Chimney Services in Pennsville, NJ

What the numbers suggest for chimneys in Pennsville

Census estimates place 16% of Pennsville's 5,828 housing units before 1940 and 32% between 1940 and 1959, with another 35% from the 1960s and 1970s. Chimneys built across those decades are generally masonry, often lined with clay tile, and the oldest may have been built with no liner at all. Our guide to cracked flue tiles explains what decades of heat and moisture do to clay.

Heating is split three ways: about 55% of the 5,255 occupied homes use utility gas, 22% electricity and 20% fuel oil. An oil burner coats its flue with soot and scale over each season, a process explained in oil furnace and boiler flues. Where a house has moved to electric heat, the chimney may now serve only a water heater, a situation covered in the orphaned water heater problem.

Detached houses account for about 78% of units, and complexes of five or more units for about 11%. The estimates sketch the township; they are not findings about your chimney.

What the barometric draft control does

Look at the metal pipe between an oil boiler or furnace and the chimney. On many oil systems you will find a round or square gate on a hinge, set into a tee in the pipe. That is a barometric draft control. Field Controls, a manufacturer of these devices, describes it as a weighted, hinged door that opens or closes automatically with pressure changes. When the chimney pulls too hard, the gate swings open and lets room air into the pipe, steadying the draft on the burner. The manufacturer lists temperature swings, wind and barometric pressure changes as the causes of that excess draft.

The point of steady draft is clean combustion. The manufacturer explains that too much draft lowers efficiency and raises chimney temperatures, while too little leads to incomplete combustion and soot. Its installation manual says the control must be installed by a qualified agency, that CO2 readings are needed to adjust it on oil burners, and that there must always be enough draft so the burner does not puff back into the room when it starts.

The draft control belongs to the heating technician. The chimney's job is to give it a flue that is clean, intact, correctly sized and open at the top. Adjusting the gate cannot make up for a flue partly blocked by fallen soot, scale, broken tile or a nest.

Timing the chimney service and the oil tune-up

The Chimney Safety Institute of America makes two points about oil chimneys that shape the schedule. First, soot from long burner run times clings to the flue and later drops to the bottom, and a pile there can choke the exhaust path and send carbon monoxide into the house. Second, the oil company's visit may include clearing the connector and the bottom of the chimney, but CSIA says it is unlikely to include cleaning the chimney system.

1. Chimney firstBook the furnace and boiler flue cleaning and inspection ahead of the burner service, so the burner is adjusted against a clean flue.
2. What the chimney visit coversThe flue is swept, the base and cleanout are cleared, and the connector and thimble are checked. When the flue is wide and open enough, a camera follows it to the top, and you get findings with photos.
3. Burner serviceYour oil company services the burner and sets the draft control with instruments, now with a clean flue behind it.
4. Watch between visitsIf the burner puffs back, soot appears around the draft control or on nearby surfaces, or the room smells of oil exhaust, shut the system off and call your oil service company, then have the chimney checked.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends having the heating system professionally inspected and serviced every year, with chimneys and flues checked for blockages, corrosion and loose or disconnected sections.

Local questions

Sources

1. U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020–2024 5-year estimates (tables B25034, B25040, B25024), via Census Reporter
2. Field Controls: Combustion dampers and barometric draft controls
3. Field Controls: Type RC barometric draft control for oil and solid fuel equipment (product page)
4. Field Controls: Model RC barometric draft control installation instructions (PDF)
5. CSIA: Annual Service of Your Oil-Fired Appliance Chimney
6. U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission: Carbon Monoxide Questions and Answers