Outside Air Kit questions

Hi all,

I am installing a new Regency F1100 freestanding stove in my 550 sq ft bonus room above my garage. The space is being insulated well, including having R4 reflective "tuff" board installed with seams taped, so it's a tight seal (goes under the drywall). Because of that, I'm thinking I'll need an outside air intake. Some questions on that:

1) do I really need it? What are the basic pros/cons?

2) there is an outside air kit option with the Regency F1100, but I can't find any information on it. The place I'm buying it from has very little. I was able to get a rough spec sheet from them (after they got from the distributor) and it's just a pic of a straight pipe and vent cover. The dimensions were: 4" pipe, 6" face plate (for inside wall I assume), and a 5" angled vent cover for outside. The 4" pipe is 11" long for some reason -- seems like that would be cut down quite a bit to just cover the space through the 2x4 wall to the outside. I'm guessing that some flexible pipe travels from the exterior wall to the stove.

Are there other, hopefully better looking, options? Anyone ever seen an outside air kit on this stove (maybe some pics available)?

Thanks for any input.

Thanks Pyro...appreciate the input

Thanks all -- for the feedback on the OAK. Regarding using a wood stove above a garage space (with cars), the contractor and inspector haven't mentioned any concerns...but, I'll be calling the insurance company this morning to be sure we're set. I'd call the garage semi-detached, since only a covered breezeway connects it to the house...but, guess that makes it attached for fire concerns.

According to my insurance broker, there aren't any issues with putting the stove in this space. From other reading I did on the web, the views vary pretty widely...from not allowed, to having to be some minimum height off the floor (e.g. 18"), to no concerns --- for the actual garage space with the cars, that is. I have not found anything about prohibiting a finished space above...yet anyway. But, given feedback from my gc, inspector and broker, seems like we're ok here in CT anyway. Only outstanding variable for me is completing the insurance company questionnaire, and waiting for any response on that (though it just asks about whether it was professionally installed, inspected, vented). Thanks

I'm probably not the best to respond to that, Creekyphil, but I will just because I gave some consideration to that too. My thought was that I don't want any possible disruption in the fire barrier between bottom and top of space, I'm not fully sure that something (like a spark) can't end up coming back through the OAK, and I just like the idea of pulling in fresh rather than possibly fumed air (even though it's going into the stove and not the room. Interested to hear what others think tho.