The problem I am experience may or may not be common with wood fireplaces. I have talked to several people and they tell me that this is common, but I have a hard time believing this since I have seen lots of homes with wood burning fireplaces and they are only lit occassionally. If I do not light a fire for 2-3 days, I end up getting a reverse draft (air coming down the chimney and into the room). This draft brings all the odors from the chimney into the house. The damper just above the fire box is closed. If the damper is opened, there is a stronger draft. I do not think it is a lack of cumbustion air within the house which is causing this reverse draft. I have tried leaving a window open with the same effects. I also have a fresh air intake in the furnace room. I think the reverse draft is just physics. Cold air getting down the chimney and then it just continues down into the house.Since the damper is just basically steel on steel, it is not air tight, so this allows air to pass it. Why do homes that only have a handful of fires lit in the fireplace not have this problem (at least I do not think they have this problem)? My thinking is that if I could seal the flue well, then this would stop. I found a Lynette (sp?) flue cap which has a gasketted seal. From what I understand, it is normally open. When you want to close it, you pull on the chain that goes thru the flue to the firebox. The flap on the cap has a gasket which seals agains the cap. Does anyone have experience with this? Would this stop this drafts? (Exspecially the odors) Thanks for your replies.

We have a Lopi wood-burning insert that has always been hard to start a fire in and has never burned as hot as we had hoped. Years ago a chimney sweep installed a pivoting directional chimney cap that also added a little height to our one-story brick chimney (house built in 1963), and we thought that improved the draw a little, but not much. Recently when we try to start a fire, smoke flows into the room around the edges of the glass door. Our chimney sweep says that installing a stainless steel chimney liner, which will attach directly to the insert, will solve all the problems and that the stove will burn much more efficiently. I can find all sorts of advertisements for these liners, but no unbiased information, and I don't want to spend more than a thousand dollars and find that the stove still doesn't work well. Anyone have experience with these steel liners? I'd appreciate any advice; thanks for your time.