New stove owner, old question.

Well, almost a new stove owner, it won't be installed until the first of Nov. First off, after searching this site and reading lots of the great information contained in it, I decided to order an Enviro M55 cast to heat 1800 sq ft. This will help to take the load off of my oil burning furnace. The question I have is somewhat of a no brainer to you all, but since I live in the Interior of Alaska and will see 50 below zero temps, I'm wondering should I go with an OAK or not. The dealer that I am working with is very reputable in this town but are somewhat new to pellet stoves. I have an "air tight" (I use that term loosely) home with an HVAC. There are two ways I can have my stove installed.

The first involves running the exaust pipe outside and up to the top of my roof, some 20' of pipe run and not installing an OAK. The exaust would have to be this long because the stove exaust needs to be at least 48" away from a window that opens.

The second way would be to run the exahust outside using 8' of pipe, and use an OAK. I only have to be 18" away from an window that opens in this senerio.

I have talked this over with the dealer and they are talking with there Installers and pellet stove techs to see what would be the best coarse of action.

The dealer is telling me that they have installed stoves with OAK's and without them, and have had mixed results. I would just hate to pay to run the exaust through two roof lines with 20' of exaust pipe and then find that I could/should have run the OAK. My gut tells me that I should run the OAK, but I don't know how the stove is going to react to those temps. What is the coldest you guys have seen and was there any ill effects? I know cold air is denser so I would have to make some adjustments to the stove when it gets down to that temp. I guess I could run the OAK and then if it doesn't work out disconnect the stove from the OAK and plug the hole with insulation I just hate to put a hole in the wall that doesn't need to be there.

Any insight is welcome!

Thanks!

Not so much the wind here in the interior, just the dead cold. That seems like a great idea pre-heating the air going to the stove, and I could get away with only one hole in the house. I'm really excited about getting this thing installed and fired up. I was a little bummed when the dealer told me the stove wasn't going to make it in untill november, but it also gave me time to figure out this install. I am going to e-mail them the link to the selkirk vent and see what they think or if they have a different brand that they know of. Anyone have this style vent? Any thoughts?

And thanks for the welcome!

The condensation makes sense, won't be burning corn, only pellets so hopefully won't see the amount of corrosion that can cause a problem, I think that I will probably discuss with my installer and go with the selkert DT. Seems like it will be a good opportunity for the dealer to look into a product that might make good sense for this area and increase there success rate with OAK. It will be nice to have a shorter run of exaust pipe coming out of my house. I was a little worried about having to do a 20' run of exaust pipe so I could install the stove in the corner of the living room. But, seems like there are some other options. I'll post some picks of the stove and install in Nov. and will keep interested parties updated with news of progress and possibly more questions! Thanks to everyone for their input

So here is a new pic of my Enviro M55! Love the stove! It keeps the downstairs at 77 degrees and the upstairs at 67-69 degrees on the #2 setting on a 0 degree day!. I ended up not going with the OAK per my installers recommendation, at least for now. We installed the exaust in a manner that it didn't need the 20 foot run to clear the house. I have burned 4 bags of premium blazer pellets so far and can get about 24 hours out of a bag running the stove on 2 or three for most of the day. I feel that if I don't want my boiling kicking on when temps reach 40 bellow I will probably have it up on 4 or 5. We will see, part of the fun of having my new toy is playing with the settings to get the most bang for my buck.

On question I have though is has anyone ever used a long run of pipe for an outside air hook up. My thought would be to run my OAK through my crawspace with 25 or more feet of pipe so that when temps do hit 40 bellow, the air would have time to warm up befor hitting the stove. This would alieviate super cold air hitting the burn pot.

anyway, love the stove! heres a pic!

I beleive that stove guy does know his stuff. And I do understand the downsides to not having an OAK (burning air you already paid to heat) But, I haven't found anywere on this forum or on the internet that would lead me to install an OAK when for 3 months out of the year it is 20-50 below zero. For now I am going with what my installer recommends before I cut another hole in my wall. What I am thinking about doing is running the fresh air intake through my crawlspace so that the air has time to warm up some before hitting the stove. Is there any negative effects of having an long run of pipe for an fresh air intake?

AKboom, I also found that if I crack my garage door it helps out with air makup.

Bring on the cold!

First weekly cleaning done. I thought it went pretty well. Bought an ash vac and was very glad I did. Put an old bed sheet in front of the stove to catch any stray ash. Was glad I did! Everything seemed to go back together fine. I guess the only thing that surprised me (thougth I guess it shouldnt) was that alot of the black paint on the inside of the stove came off with the ash. Anyway fired it up and its burning away!