New Ponderosa Stove a big learning curve I need help

[rmlowz]

Hello Forum Friends

The new ponderosa is giving me fits, I have 7 feet of 6 inch single wall flu pipe going into 6 feet of 8 inch triple wall Duranvent (through the roof). I have a us stove heat reclaimer 18 inches up from the stove installed in the flu pipe.. The wood will only burn if I leave the door open. The stove is in a 24x40 insulated pole barn.

Looking in the owners manual it states a minimum of 15 feet of chimney I have two 36 inch sections of triple 8 inch left. Do you think I should install another section to give me a total of 16 feet of chimney for my draft problem. I open the door of the barn and even put a fan blowing into the hole where you could install outside air vent that did not help? I had the stove inspected for insurance puposes the chimney is above the peek and passes all codes.I guess I don't know what I am doing, I am burning the very dry green compressed logs that you buy in the store 4 at a time. I can not find any seasoned wood here locally. Sorry for the rambling, If somebody lives close to Clarksville TN I will pay someone to come out and figure out my problem.
Thanks forum fiends,
rmlowz

 

[mellow]

Get that damn heat reclaimer off the pipe! No need for them on EPA stoves, does more harm than good.

Now, you are dumping 6" into 8" pipe which will hurt your draft, I would add more pipe to see if that helps improve things. It would help to switch the 6" singlewall to doublewall as well.

 

[begreen]

The heat reclaimer and 8" pipe are spoiling draft. In the very least remove the heat reclaimer. mellow is exactly right, it has no place in an EPA stove installation. You want to let the stove do the heating and keep the flue warm enough to draft well and not build up creosote.

 

[Owen1508]

The heat reclaimer and 8" pipe are spoiling draft. In the very least remove the heat reclaimer. mellow is exactly right, it has no place in an EPA stove installation. You want to let the stove do the heating and keep the flue warm enough to draft well and not build up creosote.

X2 although you stated it passes all codes, it does not the flue collar size (6") must be maintained all the way through to the end of the venting system, it does not. Also above is 100% right get that reclaimer off. Get the class A to 6" and the proper total length of 15'. 2' higher then anything within a 10 foot radius (around) the chimney, with a 3 foot min from penetration of the roof.

 

[rmlowz]

Thanks for all the replies, This forum is great. Taking the heat reclaimer off is no problem. I will do that, but the stove did the same thing before I installed the heat reclaimer. Vogelzang customer service said it will help with more heat distribution is the only reason I bought it. I will try and find a company to install another section of the triple wall Duravent. I hope this helps. The old stove I had was an 8 inch that is why I was trying to use the 8 inch instead of repairing the roof and buying all the 6 inch triple wall through the roof stuff. I might have to do this. The guy that installed the stove went to Florida for the winter. The inspector guy supposedly (certified LOL) that signed off on it for State Farm must be an imposter? I know this idea will not pass code for sure but, what if I had single wall 6 inch go all the way up through the triple wall 8 inch to the top of the pipe just below the chimney cap. This is a workshop- sports tv watching man cave. I fire the stove up 2 to 3 times a week in the winter.
Thanks for your help,
rmlowz

 

[TheRambler]

You can run 6 inch inside the 8. Nothing wrong with that. Its not very common, but nothing wrong with it.

 

[SteveKG]

I haven't used your particular stove, but there are some problems/solutions due to common set-ups with pipe and etc. which are nearly universal. As others have said, transitioning from one size pipe to another can be less efficient, but I have seen it work for many people. I would hold off on the hassle and $$$ to change to 6" pipe unless absolutely nothing else helps.

I probably don't need to repeat the get-rid-of-the-heat-reclaimer. They became popular for a little while, starting back in the 70s if memory serves, and by a decade later were being given away. They sound great, common-sense idea to retain more heat. One problem is physics: you have to "sacrifice" some heat for the system to work correctly. With our modern EPA/catalytic stoves, one gains and retains much more heat from the stove itself than one ever saved by using the stovepipe reclaimers. [By the way, there is another problem with the reclaimers, which is, or can be, creosote condensation.]

Not being there to fool with your stove, my first suggestion is to go ahead and extend that chimney pipe. Right away. It is possible that, the reclaimer notwithstanding, your individual set-up needs more draft, and the only way you are gonna get more draft is with a taller chimney run. I installed a new stove a few years ago and hooked up to the 16-foot run of pipe which had worked beautifully for my previous stove. The new stove was designed to be more efficient and air-tight. I had to add seven or eight additional feet of pipe, don't recall exactly, but that did the trick. Every stove and every stove environment is different and can, sometimes, take some fiddling to get right.

 

[mellow]

Wow, I knew Vogelzang was a horrible company but them recommending the heat reclaimer to be used on their EPA stove just set a new low.

 

[jeff_t]

The manual says minimum of 6", maximum of 10". The 8" chimney is perfectly acceptable, just maybe not ideal.

 

[jeff_t]

Wow, I knew Vogelzang was a horrible company but them recommending the heat reclaimer to be used on their EPA stove just set a new low.

Why shouldn't they recommend their own product?

http://vogelzang.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=102_68&product_id=136

 

[mellow]

I was aware it was their own product, the magic heat rebadged.

About as stupid as telling people to ground their stove to the hearth pad that isn't metal.

 

[jeff_t]

It would probably be ideal on one of their boxwood stoves.

 

[Owen1508]

Thanks for all the replies, This forum is great. Taking the heat reclaimer off is no problem. I will do that, but the stove did the same thing before I installed the heat reclaimer. Vogelzang customer service said it will help with more heat distribution is the only reason I bought it.

Who at Vogelzang did you speak with...curious

 

[bholler]

Are you a vogelizang rep Owen?

 

[bholler]

Even more embarrassing
I'm the NFI instructor at USSC. Now a Reclaimer can work on an EPA stove, but I would recommend it not to go on. Our techs were taught that. They should of at least warned you that your draft will suffer from it

I was just wondering i was going to groan about a vogelizang stove we just did an inspection on but never mind lol

 

[Wood Duck]

I would add more stove pipe, and also find some dry wood and try a few fires with it. If you can't buy seasoned firewood in bulk, maybe get some cull lumber from Home Depot and add it to your compressed sawdust bricks. I haven't tried those sawdust bricks, but I bet 2x4s burn a lot better.

 

[jeff_t]

I have used the Eco Bricks from TSC, and found them to be not that easy to get burning. Are you using kindling as well, or trying to get just the bricks to burn? Maybe try getting the stove and pipe warmed up, and establish some coals with some kindling first? Scrap dimensional lumber would be great for this, if you don't use too much.

Do you get smoke out of the door when you open it?

 

[rmlowz]

I do not remember the ladies name at Vogelzang, I will add more pipe asap we just had two inches of snow here. I need to find someone when there is a nice day ahead, I am actually using the TSC bricks. They are building like crazy here, I will go to the new subdivisions and get lumber (untreated). My friend actually told me this today, he uses this for kindling. He said just ask them (the builders) and they don't care what you take out of the scrap pile. The door needs to be left open so the fire stays lit and there is no smoke coming out of the door. I hope I answered all the questions. I have almost abandon this project till the weather gets right to get back on the roof. March is nice here and not really wood stove weather. I am hoping to get it right for next season.
Thanks,
rmlowz