Comments on: Review: Chimney Balloon Saves Money, Conserve Energy, Simply

By: I Believed I Was Conserving, Until I Looked at the Facts | Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 03:54:47 +0000

[...] a chimney balloon to prevent leakage of air up the chimney [...]

By: Tom Harrison

Tom Harrison — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:12:07 +0000

I had similar issues. Getting the right size is a bit of a trick — looking up a dark tube with an odd shape and trying to get a tape measure in place is an acrobatic feat. Knowing where to measure to required some reading on the Chimney Balloon site — I read three times before I aligned the solution they had to the chimney I had. I was a little tentative in inflating it the first time around, and was able to smell soot when we had our whole-house fan on. Then (as I mentioned in the post), I had to take it out a second time in order to apply the patch, which has worked great. The third time was the charm — inflating to “firm” has made mine nearly airtight. Taking it in and out it pretty easy now that I kind of know where and how it should fit.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:50:11 +0000

I bought a balloon for each of my two chimneys at the end of 2007 and am glad I did. My experience is that it is still tough to get a good seal which I attribute it to two problems. First that the cavity inside the chimneys are rough and catch the balloon. Second is that I bought a balloon big enough for the cavity just above the damper and I should have extended the inflater tube so that I could cram it up high where the chimney isn’t tapered (I could have bought a smaller balloon). Of course I had trouble holding the balloon as high as I did while inflating it (!gravity).

Anyway, the balloon that stays in year round is great. The balloon I take out at the beginning of winter is worth it, but it gets me very messy.

By: Tom Harrison

Tom Harrison — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:41:04 +0000

Thanks Jason — I am glad to hear that people are finding energy saving products through whatever means; a main reason I started the blog was to identify, try, and report on products.

The patch is working great, and so is the chimney balloon. It’s easy to tell, since we regularly use our whole-house fan — if we don’t have enough windows open, it will suck air down the chimney opening and the house will smell like smoke. That hasn’t happened since we installed the chimney balloon. The real benefit is coming soon when we start having to heat the house in the winter. Between this product, and a number of other changes we made this year (top-off insulation, other air-sealing) we’re expecting to use a lot less fuel this winter.

Regards,

Tom

By: Jason R

Jason R — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 04:03:42 +0000

Tom, I had someone call into the chimney balloon tech support line asking a question and she mentioned your blog about the chimney balloon. I was pleased to hear about it.

If that patch you fashioned ever gives you trouble be sure to call us and we will take care of it. I know it is frusterating to open a package with a blade and end up damaging the contents. However, If you followed the prep directions on the product blog I am certain the patch will last a very long time. -Best Regards, Jason

By: Cool and Comfortable with No AC | Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy

Cool and Comfortable with No AC | Five Percent: Conserve a Little Energy — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 20:01:53 +0000

[...] Review: Chimney Balloon Saves Money, Conserve Energy, Simply [...]

By: TerryB

TerryB — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:31:24 +0000

Tom, thanks for the tip on the chimney balloon and also for the tip on sealing the basement windows with foam. I think I might try these two as a DIY project. If I really screw it up I can always call a friend of mine that works in insulation and have him straighten it out :)