Deal or no Deal on Whitfield Pellet insert

Dug up this old thread while looking for an answer. I found the correct paint and now the stove looks like new again. It was installed in time for Christmas and it added so much warmth and cheeriness to out LR. The whole family was impressed by the stove. And a friend was so impressed that he went out and found one just like it to replace his existing insert. I still have not replaced the ignitor element(too expensive), but the stove is not a regular burner and so I have opted to use a small propane torch to light it. Works well.

My question is this: How does the combustion air inlet work? If you connect the inlet to a pipe from the outside, the air is drawn up against a baffle and out into the back cavity of the stove and then is sucked back into the stove thru a small hole with a sensor installed in it. With this setup, it seems to me that much of the combustion air would be coming from inside the house, as the front panels are less than airtight. Why is the stove set up like this, and what may be the workaround?

A lot of stoves have this kind of set up for outside air
Were the OAK connects to a tube but that tube is not connected directly
I think it is a safety thing.
I dont this OAK is important unless it is a small room that is really tight


The panels.
you dont want the panels sealed.
the ROOM air blower has to pull air though the panels to be blower out back into the room
this is why it is very important to to a full reline
and to keep the area behind the stove clean so it dont blow crap back into your home.

Thanks for the reply. The setup may well be a safety thing, but I don't quite see it. With this setup, the convection blower is able to compete with the combustion blower for any outside(and cold) air that would be getting sucked in thru the outside air connection. And conversely, the combustion blower will be sucking heated air thru the stove to the exhaust. With this setup, I see little advantage to even having an an OAK.
In my case, the stove is in a large room so my only concern is with heating efficiency and trying to minimize the exhausting of heated air.

Both my friend and I are puzzled over this setup.

I can see two reasons not to have a direct connect of combustion air.

If the outside are was to be blocked by snow,Wasp/bee nest or anything els the stove would not work right

Moisture. I prefer NOT TO HAVE COLD MOIST air going into my firebox due to rust.

But this is just my opinion


We installed thousands of stoves and only connected outside air when it was required. Mobile homes.
One reason I was not to concerned is we NEVER did direct vent installs. we always install with vertical pipe.
NEVER OUT THE WALL.
Just kept the headaches with customers complaining about smoke in home and black soot on the walls away.

Most whirfields have an opening in the combustion air inlet of the stove thats downstream from the connector for the OAK.

The stove gets some air from inside and some from outside.

Depends on the Codes in the area as to what you can and can't do with the combustion air supply.

The room air fan needs to pull off of the room itself and not hooked up to anyplace that it could possibly suck exhaust fumes from the vent.

The Whitfield should have all that stuff covered in the owners manual.

OH BTW $240 is a great price on that stove.

I recently saw the same model (used) that had been cleaned up a little and repainted, in a shop for $1400

As was mentioned the Stove Bright is the ticket.

That is what the stove was originally shot with at the factory.

Stove Bright comes in several colors other than the Brown.
Metalic Black
Metalic Blue
Metalic Charcoal
Metalic Brown
and possibly others

Snowy

Pellet1 said:

Thanks for the reply. The setup may well be a safety thing, but I don't quite see it. With this setup, the convection blower is able to compete with the combustion blower for any outside(and cold) air that would be getting sucked in thru the outside air connection. And conversely, the combustion blower will be sucking heated air thru the stove to the exhaust. With this setup, I see little advantage to even having an an OAK.
In my case, the stove is in a large room so my only concern is with heating efficiency and trying to minimize the exhausting of heated air.
Both my friend and I are puzzled over this setup.

Click to expand...

This setup is the same as virtually all fuel fired mid efficient forced air furnaces. Combustion air is not generally piped direct from the combustion chamber to the outside. Instead outdoor air (fresh air for people and combustion air) is piped into the return air plenum or piped into a combustion air pot near the furnace. Either way the fresh air spills in as necessary to replace exhaust air. Having a fuel fired hot water tank, a range hood, clothes dryer, or bathroom fan makes this indirect connection preferable to a sealed combustion air anyway. Putting the air intake in the furnace room or return plenum makes the cold air mix before people can notice it as a cold draft, same goes for the location of the air intake on your pellet stove.

hearthtools said:

I can see two reasons not to have a direct connect of combustion air.

If the outside are was to be blocked by snow,Wasp/bee nest or anything els the stove would not work right

Moisture. I prefer NOT TO HAVE COLD MOIST air going into my firebox due to rust.

But this is just my opinion
<snip>

Click to expand...

Not disagreeing completely but in my climate cold outside air is anything but moist, it is never going to condense on an operating stove and cause rust. Most people will need some humidification of their homes in the winter months because the outside air is so dry after being heated.

Shoulder seasons are another matter if the stove is used intermittently to take the chill out. The periods when the stove is turned off leave it prone to rust in that situation.

Assuming you have some other adequate source of fresh air intake or a house that is not super tight I would probably not connect an OAK to this model stove. If it had a sealed air intake path it would be more worthwhile, and then we get into the OAK or no OAK debate. IMHO there are a dozen or more things to make your house more energy efficient that you should worry about before exhausting a little heated air. Go for those big efficiency gains first then chase after the smaller stuff. Remember people need fresh air.

Thanks for all the thoughts and info., diverse as it is. Some make a fairly sound argument as to the great volume of air that is actually used in combustion, while others(perhaps installers) tend to dismiss the OAK as unnecessary and less costly.
I am presently too pumped with Canadas Gold Medal win over USA to really digest this now, but I will eventually. BTW----no Team USA player needs to hang their head---They were a super team and I would have been first in line to congratulate their win. Sorry moderators, but I had to say something.

My HVAC Air handler has a fresh air inlet/mixer that comes down inside the air return plenum.

The Prodigy and the Quad were not installed with a seperate OAK.

The Original install in the spot where my new Hearth has an OAK that I installed back 17 years ago. Rather than abandon it I decided to plumb it underneath the hearth and use the thing.

I agree that in so many cases a seperate air supply is really not needed. Just in cases where the house is really sealed up tight is it a good idea to install an air supply for the fire.

Snowy