Smoke coming down chimney

ned rierson

I have two fireplaces back to back. I only light one of them and sometimes smoke comes down the chimney into the room of the unlit fire. Any way to combat this ?
Thanks

the_pen_turner

firstly make sure your smoke and carbn monoxide alarms are working

you need to block the un lit flue at the top to see if the smoke is going up one and down the other flue
if its still coming down then there is a hole between the two flues.

to see if there is a hole between you would need to put up a camera

bfclancy

Common problem especially in cold calm weather like this. Most probably just coming down from the top of the unused chimney from the other. So an anti downdraft cowl or extend one chimney flue up by a foot or so, this will eliminate it

eusap

In the other room or close by is there an extractor fan running? We had the problem before when the extractor fan was on over cooker and the stove in kitchen was lit it would draw smoke down the living room fireplace (not lit)

Solution was to put another vent in the kitchen