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Spent 3 hours chasing a draft issue in a 1920s flue before I realized the cleanout door was sitting open a quarter inch
Took me way too long to check something that simple, has anyone else had a dumb blind spot like that on an old chimney job?
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stella_roberts9h ago
After a similar hunt on a 1900s coal-to-gas conversion, I finally taped a bright orange tag to the flue damper handle that says "CHECK CLEANOUT DOOR FIRST." It's saved me at least two repeat headaches since then.
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harris.aaron1h ago
My buddy Dave had the same setup in an old row house he was flipping. He put a tag on his damper too, but he used neon pink and wrote "DIRTY TRAP BELOW" on it. First time he fired the furnace after a cleanout, he still forgot to check it and ended up with soot all over his basement floor. @stella_roberts your orange tag idea is way better than his messy solution. Have you ever tried using a zip tie to keep the cleanout door slightly cracked as a reminder?
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