Pellet stove using existing zero clerance chimney

[kevinl]

Hello. First of all, this is a very informative forum. It was one of my best resources when I was deciding which pellet stove to purchase. I ultimately decided upon an Enviro Omega. This will be installed in a finished basement. Now to my question.

When I originally built the house, I had planned to put a zero clearance wood burning fireplace in the basement, so the alcove for the fireplace has an 8" metal chimney pipe in place already. I went to a local fireplace shop, and was adviced that I would need to run a 4" pellet stove pipe up through the 8" pipe at a cost of $2000 (this is about a 20' run from the basement, but that still sounds excessive). I then asked them about the frsh air intake and was told they are not necessary. So, I'm not sure I'm getting very good advice there. I definitely plan to install a 3" intake, running basically stright out the wall (I should add that this is a walkout basement, so that is fairly easy). My question is, is there any reason I need to run the 4"exhaust straight out the wall, when there is a 8" chimney running straight up? I know Duravent makes a 4" to 8" adapter. Has anyone else done this? Did you have adequate draft? Is there any other reason going straight out the wall would be adviseable over going up the existing chmney with the adapter? Thanks for any advice you can offer.

Kevin

 

[Fish On]

Hi Kevin and welcome to the forum!

You would be better to run up instead of out, it will give you a better draft and your stove will run better. And you can put the 4 into the 8 pipe. I'm not sure about the adapter though, might save you some money doing it that way?

Good luck and show us pictures!

 

[m159267]

Sounds exactly like my situation. Planned on a zero-clearence FP in a walk-out basement. Had an 8" metal chimney pipe in place (20-25'). Instead of a FP we installed a Harman P38. Vented the OAK straight out the back wall - total pipe length about 2'. Installer connected the 4" exhaust pipe to the 8" using a handcrafted sheet metal adapter. Did not run a pipe the length of the 8". Don't know if this is correct but it vents beautifully. Lost power recently while the stove was running and there wasn't a hint of smoke or any venting issue. Fire burned itself out without any problems.

 

[maglite67]

The stainless steel liner should be about $18 - $30 a foot. installed should be no more than $800 - $900 range.

 

[summit]

you are getting completely ***** at 2000 for a 4" liner install down any kind of class A chimney.... 20' class A for 2000 pipe and labor: liner installw/ pipe (25' roll and connectors w/ labor) 900 (or less, depending on connection pipe needed ), nice hearth pad 300, Tstat hookup w/ digital readout wireless unit and a couple tons of Okies delivered at the same time. I dunno where you live, and maybe if you live on Long Island, Manhattan, LA, Boston, then you could expect a whack like that... what kinda setup is ot? are you passing pipe thru walls? Also, an OAK can de devised using your existing setup without punching anymore holes... See a DV gas class A chim hookup, and just substitue with Direct temp pipe gas/ pellet pipe instead other DV pipe, and use a stainless liner w/ pellet vert top instead of the aluminum stuff.

 

[kevinl]

Thanks for the replies. It's good to hear that someone has had success with running a 4" pellet stove pipe into an 8" chimney. I figured the $2000 quote was way out of line. I live in Kansas, so, no, it should not be that expensive (point of reference, Rocky Mountain pellets are $214/ pallet).

Summit, you say I can get air without punching any more holes? Would that be drawing air down through the insulated layer (not sure of the right term, but the space between the 8" pipe and the 10" pipe). I'thought of that, but I was a little concerned because I will have a kitchen vent hood in the basement, so figured one dedicated path for the combustion air would be best. I am going through a 6" stud wall plus brick veneer, so total of about 10" wall. Thimbles are not that thick, correct?

Are there any issues with corrosion with a Class A chimney? That's about the only reason I see to drive me to use a liner. Thanks again for the help.

 

[summit]

no, air is drawn down the dead space between the 4" liner the inside wall of your chimney, like a giant direct vent pipe. what kind of class A pipe do you have there? Is it insulated or air cooled?

 

[summit]

http://www.selkirkcorp.com/Metalbest/Product.aspx?id=7428

 

[summit]

is there a tee on the other side of that wall? I thought you said it was for a fp?

 

[kevinl]

There's about a 1" dead air space between the two pipes. The back and one side of the alcove is concrete foundation, and the other side is 2x6 framed, brick veneered wall. Nothing on the other side (outside) of the wall.

 

[summit]

Got Pics?

 

[kevinl]

Here's the alcove.

 

[summit]

Looks like a pretty straight forward setup: You'll need the ss liner, the direct temp pellet cap, top conversion, bottom conversion, anout 6-7 ft of Dtemp pipe and a chimney conversion kit CCKA, as well as about a 24" section (or a 12" w/ an adustable) of regular PV pipe to come off the back of the stove to connect to the Dtemp tee assembly. the whole install should only take about 2 hrs... by my figures, w/ tax and higher priced pellets, the whole install (w the more expensive direct temp DV pipe that allows for the fresh air intake thru the chimney vs the single, less expensive exhaust only pipe) pipe and labor, ton of pellets and sales tax comes to 1799..... If you were using the exhaust only pipe (which it looks like they were planning on doing according to your post) pipe, labor, sales tax and 2 tons of Okies comes out to 1599... both of these figures are coming with some fuel (which according to you is 214/ton where you are at, but 285/ton up here) as well as all the install labor and tax w/ material vs their pipe and labor only scenario... beat them up a bit, they can do better.....