I bought a Hampton Fireplace insert about 6 years ago and had it installed in my fireplace that until then, had glass doors. The insert has worked wonderfully in my house except for two things: 1) the damper rod vibrates and it constantly needs to be adjusted in order to quiet it down. It's very annoying. 2) the blower works fine but it doesn't shut off anymore when you let it die down when going to bed... so I have to manually shut it off now.

I called a repair place who said I needed to pay them $85 just for coming to the house. Then it's $85/hour after that. They came and here's what they said:

They said I need to reline the chimney. The insert vent is "crushed" and I need a new blower and need to have the chimney relined... just relining the chimney is $2250.

I don't believe any of this! My previous fireplace worked fine! The fireplace insert worked fine except for the two issues above. Can someone offer me any explanations? My house is well built and was built by experts in the field (not by me, but I'm the second owner, owning it 8 out of the 11 years)... I can't believe my chimney needs to be relined. Is there any other advise out there? Thanks for any help you can provide.

I would call around until I had 3 contractors who would come out and give me their FREE estimate for repair.

Ive heard chimney relining by a contractor can be 1500-5000 with many variables involved. I would proceed with Ballengers advice and consider DIY if you are a glutton for punishment.

Since I last posted here, I had another company come out to clean the chimney and to look at the issues. They called to tell me that whoever put in the insert did a terrible job and stuck a 6" pipe into a 4" opening, which was, of course, all bent. So they are going to find the right connector (not reline the chimney) to fit into my opening. I'm waiting to hear what the final cost will be including the cleaning. I am skeptical of trying this myself since I want to be sure it's done right this time! I'll let you all know what happens.

GG- I have a Hampton Fireplace Insert too. Its an "okay" unit meaning it has its quirks but it puts out heat if you burn nice dry wood. The insert is totally useless without the blower. The company and dealers should be ashamed for even selling them without it. That said, that damper thing is very annoying. But if you move it right, it doesn't rattle so much.

I changed my own liner. Granted, my chimney is only 30 feet tall. The liner slid down the flue very easily. Putting the cap over it is easy, as is connecting it to the stove. Don't pay someone a couple thousand for this.

I appreciate the input. They said the damper thing was "easily fixed". We'll see. They just completed the work 3 days ago, finally. They didn't line the entire chimney. They were going to remove a couple of bricks at the opening and put in a liner up 3-4 feet. This was to bring it "up to code", but in the $300-400 range instead of relining and capping the chimney. I rent the place now so I didn't want to put more money into it. I just wanted it safe.

As for the blower automatically shutting off, they didn't think they'd be able to do that part of the job so it probably won't get done and we'll just have to continue to shut it off manually. At least, for now.

I definitely wouldn't buy another insert if it needed a blower... and probably not this one since there are already problems with it.

ggailbo

I'm n Electrical Engineer and Electrican, I had problms with blower not turing on/off. The problem was the thermal switch. They are easy to buy and replace. I would take the old one out and try to see the model number. If not you should be able to buy one knowing the voltage and the wattage along with the thermal tmep. You like for the switch to come on.