Outside masonary insulated chimney size

[cbshtr]

In the last two weeks I've been seeking advice about how to get more heat out of my Napoleon 1400 PL in my uninsulated basement. After seeing the responces I've come to realize the difficulty in getting this setup to work efficiently. A stove on the main floor is out of the question. Just ask my wife. An outside uninsulted lined chimney is leaving me with a 3" or more coal bed that is hard to burn up. My thoughts turned to installing a 5" insulated liner which would possibly help keep flue temperatures up. A 6" insulated pipe will not fit in my 7" square flue. I contacted Napoleon and they said the stove would work going up or down an inch from the stove outlet size as long as it is legal in my area. I talked to my building inspector and he said it was but he thought I would be better off pouring the loose insulation between the flue and my 6" liner. This will not allow for much insulation ( less than one bag for 16" of chimney). A couple responces to my last posting said they were successful going with a smaller liner although I'm unfamiliar with their stoves or setups. My setup is the stove is in a uninsulated, partially finished basement. My pipe rises 3' then goes horizontal for about 3' and then up 20'. Any suggestions which would be my best setup? I really don't want to pour anything in my chimney if it is going to harden, making liner removal (if ever neccesary} difficult. Thanks

 

[cgeiger]

cbshtr - Noticed you handn't received any feedback so givin' ya a bump.

There's a lot in here to consider and you've provided a bunch of detail. Nevertheless, a question - what kind of stovetop temps are you getting out of your napoleon? It sounds as though you're indicating a draft problem (wanting to insulate, step up/down, etc.) but we should be sure you're not already getting a good burn.

Next question - do you really have a 3' level horizontal section of pipe or is that section actually angled?

 

[cbshtr]

The pipe rises about 2" in the 3' horizontal span. As far a stove top temps I can get up to 550 to 600 degrees but that is only when the stove is packed out with 2 to 3 inch splits. It is hard getting it up to those temps with bigger pieces. It will only burn that hot for an hour or so then it goes down to 300 or less and leaves me with a large coal pile. With the temps down this low there isn't a whole lot of room to get more wood in. That is why I was thinking that if the smaller chimney would give me a better draft then my temperatures would stay up longer and the coals would burn up better. To say the least we are disappointed with this stove. I was getting more heat with half the amount of wood from the cheapy stove from Lowes that I already regretably sold. Any suggestions?

 

[begreen]

The stove is a good one, but the flue is half of the wood burning system. A great stove on a so-so flue will only perform, well, so-so.

How dry is the wood you are burning? Partially seasoned wood will also coal up a lot.

 

[cbshtr]

Most of the wood I am burning was from either dead or downed trees from 8 to 10 months ago. I let the wood exposed until the middle of September and then I cover with tarps. I just read recently to not cover all the way down to the ground which I was doing. I'm now trying to see if only partially covering the wood helps it stay dry better. We have had a pretty wet winter and some of the wood got soaked and never fully dried out before I had to burn it. My confusion is that I'm doing the same practice I did when I was using the small stove from Lowes and that stove didn't give me half the grief this one does.