Choosing The Right Cowl For Your Chimney
Chimney Cowls are a useful and practical item that often gets overlooked when people are considering upgrading their old gas or electric fire to a solid-fuel stove, lining their chimney or conducting any other work around their chimney breast. Each type of cowl has something different to offer and the following takes into account the variety of issues that a chimney cowl can help you to overcome.
Anti-downdraught cowls are designed to ensure that the cowl redirects the wind when it hits it, which prevents the draught from going down the chimney and into your fireplace, stove or room.
H cowls, sometimes known as H pots, are also an anti-downdraught chimney cowl which completely isolates the combustion gases from the prevailing winds. The cowl with mesh inserts should be used on chimneys serving appliances fired by gas.
Bird-guards prevent birds and other small animals from entering your chimney and getting trapped, or debris such as leaves or twigs falling into your chimney. Although they are officially a bird-guard, this type of guard will help to prevent any potentially dangerous debris from entering the chimney to begin with.
The solid fuel chimney liner cowl prevents the need for extra work on your chimney by being designed to fit a flexible flue liner to a bird-guard cowl application without the chimney pot needing to be removed.
Spinning cowls are designed to spin as the wind hits them, preventing the gust of wind going down the chimney and blowing smoke or embers into the room below. We sell good quality, thick aluminium spinning cowls as they are sturdier than the thinner ones which can be damaged by repeated strong gusts of wind. Spinning cowls may need to be serviced to prevent or remove tar build up.
There are obvious advantages to having a chimney cowl when it comes to preventing birds, small animals and debris from falling down your chimney and down-draughts from reducing the temperature in the room that you are trying to keep warm, but there are also other benefits to consider when choosing your chimney cowl. Having a chimney cowl in place:
protects your chimney from weathering and freeze-thaw erosion
means your stove will burn less wood or solid fuel
makes it easier to light your stove
means that your stove will heat up faster and burn for longer
improves burning efficiency
reduces smoke significantly
prevents downdraught which reduces the risk of toxic gases or smoke odours blowing back down the chimney
means a cleaner stove, glass, flue and cowl
If you would like any more information about our range of chimney cowls or some assistance to help you choose which type of cowl would suit your requirements, please contact us on 01745 822344 or have a chat with a member of our expert team when you visit our fully fitted and HETAS registered stove showroom.
