TOPAZ Owner's Manual
8
RSF Woodburning Fireplaces
Once the kindling is lit and sustaining fire, you can add some small pieces of seasoned cordwood. Use the
andirons in front to help position the cordwood so as not to flatten and smother the fire you’ve just created.
Always add at least 3 pieces of cordwood. Position your cordwood in a manner that the fire will hit several pieces
as it rises and has air gaps to flow through. Continue to leave the door slightly open until the cordwood is lit. Close
the door completely when the fire is established, if the fire goes out you’ve shut the door too early.
To get maximum efficiency out of your fireplace you will want to adjust the amount of air entering the firebox at the
appropriate times. Gauge how much to close the combustion air by how the fire reacts once the combustion air
control lever has been moved. If the fire goes out and begins to smolder, there’s too little combustion air entering
the firebox. If there’s no change to the burn pattern, you can continue to close the combustion air further.
Eventually you should be able to close the combustion air all or most of the way. There should always be visible
fire inside the firebox at every step of the process.
WARNING: DO NOT USE A GRATE OR ELEVATE THE FIRE.
REFUELING
The door should be opened slowly to keep smoke from spilling into your room. If you have a problem with smoke
spillage, check to see that all kitchen and bathroom fans have been shut off. They can cause negative pressure in
the house which pulls smoke out of the fireplace.
NOTE
: The internal blower or inline fan, if installed, should be shut off during refuelling to prevent smoke from
spilling out of the fireplace.
TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMS
If smoke comes into the house when the door is opened:
•
You may have opened the door too quickly and created a suction of air into the room, this can be avoided by
opening the door more slowly.
•
Ensure your chimney is clean and your chimney cap is not plugged. Chimney caps with screens are more
likely to become clogged with creosote buildup.
•
Make sure you have adequate chimney height for your system. Refer to the Chimney section of this booklet
and make sure to take altitude, and number of elbows into consideration.
•
If you have purchased the central heat kit option or the circulating internal blower, make sure the blower is off
before opening the door.
•
Check to see if other fans in the home are running, particularly a kitchen range hood, or bathroom exhaust
fan. This can affect the pressure in the home.
•
Try opening a window near the fireplace a little, this will equalize the pressure in the home and should correct
a draft problem. Once proper draft is established the window can be closed.
•
Make sure you’ve used enough kindling to establish a hot fire quickly. The most likely time that smoke will
enter the home is during the lighting process.
DOOR HIDEAWAY MECHANISM
The TOPAZ fireplace is equipped with a door hideaway mechanism which enables you to hide the door behind
the left extrusion when you need to service the firebox or when you wish to put the firescreen on. The mechanism
is quite sophisticated but fairly easy to operate once the basics are understood. Please refer to Figure 4 while
reading the following instructions.
Start by opening the left extrusion, using the handle at the bottom of the extrusion. As shown in Figure 4, there is
a latch at the top that locks the door hinge against the left side of the firebox so as to provide an adequate
position of the door for regular door operation. Unlocking this latch, enables the door to rotate around a special
hinge to move the door away from the left side of the firebox. To lock the latch, make sure the door hinge is flat
against the left side of the firebox. We recommend that the door be closed and then the latch locked on the hinge.
The latch operation requires some force but if excessive force seems necessary, then something is not working
properly.
