This thing is absolutely silly - AKA Nick's Sirocco 30 Install

Highbeam said:

His flue pipe is not properly seated.

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The inner pipe IS seated against the top of the stove collar just like it would be if it was mated to a section of pipe below it. Unless you're running Excel Ultrablack on your stove with an identical height collar and have a standard section of pipe hooked to the stove collar that sits the whole way down where the outer pipe is below the level of the deck, you're not comparing apples to apples.

Hoozie said:

Maybe I missed it, but what kind of wood are you burning (hardwood or softwood)?

What's your fireview a few hours into the burn look like?

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Burning mixed hardwoods. When I reloaded last night, there was some wispy flames for the first hour or so, but after that it went back to just a dull glow from the coals and no flames. Although the reflection of the cat in the laminate floor in front of the stove was pretty bright

begreen said:

What were your flue temps running throughout the last burn?

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After the first couple hours, the flue temp dropped to a hair under 400 and seemed to settle in around 350 or so for the night.

When I checked on the stove this morning at 0630, the stove top was sitting at about 350, the cat probe at about the 10 position and the flue at about 350 with about 1/2 the load left. The temp dropped to 10F last night, so I am assuming the increased draft had a bit to do with it. It's supposed to drop to -4F tonight, so I am going to run it at 2 with a half load and see where we're sitting tomorrow morning after 12 hours.

I've noticed a couple things consistently so far - the load burns from the center out, it also burns from the underside up (which is quite strange as the air comes in at the top of the glass) and the even though the cat is still well into the active zone, during the later stages of the burn I get almost no glow. An odd thing last night though - I got a faint smoke smell coming from the stove about 4 hours into the burn.

Quentin2 said:

...bottom of excell slip is about 1/4" below this

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I just reread this - you're using a slip section mated to the stove?

When I talked to BK in Penticton, they said they send out offers to the pipe manufacturers to test their pipes mated to the new stove models. Apparently ICC was one of the only ones who didn't take them up on it

In any case, it looks shoddy IMO, but most importantly, it's safe. If history is any indicator, we can count of winter being pretty well over by end-March, so I am going to wait until it is warm out to fully decide on my plan of action for improvements to my connector pipe.

The pipe IS fully seated. Before I lit anything, I verified this by sticking my head into the firebox and looking with a flashlight up through the bypass. If you go to ICC's website and look up the dimensions of their adapter, you will see that the lower portion sticks into the stove only about 1" before the visible flare in the drawing will seat onto the top of the stove collar in the same manner that a standard length would seat into the next length below it. My pipe is seated a little over 1.125" into the collar before the flare seats - the pipe doesn't go all the way down to the bottom of the collar. A slip section with no flare goes all the way down / bottoms out and doesn't contact what you're calling "the blob". FWIW, the blob doesn't actually protrude out into the collar enough to affect the fit - that pic into the collar is a little deceiving.

Additionally, the stove collar on Sirocco 30s is ~3" tall, whereas your Princess Ultra's is only ~2" tall which explains why the joint on mine sticks up above the convection deck. After confirming that the current way it is installed met WETT and the manufacturer requirements, I decided to live with the odd look until spring.

The smoke smell seems to be coming out from the front of the convection deck, which is lower than the bottom of my outer pipe - which leads me to believe it's coming from either the probe hole or a section of door gasket. The smell also didn't occur until about 3 hours after the bypass was closed, and was not present throughout the entire burn, which I think excludes a shoddy seal between the stove collar and pipe. I crawled all around the stove last night with a high power light and the room lights off - and there was no sign of visible smoke nor any smell to the rear of the stove.

Edit: There was no smoke smell at all on Saturday when I was watching it like a hawk (and jumping up and down with joy over its performance )

For the sake of transparency, my setup isn't optimal, which is probably why I am seeing lower performance that yours - my wood is not the best, I have an exterior chimney that is 21' from stove top to cap (18' Class A and ~ 3' of Ultrablack connector) and my first bend is 24" from the stove top. In the spring once some of the snow is off my roof, I am going buy a cheap 4' single wall pipe and see if extending the chimney gets me better performance. I'm also going to have a look at addressing the 24" of connector pipe before the first bend, to include a slip section that bottoms out in the flue collar.

I just got home from work, and stove is sitting at 250 and the cat into the inactive portion with a tiny bit of one split left.

I had another look around all the openings on the stove with a flashlight with no evidence of any leaking. What I did notice though when I looked around the probe hole was the hole looks to be about 3/8" dia for a 3/16" probe. There is a LOT of room around the probe. I'll give it another look when I reload here in a bit to see if I can positively see any smoke coming out.

rdust said:

Even after grinding my flue collar weld down some I added furnace cement to ensure I had a good seal on the appliance adapter. I will say my M&G appliance adapter fit/s like crap!

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Not sure if I want to use furnace cement yet - I'd like to keep the adjustable section removable from the collar to clean the pipe without removing the cat every time....although based on everything I've read here, I ordered up extra cat, door, glass and bypass gaskets in case I say f it

Highbeam said:

Other possible smoke exits are the bypass shaft penetration, and yes that cat meterhole. I sounds like your collar joint is as well sealed as it can be.

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I did the sniffer test along the top edge of the right side shield by the bypass shaft - no smoke smell. Also did the sniffer test along the front of the stove, not smelling anything yet.

I do have to wonder why the cat probe hole is oversized? Aside from possible fitment issues from a misaligned hole in the convection deck, I just cannot see any benefit. Although looking at the probe, it has a bit of a gasket on it, so I assume this would seal the hole when the convection deck isn't used.



I loaded the stove E-W as full as I could from what I had inside - I fit 11 nice sized splits in with a little room to spare that could have been filled with small splits if I had any inside. While waiting for the cat to come up to temp, I was getting a bit of a secondary show again on the left side of the firebox with another separate secondary show across the face of the cat. Closed the bypass at 6:10 and set it at 1.5. I plan to turn it up to 2 for the night as temps drop

rdust said:

Now how about that Ashford with a 4 cubic' box? I'd give you a pre-order today.

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I was hoping for a Sirocco with a 4 cu ft box