Venting in a masonry chimney

I am .................. what kinda adjustments you talkin' about ????????????? I adjusted to the house being 10 warmer than it was the last winter I burned oil ..................... and the ol' gray mare not bitchin' 'bout bein' cold.......................

RobertNH said:

Question is how many of you are?

Curious of the adjustments you have made.

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Some people put the chimney flex pie in it and ran it to the top and others just run into the side of it it with a 3 or 4 inch and call that good enough. If it is real cold the cold air will make it difficult to get the smoke going to the top. Sometimes it will take three times before the stove takes off but I am talking -20 F. One advantage of going into a chimney versus straight out the back is if the power goes off the chimney provides a vacuum that sucks the smoke out of the stove

I have a reducer and extend the pellet pipe past the thimble into the clay flue tile. No issues in 4 years.

My P61 is vented directly into our masonry chimney and have had zero issues, regardless of how cold it is. No adjustments.

Same chimney, seperate flues, right ???????????? Exterior chimney or center chimney ?????????? Center chimney, cold won't affect it much anyway .............. Exterior chimney, shouldn't affect much if the flues are in contact, wood stove flue should warm the other one ................... my thought, anyhow ..............

Even though I ended up lining and insulating my chimney, I'd also like to know what to expect when it gets colder. Hasn't been below 25F since I installed my stove. With the old wood stove, somewhere around 22-23F was when the magic would happen and that chimney would suddenly draft like a freight train. I'm hoping with the positive venting of a pellet stove that it's a little more predictable, or at least that I don't have way too much draft.

I have my stove vented in the chimney with 0 issues.. Actually the hot dry air has been self cleaning some of the stuff the brush couldn't get off.. Drys it up nice with some small flakes at the clean out door.. I've had no issues with over draft ether.. It's nice to if the power goes out the natural draft helps all the smoke go up the chimney.. Actually keeps the stove burning for about 5 min.

I have a 5' joint of flex pipe with a 2' extension jammed into my 25' masonry chimney. I have some good insulation packed around the damper. I have been running this setup for 8 years. I have run this when the temp has been as low as -26 with a 40 mph windchill. I have had zero issues, I have a carbon monoxide detector inside the fireplace/insert cavity and it has never gone off.

That stove does not put smoke into my home. If I work hard I can make the stove burn almost 3 bags of pellets in a day.

Chrisnow86 said:

I have my stove vented in the chimney with 0 issues.. Actually the hot dry air has been self cleaning some of the stuff the brush couldn't get off.. Drys it up nice with some small flakes at the clean out door.. I've had no issues with over draft ether.. It's nice to if the power goes out the natural draft helps all the smoke go up the chimney.. Actually keeps the stove burning for about 5 min.

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Same experience. During recent power failure the ambient temperature of the flue allowed for the stove to burn completely out without any smoke issues.

I wanted to update this thread.

I installed a pellet insert into a masonry chimney with a 6' piece of flex 10 years ago.

The house has gone through some changes in 10 years and has become much tighter. Over the last few years we would experience a creosote smell when it was damp and humid out. We would also experience this when the dryer and bathroom fans are running as well.

Today I had a 4" liner that was 26' long installed. The chimney sweep cleaned the chimney and dropped in the liner. The startup sequence seems easier, less smoke in the chamber. I bought the liner in December and paid the sweep today.

I wished I had done this 10 years ago.

johnny1720 said:

I wanted to update this thread.

I installed a pellet insert into a masonry chimney with a 6' piece of flex 10 years ago.

The house has gone through some changes in 10 years and has become much tighter. Over the last few years we would experience a creosote smell when it was damp and humid out. We would also experience this when the dryer and bathroom fans are running as well.

Today I had a 4" liner that was 26' long installed. The chimney sweep cleaned the chimney and dropped in the liner. The startup sequence seems easier, less smoke in the chamber. I bought the liner in December and paid the sweep today.

I wished I had done this 10 years ago.

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Let me just ask this, was your pellet vent to 6" masonry an air tight connection or was the pipe just run up into it leaving air gaps ? If the latter, you're lucky you never had a chimney fire. And if you had an air tight seal then where was the creosote smell coming from, did you find that source ? And I assume that is gone now ? Do you have an OAK installed ?

Re: venting in a masonry chimney

Seems like a mighty claustrophobic place to air your grievances.

No issues... Turned the draft adjustment all the way down... That was it.

I have 2 inserts and run the pipe all the way to the top. On one of them I have what's called a prairie cap and run my OA next to the 4" flex. I have 0 issues. My brother in law only ran his exhaust a foot above his home made block off plate, he has a foot of ash to clean...... and his stove runs like crap until he pulls it, gets ash pouring out, and vacs out the mess while cleaning.....

When I moved into my house, there was one stove vented into a 8"ID clay tile in stone exterior chimney. The stove had issues with back-puffing at low burn rates, due to the poor draft created by this chimney configuration.

I slid an insulated 6" liner into the 8" clay tube (tight fit!), and the draft improved, even on this relatively short chimney.

My other chimney is unlined stone (old), and also has a 6" insulated liner.