My beautiful flue pipe

[chiefburritt]

After having to replace several sections of 24 gauge black stove pipe, 8", I sized and ordered stainlees steel piping from a local metal shop. What a difference. Not wanting to have some lightweight overpriced manufactured stuff, I went with 16 gauge welded stainless. Only one joint in the middle between two t's. No more rust, soft spots or putting my fingers through the pipe after only 2 months in service. Kudos to the local shop they do top quality world class manufacturing. Eric would know them. Anyone else gone with custom welded pipe?

 

[stee6043]

My only concern with "custom built" pipe would be the lack of UL certification. The SS pipe you purchase from dealers will have a UL approval on it. For those who are concerned with code and/or insurance this can be very important...

 

[chiefburritt]

In the past 15 years of being involved in Emergency Services I have seen plenty of "UL" approved or stamped appliances, devices, what have you, fail and cause considerable damage and death. The UL approved pipe that failed in two months of service does not impress me, so I made it better....

 

[pybyr]

Wow- both as to your super new pipe and the revelation that normal pipe rotted out so fast!

To what do you attribute the failure of your original black flue pipe- condensation?

My old hot air wood furnace went for 10 years with the original 26 gauge galvanized pipe the then-installers used

I used 24 gauge galvanized for the flue pipe for my new econoburn install. I know that some say that galvanized is a no-no on flue pipe, but my stack temps stay low enough I am not going to worry about zinc fumes, and no one locally carries 8" black except the woodstove shops which charge an insane premium.

Can I ask the ball-park cost per ft of stainless from the shop you dealt with? And what did you do for fittings?

 

[stee6043]

In the past 15 years of being involved in Emergency Services I have seen plenty of "UL" approved or stamped appliances, devices, what have you, fail and cause considerable damage and death. The UL approved pipe that failed in two months of service does not impress me, so I made it better....

I certainly was not trying to say UL means you're getting a better product. I'm just saying that if you were to have a fire with your custom built pipe your insurance guy would have a field day. In my opinion...

 

[chiefburritt]

Wow- both as to your super new pipe and the revelation that normal pipe rotted out so fast!

To what do you attribute the failure of your original black flue pipe- condensation?

My old hot air wood furnace went for 10 years with the original 26 gauge galvanized pipe the then-installers used

I used 24 gauge galvanized for the flue pipe for my new econoburn install. I know that some say that galvanized is a no-no on flue pipe, but my stack temps stay low enough I am not going to worry about zinc fumes, and no one locally carries 8" black except the woodstove shops which charge an insane premium.

Can I ask the ball-park cost per ft of stainless from the shop you dealt with? And what did you do for fittings?

Yes... condensation was a big factor.. My stack temps run around 250 on this gasifier and the pipe only lasted 2 months. I've never seen pipe split before down the seam but it did. Althought the black pipe wasn't too expensive it was the worrying and constant checking that got me, and it wasn't just one piece. It was every 2' piece and t's. Ballpark was 30 a linear foot including the welded t's, caps and hangers. Yes pricey but piece of mind. BTW.... I priced 26 gauge stainless steel snap together sections, single wall from a local wharehouse and it ran 69 for 3 foot sections. Hope that helps.

 

[chiefburritt]

In the past 15 years of being involved in Emergency Services I have seen plenty of "UL" approved or stamped appliances, devices, what have you, fail and cause considerable damage and death. The UL approved pipe that failed in two months of service does not impress me, so I made it better....

I certainly was not trying to say UL means you're getting a better product. I'm just saying that if you were to have a fire with your custom built pipe your insurance guy would have a field day. In my opinion...

I understand, but I figured if the UL stuff failed so quickly why not engineer something myself that is definately over built.... With my stack temps being so low and no creosote due to the gasifier I figured I really couldn't go wrong... I spec'd it with two inspection caps for monthly maintenance and cleaning. I have never liked the commercially available stuff any ways it always seemed so cheap and too many seams or joints in it. Four years ago I installed a class a, all fuel chimney through two floors. Snap together construction on heating system just doesn't seem right.

On another note I recently went to a chimney fire where the masonary blocks and flue were literally cracked open a half an inch for four tiers up, but the custom made 8" 18 gauge copper flue from the wood stove to the chimney was untouched. That was impressive.. and expensive as the whole chimney had to come down through the log cabin.

 

[pybyr]

Anyone else encounter flue- pipe failure by corrosion with a gasifier?

I am wondering if this is specific to Dry Steam's install situation or whether it is something that others have seen, too?

I am certainly going to check my flue pipe even more often after reading Dry Steam's experiences- I do not want to encounter a flue pipe with a hole in it and fire coming out.

I almost went with stainless from the get-go, but then talked myself out of it, figuring that overkill is not always needed...