Looking for Ways to Dress Up a Pellet Vent

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.

WKB

Member
Jul 25, 2013
58
Boston
I'm looking for ways to dress up an outside pellet vent.

I currently have our pellet stove direct-vented, terminating about 18 inches from the house with a jet cap on the end. The outside air intake is about 10 inches above this.

I have the option of installing a vertical run to replace the stubby vent that currently exists. Our house is yellow, and I don't particularly like the idea of having a steel or black pellet vent run half way up the home and terminate between the floors. Doing this may also involve a T to move the horizontal run over by about a foot, then another T to introduce the vertical rise, and another T, or elbow, to direct the vent away from the home. All this seems like a serpentine piece of metal artwork running up the side of the home, and this isn't the service side, as well.

Does anyone have suggestions on how they increased the aesthetics of their pellet vent? I see that wood stove vents are an attractive polished stainless, but I haven't seen these in pellet vents. I'd love to find a pellet vent in copper, but I can't find them supplied either. Any ideas would be appreciated!
 
Paint it with yellow high temp paint? Run it inside the fancy polished stainless? Build a chase around it? Is this in the front of your house?
 
Paint it with yellow high temp paint? Run it inside the fancy polished stainless? Build a chase around it? Is this in the front of your house?


Good idea about running inside the chase. It's on the side of the house, not the front. I may get around the issue by simply disconnecting the outside air kit and using room air. I just posted another post with that question.
 
If you build a wood chase around the vent pipe what would be the proper way to protect the wood and what would the clearance be? Could you go with mineral wool insulation to eliminate the clearance?
 
Last edited:
I believe the clearance would be determined by the vent manufacturer, HOWEVER, your local building codes may be more strict. Best to call the appropriate agency and find out.
 
Is'nt that too close to the exhaust?


Yes, it is, though the manual for my last stove didn't say anything about that (yet another reason why that stove has now been returned to the dealer and will likely serve as a planter). I'm going to move the OAK now. I'm thinking about running a 4" clothes dryer flex duct from the outside, through the basement, then up to the first floor. Total run probably around 15 feet or less. I'll reduce the diameter closer to the subfloor with exhaust pipe reducers. Anyone know if they make 2" electrical conduit? I hate the look of the typical, corrugated outside air flex duct.
 
The stove manual shouldn't say anything about that except to follow the vent manufacturer's instructions when installing the venting.

The vent installation instructions should state a clearance to combustibles distance. It is usually one of the following for double walled pellet vent 1" or 3"

Weather the flamingos would be an issue depends upon what plastic the flamingo is made of and how far away from the vent it is.

Flamingos still rock.
 
I found it !! ! !!
At start-up this would look great with a puff of smoke. Left is a dragon and right is a lion. Well for $300-$600, I will be sticking to my ugly pipe. ;)
http://www.guttersupply.com/p-gargoyles-dragon-copper.gstml
0510ce97ce58896dcbc67b0c8eacb239.jpg
1d29939593abf512e5859c46a014a9c3.jpg
 
Last edited:
I'm thinking about disguising it with flock of plastic pink flamingos, so as to not make it look so conspicuous.
You have to be careful as plastic flamingo have a lower co2 tolerance than regular ones...
 

Attachments

  • pink flamingos.png
    pink flamingos.png
    191.7 KB · Views: 283
Sounds like your least-ugly option is to stick with your short horizontal pipe, as-is. As far as the outside air intake, I think you need to stick with a non-combustable duct material, no plastic dryer vent items...
 
Status
Not open for further replies.