wind and up to 50 mi/hr gusts, but there was never a downdraft; quite the contrary, the thing lights immediately even when the chimney's cold.

Our nearby Jotul, with 23' of chimney pipe entirely inside the house, draws the same; and, heats the whole house.

The screen porch screen is from Ted Ferringer; fine work.

Steve

ps The builder commented that the materials from Superior Clay were so well-made that it was a pleasure to put the whole thing together.