Why You Should Top Off Your Outdoor Fireplace With A Chimney Cap!
A chimney on an outdoor fireplace needs a chimney cap for all the same safety and style reasons a house chimney needs one. An outdoor fireplace is typically a gathering place with family and friends huddled within close range of the heat, likely focused on not only the warmth, but the architectural details of the fireplace as well. Like icing on a cake, our European Copper Chimney Pots provide a stylish top to your outdoor fireplace, but of course they also offer much more than style points.
Whether attached to your home or a stand-alone version away from the house, if your outdoor fireplace isn’t protected by a chimney cap, you’re inviting unwanted guests. Water, leaves and other debris, not to mention animals, especially birds, along with bird droppings, will likely enter your chimney and fireplace, without the protection of a chimney cap.
At European Copper, our chimney pots have a “roof” to keep water from entering your outdoor chimney and fireplace, as well as a screen mesh to prevent any “uninvited guests” from entering.
When it rains or when snow melts, without a chimney cap, the water will run down your chimney and into your outdoor fireplace. When water mixes with ashes in the fireplace, it produces caustic lye and can also rust your fireplace grate.
Squirrels, opossums, and other back-yard critters often think of an outdoor chimney as a great place to set up house. Sturdier than a tree and safer from predators, a chimney serving an outdoor fireplace looks like a perfect place to raise the little ones. Once the critters have claimed your chimney as home, you’ve not only a nuisance but also a potential for a fire. Nesting materials within the chimney, even if you can’t see them, are a fire hazard A European Copper Chimney Cap, fastened to your flue or to the top of the chimney, will keep out even the most troublesome animals.
Also consider this, birds sitting atop an outdoor chimney without a chimney cap will use the flue much like a toilet. Bird droppings can prove dangerous to humans. And they don’t get any less dangerous when they are burned in the fireplace: Inhaling the smoke containing burning bird droppings is toxic.
Another possible danger is allowing sparks to exit your chimney. These sparks can possibly catch surrounding leaves, grasses and other plants on fire. In the worse-case, they can set you home afire. The screen mesh in a European Copper Chimney Cap helps prevent embers and sparks from escaping your outdoor chimney.
Safe and stylish, we think you’ll agree, A European Copper Chimney Pot is worth every penny. 