Imperial Thermometer question

[Seanbear]

Its night here so Ill have to take pics in the morning. I have fire board under it, behind and beside it. I keep everything away from it, The fire board has an inch of gap, and I plan on cleaning it every month, to be "safe". Im new to this and trust me, Im kinda scared sometimes, but what can ya do?

 

[Seanbear]

20 inches from stove to wall. 18 inches away from the house, and a T on top for a cap.

 

[bholler]

20 inches from stove to wall. 18 inches away from the house, and a T on top for a cap.

Doesn't that stove call for 36"

How does the pipe go through the wall or roof?

 

[Seanbear]

It goes thru an old window opening, with fire board instead of glas, and double wall going thru it, the a 90 elbow with cleanout, the straight up 15 foot. Trust me Its not ideal, but ive been to deer camps with way less safe setups, lol......luck of the draw I guess. And thank you for replying, Im soaking it all in.

 

[bholler]

It goes thru an old window opening, with fire board instead of glas, and double wall going thru it, the a 90 elbow with cleanout, the straight up 15 foot. Trust me Its not ideal, but ive been to deer camps with way less safe setups, lol......luck of the draw I guess.

Oh I have seen far worse as well that have worked for years. But I have also done inspections after fires on systems that were far better.

 

[Seanbear]

I run from 250 to 400 usually. The wood I use burns hot but fast. A lot of reloading, but its free and DRY. I have been hauling the wood from my friend all summer, I should be good for a little. I get it weekly too. Oh, and I saw on youube a guy with a small wood burner in his tent, with a small flue pipe. Im not sure about that one.........

 

[Seanbear]

I remember back in like early 80s, a guy on a bike with brooms stopped and talked to my dad. He then swept the chimney, I didnt know at the time what was going on. I remember the long brushes strapped to his bike. Now thats Old School. I respect your job a LOT!

 

[begreen]

Some chimneys can be a real challenge.

 

[Beary]

$850 could have bought you a proper ss liner.... especially only at 15ft.

When I bought my house there was single wall stove pipe running up the clay lined masonry chimney. Not hanging either, the whole 22ft stack rested on an elbow sticking out of the hole in the chimney (where a thimble should be). I cleaned the thing basically weekly because the stove draft would vanish (wet chitty wood left by previous owners, and a chitty homemade sketchy stove that you could open hot-but when cold it could only be opened with a pry bar). By cleaned, I mean a grabbed it and smashed it around, up and down and all around while running the shop vac to catch the piles of creosote pouring down onto my arm. It was impossible to get on the roof in the wintertime, and the elbow was not detachable with the whole chimney falling down to the bottom where I wouldn't be able to get at it. Home inspectors are f@$%ing useless, and I was too dumb to know better.

It's a MIRACLE the house never burned down. You could feel the chimney upstairs was HOT, and the way it would just completely stop drafting was pretty incredible....



I ordered duravent ridgid duraliner off of ebay, knowing I couldn't install it until summer.
It was expensive and I HATE heights so pulling the entire 22ft of old, rusty, seems separating junk 'chimney' and throwing that off the roof sucked. The masonry itself I'm sure could use help, atleast the top foot or so could be rebuilt. But I feel so, SO much better having an insulated double wall stainless steel liner now. Draft is awesome now.

Pick a chimney liner system (I liked the rigid instead of flexible) and start ordering pieces when you can.

 

[bholler]

$850 could have bought you a proper ss liner.... especially only at 15ft.

When I bought my house there was single wall stove pipe running up the clay lined masonry chimney. Not hanging either, the whole 22ft stack rested on an elbow sticking out of the hole in the chimney (where a thimble should be). I cleaned the thing basically weekly because the stove draft would vanish (wet chitty wood left by previous owners, and a chitty homemade sketchy stove that you could open hot-but when cold it could only be opened with a pry bar). By cleaned, I mean a grabbed it and smashed it around, up and down and all around while running the shop vac to catch the piles of creosote pouring down onto my arm. It was impossible to get on the roof in the wintertime, and the elbow was not detachable with the whole chimney falling down to the bottom where I wouldn't be able to get at it. Home inspectors are f@$%ing useless, and I was too dumb to know better.

It's a MIRACLE the house never burned down. You could feel the chimney upstairs was HOT, and the way it would just completely stop drafting was pretty incredible....



I ordered duravent ridgid duraliner off of ebay, knowing I couldn't install it until summer.
It was expensive and I HATE heights so pulling the entire 22ft of old, rusty, seems separating junk 'chimney' and throwing that off the roof sucked. The masonry itself I'm sure could use help, atleast the top foot or so could be rebuilt. But I feel so, SO much better having an insulated double wall stainless steel liner now. Draft is awesome now.

Pick a chimney liner system (I liked the rigid instead of flexible) and start ordering pieces when you can.

The original poster doesn't have a chimney to line. They have double wall stove pipe they are using as a chimney

 

[Seanbear]

Yeah, I have no real chimney, just pipes. I just figured that the SS pipes are just more for looks. know they are double wall, but mine is too, and looks dont concern me at all, saftey does for the most part. I have no use for a liner.

 

[bholler]

Yeah, I have no real chimney, just pipes. I just figured that the SS pipes are just more for looks. know they are double wall, but mine is too, and looks dont concern me at all, saftey does for the most part. I have no use for a liner.

No the stainless chimney is insulated and designed for use outside. Yours simply has air space and is only designed for use connecting between a stove and a chimney. It will also most likely rust and need replaced in a couple years after being used outside meaning you wasted the money spent on the wrong pipe

 

[Seanbear]

I would rather replace it every 2 or 3 years, but thats just me. It dont get any cleaner than new, lol....Why use SS pipe inside then? I see it a lot on here. My pipe is on the back of my house, which gets the least amount of rain and wind, I know it wont help, but its something. Thanks for the input!

 

[GrumpyDad]

If you have a magnetic thermometer on a double wall stove pipe reading 550, then you are in chimney fire territory inside....

My 'burn off' happened , as best as I can tell, around 350 degrees at the first elbow which is about 6' above the stove and 250 lower down, if I trust my laser thermometer. It was immediately after I heard the crackle then saw the puff out of the joints. After a few WTF moments, and telling my fam to stand back and grabbing the fire extinguisher. So MAYBE it was 1 min after all of that started. At 500 degrees, WOH I cant imagine my outside walls of my dbl pipe getting that hot! I jumped on the ladder and touch the pipe at the very top where it meets the chimney box and it was damn hot too. The ceiling support box was only warm, and the surround wood that holds the ceiling support box was 90 degrees. It was nighttime out so I only went outside to see if I saw flames/sparks shooting out. Nothing. So while some may call that a creosote burn off, I never want to get there. I imagine if people have their stoves turn up high blazing, flames are going to make their way up the pipe and increase the temps rapidly. Well that's exaclty what I did by cranking it up and leaving the top door open to watch the massive walls of flames WHOOSH up into the stove pipe. (it can handle it) I thought. It's double wall!

I think like me, OP has more research to do. It sounds like that stove was not meant to blaze too hot. And if the double wall stove pipe is getting that hot, maybe that's ok but for me it wasnt. I honestly wouldnt feel comfortable allowing it to get that hot.

 

[Todd]

Take a look at Craig’s list or Facebook marketplace for used chimney pipe. I’ve seen some pretty good deals for cheap.

 

[bholler]

I would rather replace it every 2 or 3 years, but thats just me. It dont get any cleaner than new, lol....Why use SS pipe inside then? I see it a lot on here. My pipe is on the back of my house, which gets the least amount of rain and wind, I know it wont help, but its something. Thanks for the input!

Why would you rather waste all that money throwing out double wall connector pipe every couple years when you could just do. It once with the correct pipe and be done for 30+ years? Class a chimney needs to be used once you hit a wall or ceiling.

 

[GrumpyDad]

I would rather replace it every 2 or 3 years, but thats just me. It dont get any cleaner than new, lol....Why use SS pipe inside then? I see it a lot on here. My pipe is on the back of my house, which gets the least amount of rain and wind, I know it wont help, but its something. Thanks for the input!

In my area, the fire marshall will put tape in front of your door and get a code enforcement officer to warn you of your violation, then they will start to harass your mortgage lender and insurance company. No joke. (that's where I live now, not where my cabin is).
It wasnt too long ago that a wood burning craze hit my area. MANY people had ELECTRIC furnaces and they are extremely expensive to run in old houses that were poorly or no insulation in an area that gets cold cold cold.

Alas there were so many fires, they drew up new restrictions quickly and are enforcing them diligently. Some would even suggest, nazi like.

There are still many people that have a thin galvanized pipe running out from their not connected garages in the back of their house near some woods, and no one is the wiser.

But new installs get noticed quickly, and the neighbors are nosey and will call the code office asking if the work is being permitted as many of these houses are only 10' apart from one another.

You are supposed to have black stove pipe, that leads to your ceiling, then some method of penetrating your ceiling via a ceiling support box, and if you go into an attic at that point, you are supposed to use the class a chimney pipe work to run through the chimney and then the SS chimney through a roof with flashing and a storm collar. If through the wall there is a similar setup but always outside, stainless insulated. There are clearances to things that can catch fire (combustibles) that must be adhered to or else you will burn your place down.

If safety is what you want, you should detail your installation 100% with pictures, post them on here and listen to Bholler or Begreen and many of the other pros on here. They know their stuff WAY better than 95% of the dealers, sweeps, installers that are out there.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Some chimneys can be a real challenge.
View attachment 301445

This is what my grandfather did for a living. He worked for the various mills up and down the rivers in Pittsburgh.

 

[bholler]

I would rather replace it every 2 or 3 years, but thats just me. It dont get any cleaner than new, lol....Why use SS pipe inside then? I see it a lot on here. My pipe is on the back of my house, which gets the least amount of rain and wind, I know it wont help, but its something. Thanks for the input!

You have already spent the money last year on a single wall pipe "chimney" this year spent $300 on the wrong pipe for a double wall "chimney" and will have to spend that again in another couple years. If you just put in the right setup to start with you could have done it for the same money and not had the safety risks.

 

[Seanbear]

Another question kinda......I can see why you shouldnt use my pipes to go thru the ceiling or the attic, but mine is outside, goes thru fireboard to get outside, the up about 15 foot. The fire board gets warm, but nowhere close to hot. At the top I have a T for a cap....i can put my hand about 2 inches from the ends, and its pretty warm air, but not hot at all. So....why would they make a telescoping piece, if its only to connect to a chimney? Just curious.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Another question kinda......I can see why you shouldnt use my pipes to go thru the ceiling or the attic, but mine is outside, goes thru fireboard to get outside, the up about 15 foot. The fire board gets warm, but nowhere close to hot. At the top I have a T for a cap....i can put my hand about 2 inches from the ends, and its pretty warm air, but not hot at all. So....why would they make a telescoping piece, if its only to connect to a chimney? Just curious.

I dont know what fireboard is. Ive never heard of it sorry, but I imagine you are talking about potentially something that is like cement board?
Having a T at the top for a cap obviously (hopefully obvious) would never be something any inspector, code enforcement or insurance adjuster would consider ok. The first and most obvious risk would be for animals to get in there, blocking your flue gases from escaping.

I hope you have a carbon monoxide detector near you.

Your setup may work very well, for a very long time. Quite often, non standard setups for anything, people dont realize a point of failure until it happens then it seems so obvious to them. I think if you put 3 experts from these forums at your place to inspect, they likely would each miss one thing wrong with the setup (and it sounds like you have many).

I would seriously consider taking pictures and then follow on pictures when asked for, to understand your setup and what you should do vs what you are doing now.

No one here will advise you that it is wise to run the way you are. I think (and have learned) there are enough dangers already with a properly installed, drafted stove. Throw in more risks and well, your risk for a catastrophic event goes up exponentially I would imagine.

To answer your question about the telescopic pipe. It is used to connect the stove to the ceiling support much easier. That's all. In my setup, I have a 45 deg elbow going from the ceiling support box, then a telescopic pipe running at an angle then another elbow pointed down toward my stove. I adjusted the telescopic pipe so that the second lower elbow was directly in line with the flue collar on the stove. I then used a 24" piece of stove pipe from my stove (on top of a stove adapter which takes you from your stoves flue collar to teh type of pipe you are using) then I used another telescopic pipe from there to the bottom elbow so that it would all mate up nicely. Then I screwed everything together after ensuring it was level and plumb. If I have to remove all of this, I would 'simply' unscrew the pieces and slide the pipe together more closely to clean, move the stove, swap out the stove for another. Im set, I wont need to buy different pipe and can put it together rather easily, with some sweat and swearing.

 

[bholler]

Another question kinda......I can see why you shouldnt use my pipes to go thru the ceiling or the attic, but mine is outside, goes thru fireboard to get outside, the up about 15 foot. The fire board gets warm, but nowhere close to hot. At the top I have a T for a cap....i can put my hand about 2 inches from the ends, and its pretty warm air, but not hot at all. So....why would they make a telescoping piece, if its only to connect to a chimney? Just curious.

They make a telescoping section so you can make it fit between the stove and the chimney.

 

[Roundgunner]

I spent most of my young life pretty poor and making due with what I could get cheap. It turned me into a jack of all trades. If you know someone with a mig welder and some time you can do a pretty good copy of a overnighter type stove and put in firebrick for a couple hundred in materials. A good summer project for next year.

I have 2-3" pieces of 8" insulated chimney you can have. I drive thru PA a couple times a year, how far off I-80 are you? Maybe some others on the forum can give you some extra they have.