Wall sleeves
FIREFIX Chimney Opening Cover, to Ø 160 mm (6.30 in)
Not a sleeve but a blanking cap — an expanding funnel with insulation, for a chimney opening that is no longer used.
By Jean-Benoit Buisson
What the maker’s page says
Stated as a secure cover for connections: where a chimney connection is not used, the maker states the opening is best covered with a chimney hole / stove pipe cover. The cover is stated to fit many connections up to a diameter of 160 mm (6.30 in) — turning the screw widens or narrows the holders as required — and it is stated that the cover can be removed at any time. The blanking cover is stated to be made of galvanized, high-quality steel sheet, which makes it stable and durable. The expanding funnel is stated to keep the closure firmly and securely seated while still allowing it to be taken off easily, and the insulation is stated to protect wallpaper from heat-induced discoloration.
The opposite of everything else on this shelf
Six listings in this family connect an appliance to a chimney. This one closes an
opening that nothing connects to.
Old houses are full of them. A chimney breast that once served a range, a boiler and
a bedroom grate has an opening for each, and when the appliances went the holes
stayed — sometimes papered over, sometimes stuffed with a rag, occasionally just
open.
An open one is a draft in winter, a soot smell in summer, and a route for
everything living in the flue.
And the insulation is not decoration
A chimney with one opening in use is a chimney carrying hot gas past all the
others.
A bare steel plate over a disused hole takes that heat and conducts it into the wall surface, and what appears over a season is a discolored ring in the wallpaper around the cover. The maker names exactly that, which is the sort of thing that only gets written down after somebody has seen it happen.
It is an insulation that comes with a reason.
Expanding, and reversible
A funnel that spreads against the inside of the opening when the screw is turned.
Two things follow. It fits a range of sizes rather than one, which matters because
old openings are whatever the bricklayer made them. And it comes out again.
That second point is worth more than it looks. The alternative to a blanking cover
is mortaring the opening closed, which is permanent and which somebody’s
grandchildren will be chiselling out when they want a stove in that room.
What it is not
A connection. It has no socket, it takes no pipe, and it is not the part that gets
mortared into a chimney cheek to receive a flue.
That part is elsewhere on this shelf, in three different forms, and one of those
listings states the condition under which any of them is needed: only on masonry
chimneys.
Where it is sold
Availability
As this page was put together, the price sat around $56 at the American Amazon store.
Keepa reading from the day this page was last updated; stock and prices change without warning.
Prices quoted in this text were read on September 22, 2026. The live price is at the top of the page.
Questions this guide leaves you with
How is this different from the rest of the shelf?
It does the opposite job. The sleeves in this family are the part an appliance connects through; this is the part that closes an opening nothing connects to. Old chimney breasts frequently have two or three connection holes from appliances long gone, and a bare one is a draft, a soot smell and a hole in the plaster.
Why does it need insulation?
Because the flue behind it is still live. A chimney serving another appliance carries hot gas past the opening, and a bare steel cover conducts that heat straight into the wall surface — which discolors wallpaper and paint in a ring around it. The maker names that specifically: the insulation is there to protect the wallpaper from heat discoloration.
Can I take it out again?
The maker says so: the expanding funnel holds it firmly and it remains removable. That matters in an old house where a disused opening may be the right place for a future appliance, and where mortaring it closed would be a decision nobody could undo without a chisel.
What size opening does the FIREFIX 2097/1 fit?
The listing says it fits connections up to a diameter of 160 mm (6.3 in): turning the screw widens or narrows the holders as needed. The listing’s table gives the cover itself as 6.7 × 6.7 in (17 × 17 cm).
What is the FIREFIX cover made of?
Galvanized steel sheet, which the maker describes as stable and durable, with an expanding funnel and insulation. FIREFIX is a brand of Kleining, named as the manufacturer in the listing’s table.
