6" class A right off the pellet stove.

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teng3

New Member
Hearth Supporter
Oct 30, 2007
4
Central New Jersey
Hello,

First time poster here. Background story is that I have a finished basement completed by the previous owner. It's a completely tiled area up the back and side walls. Originally the PO ran a wood stove with 6" Class A straight up a 4' vertical rise inside the basement into a 90 degree bend through the basement wall foundation horizontally for about 2' (non-combustible) into a 2'x2' cement purpose built chimney (with ~20' vertical rise) with what appears to be a clay? sleeve (is that typical for this wood stove application?).

I'm about set to pick up a Harman Advance and I have two solutions, one seemingly less likely to be safe regarding the vent system. The standard approach that my dealer recommended is going with a 90 degree elbow off the stove and straight up 3" rigid to the 6" remaining Thimble sticking out of the wall. Run a converter from 3" to 6" before connecting directly to the thimble. The dealer said that not only does the combustion fan supply a good push up, but the 4' vertical rise would add some natural draft as well and once it hit's the 6", it'll be a short trip horizontally to the chimney outside. This seems logical enough and certainly believeable as a standard approach. Does anyone see a catch here?

The less likely approach that I would prefer is the following. A 90 degree elbow at the stove exhaust immediately into a 3" to 6" converter. Then run 6" Class A (double lined) up 4' into the thimble directly venting out to the chimney. Certainly, the Class A piping can tolerate the negligible heat of the pellet stove so I see that aspect as a non-issue. In the pellet stove manual, they suggest for longer runs of 15' or more vertical rise to convert to 4" piping immediately out of the stove to relieve pressure of a long run. Obviously, my run is even longer, so one might deduce that 6" is just expanding on what going to 4" does. In this case however, the increase in diameter is humongous and the concern is that the natural draft (which isn't that strong anyway since pellet exhaust isn't hot) is eliminated with piping this large (not enough exhaust to fill the pipe), and the combustion motor may have to work even harder to push the exhaust up as there is great backdraft currently (I removed the cap on my thimble and i would estimate there is 15mph winds blowing into my basement from it!!!).

The reason for wanting the 6" pipe is purely for aesthetics. I understand that they make 6" pellet vents which have a 3" insert giving the same benefits of 3" with the look of 6" but the cost for it is substantial and i'd like to explore the above option first. Does anyone think there is a chance at all that the 6" all the way up would work? Has anyone attempted it? If the answer is no, what is your justification. Please note that my basement is roughly 800sqft and it is extremely tight. The stairwell door is always open, and I have a walk-out door/window I can keep cracked open if necessary. No outside air kit is planned. Finally, is there any debate about the first option's validity as a solution?

Sorry for the long post but I'd rather give too much info than incomplete info.

Thanks for your responses,
Tim
 
Installation is not typical, but certainly possible- - that is the use of the class A as a wall pass through.

A large outdoor masonry chimney like that can definitely provide a lot of "push-back" against the stove exhaust, so while it might work fine - it also is not the ideal setup.

I suspect most of us "experts" here would suggest lining the entire chimney with 3 or 4" flexible stainless so as to keep temps hot.....or, just vent the pellet stove out the side of the house separately, then up a bit and out again with a 45 (not a full chimney, just a DV setup)

As far as the style, you could use regular stove pipe yourself inside to cover over the flex liner. Note- you can also use rigid liner, but it might take more work.

All in all, I am not real keen on using (large) exterior masonry chimneys to vent low temp exhausts. Let's see if anyone else agrees.
 
Wow... a 24"x24" clay flue? What in the heck would need something that big?

Personally I would do as web suggested, re-line the entire thing down to the 6" thimble, probably with 4" pellet liner. Then somehow convert from the liner to the 4" pellet vent using a ceiling thimble or something (would have to see a catalog to find the exact parts). If you are dead set in venting it into the existing chimney I don't see any problem going right to 6". Put a clean-out Tee on the back of the unit and then go right into a 3" -> 6" pellet increaser, from there you can run wood double wall up to the 6" thimble I think.
 
First off, I would plan on doing outside air given that you have a tight basement - Possibly using one of those "tube in tube" style vent setups so that you only need to use one hole. I would also say either line the chimney all the way up, or ignore the chimney and go out the wall, don't try just dumping into the 6" pipe, it's to much.

Gooserider
 
Hi Guys,

Thanks for the replies. I think I misrepresented the chimney. The outer concrete blocks are 24"x24" but I would imagine the inner openning to be no more than 12" square. It's not half the size of the openning of my chimney in my living room. It was purpose built, afterall.

The main reason I can't do a direct vent is because i'm working it from the basement... Therefore, drilling through the foundation wall would only be the first step in completing the vent. I'd need to go up as well, in which case, it's becoming a larger project.

A sleeve down the chimney is certainly a possibility but due to cost, i'd prefer to go an alternative route first. Seeing as how everything was set up so nicely already, it'd be a shame to not utilize it. Also, while the basement is tight, I'd be willing to live with a window cracked open. To create an outdoor air vent, i'd again be limited to the fact that i'm already underground, and therefore, the pipe would have to run up the wall to the ceiling of the basement before leaving through the foundation. I already find having to use 3" pipe to be a bit of a bummer. Running two 3" pipes, would be a major bummer visually.

So far, I have one approval vote for doing the extreme of running 6" pipe the entire length inside the house. I talked to my dealer again, and he's assured me that a 3" pipe up to the thimble would be a good bet as the solution. As soon as everything is connected, the 15mph backdraft will be neutralized. And as soon as the combustion blower kicks in, the positive pressure will take over. Of course, we'll see for sure once we do the install. IMO the 6" all the way up is looking less plausible though as the 3" pipe really is needed to slow down the velocity of the backdraft. The run is nearly straight up the entire way with 25' rise. I need "something" to break up the flow eh?

Thanks again for your advice.
Tim
 
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