Newbie Pellet Stove Installation Questions

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afranch

Member
Nov 18, 2010
5
Western NC
Hello I'm a new poster and pellet stove owner (Harmon Accentra) working on my install. I have some questions I am hoping the forum can help me with. First I will describe the installation:

The stove is being vented through an existing 8" terracotta thimble into an old masonry chimney. The thimble is about 5.5 ft off the ground. There is no opportunity to have a clean out T inside the chimney (the thimble is sort of like a macaroni elbow). I already have 3" Pellet Vent Pro to use inside the room. This will transition into a 4" flexible liner inside the chimney. The liner has a run of approximately 27'. The liner is not a DuraVent product.

Sequence of parts I plan to install from the stove: (1) cleanout T inside the room (2) 6" straight piece (3) 48" adjustable piece to telescope onto the 6" piece (4) 90 deg elbow (5) increaser to 4" (6) adapter to connect to hard pipe to flexible liner.

Where I am right now:

I've run the flexible liner from the chimney cap to the room, attached the adapter, the increaser and the elbow, then pulled them from above, such that the elbow is half sticking into the thimble. I have a 9" diam circular thimble cover, which is basically a flat disc of metal with a 3" inner hole hole. The cover will screw into the masonry via tap-con screws.

My questions are:

(1) The 48" adjustable straight length, which telescopes onto the smaller length has a torn o-ring. The pipe seems to fit securely without it and my thought had been I could caulk the joint. However, upon discovering this forum it seems everything in the room needs to be absolutely airtight. Does anyone know if it is possible to get a new o-ring and repair the adjustable length? Or is it possible to use the adjustable length without the o-ring and caulk the joint?

(2) The terracotta pipe that creates the thimble sticks into the room 1". The pipe is cracked such that the suface of the rim that sticks into the room is not a single flush surface; Some portions of the cracked pipe have pushed into the room a little further than others. The net effect is it will be hard to get a nice tight seat with the black thimble cover described above. My concern is that it appears the connection to the adjustable liner is less airtight than connections between the duravent members, so if the thimble cover does not seat airtight gasses will flow back into the room. Is this something to be concerned about. Any ideas for how to get a nice tight seat on that uneven surface? It would be hard to even get a caulk gun in there because it's so close to the wall.

(3) Cleaning. There is only a short horizontal run between the liner and the 90 deg. elbow (the liner also has a 90 deg. bend), and actually I've installed it so it has a bit of a slope to it. Will the T inside the room be sufficient for cleaning, or should I plan to have to get behind the wall? My thought is I could disassemble the stove pipe inside the room if needed and use some kind of tool to reach in the elbow and clean the 2' or so of horizonal run that is in the wall.

All thoughts and comments welcome.

FWIW, there is no good opportunity to pull air from outside to feed the stove as the chimney is in the very center of the home. It's an old house, so it's not super tight, and it's in a basement whose only regular use is my office (and also guest bedrooms/guest bath). My thought is it will draw like crazy since it's such a long length and it is 4" for most of the vents total run.

Thanks!

Andy
 
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