Last month we had Lopi Republic 1250 installed in the furnished basement, and so far it is working great. It lights fast with a handful of kindling and about 1/8 of a Super Cedar firestarter, I get great secondary burn and a nice show, and it puts out pretty nice heat for a small stove. The room is only about 500 sq. ft., so the stove seems the right size for the space. We do get some heat upstairs, but there is no way a wood stove down there would adequately heat the whole upstairs without some more advanced air circulation than we currently have. We had a 100,000+ BTU/hr coal stove there when we moved in, and that didn't heat the house either. The house isn't big or poorly insulated, just the wrong floor plan or stove placement. The wood stove had to be installed where the flue is, so it is in the same poor location as the coal stove was.
I am still learning the stove, and probably burning way more wood than necesssary. My current challenge is too much coals building up, but I'll work through it. For now I remove a fair bit of charcoal with the ash. I have been sifting the ash into the woods and putting the charcoal in the garden as a soil builder.
My question is about flue installation. We had the local stove shop install the stove an outside air kit required by local code. There is about 6 feet of new metal stove pipe coming out the top of the stove, making a 90 degree turn, and connecting to the previously existing metal stub emerging from the wall where it connects to the previously existing flue. The new pipe does not have a gasket or caulk at the pipe/stove connection nor between pipe sections. The first couple of times my wife and kids tried to light the stove (I wasn't home the first week with the new stove), I guess they didn't use enough kindling, got a slow, smoky start, and a little smoke leaked out between the pipe and the stove, and between pipe sections. My wife called the stove shop and was told they simply screwed the pipe sections together without gaskets or caulk, and that this was standard procedure. Since the first few times, we have had much better starts without smoke leaking, and the stove seems to run great.
My questions: Is it standard procedure to NOT use caulk between stove pipe sections? What potential problems would this cause? I plan to check to see if air is leaking into the pipe while we are burning, but haven't yet.
I am still learning the stove, and probably burning way more wood than necesssary. My current challenge is too much coals building up, but I'll work through it. For now I remove a fair bit of charcoal with the ash. I have been sifting the ash into the woods and putting the charcoal in the garden as a soil builder.
My question is about flue installation. We had the local stove shop install the stove an outside air kit required by local code. There is about 6 feet of new metal stove pipe coming out the top of the stove, making a 90 degree turn, and connecting to the previously existing metal stub emerging from the wall where it connects to the previously existing flue. The new pipe does not have a gasket or caulk at the pipe/stove connection nor between pipe sections. The first couple of times my wife and kids tried to light the stove (I wasn't home the first week with the new stove), I guess they didn't use enough kindling, got a slow, smoky start, and a little smoke leaked out between the pipe and the stove, and between pipe sections. My wife called the stove shop and was told they simply screwed the pipe sections together without gaskets or caulk, and that this was standard procedure. Since the first few times, we have had much better starts without smoke leaking, and the stove seems to run great.
My questions: Is it standard procedure to NOT use caulk between stove pipe sections? What potential problems would this cause? I plan to check to see if air is leaking into the pipe while we are burning, but haven't yet.
