Stainless pipe - worth it?

[bcinva]

Wondering if the stainless insulated pipe is worthwhile or is the regular ok or how soon would the regular rust out . Salesman doesn't think the stainless is necesssary. Whats your take? I have always had a masonry fireplace and flue liner in the past so i am a little leary of a wood chase and metal piping.
Thanks,
B

 

[Corie]

inside a wood chase the galvanized pipe will be fine

 

[bcinva]

Thanks for the info...its good to hear reinforcing opinions.

 

[Corie]

Sorry, didn't have a chance to type that out this morning. The galvanized exterior insulated pipe will be fine inside the chase, but make sure you switch to stainless steel once the chimney leaves the chase and is exposed to the environment.

 

[jtp10181]

All of our wood pipe is double wall, all is stainless for inner flue and for the outer one is galvanized and one is stainless. Both are used for the entire chimney (inside the house and outside), depending on which unit it is.

 

[Corie]

From how I understand things jtp, the galvanized is only meant to be used within the building envelope. I don't think its a violation of code to install it outside the building structure, but more a concern of long term corrosion.

 

[jtp10181]

All our wood products, HHT stuff (Quad, Heat & Glo, Heatilator), use SL300 or SL1100 series venting. Its only avliable in the galvanized outer shell I am pretty sure. I know it only has one style, and you are supposed to run it all the way up. The outer shell looks like galvanized. The caps also are not shiny like SS metal. I think the caps are galvanized also.

Also, all our gas venting (direct vent) is SS inner and galvanized outer. Which also can be outside. Never seen it rust since the really old stuff that was used in the 80's.

 

[Corie]

Ahh gotcha, yeah I guess that's a different story than jtp.


When you read, say, the selkirk chimney manual or the metalfab manual, they generally say that you may use galvanized inside, but you should use the stainless on the outside.

 

[titan]

Personally,I'll stick to using stainless pipe outside.I know that a well galvanized piece should not rust,but I've yet to see anything with enough zinc on it to last as long as stainless.

 

[scotty]

I must have tried a different stove pipe system every year for a decade back when we first moved to the high mountains. All of them worked - some better than others - but I never could cure the creosote buildup while burning pine at a smolder. In fact several designs made creosote really bad. Finally I bit the bullet and changed to an insulated stainless chimney - the type now known as Duratech/ Duravent by Simpson. That was in 1976; the pipe cost about $700 which was lots of money back then but we had to have it as we heat 100% with wood from our land. The pipe was and is a tremendous improvement. Thirty years later it's still as good as new and creosote hasn't been seen since we installed it. It isn't perfect....requires lots of brushing the soot out, but since we burn pine and let it smolder overnight on cool evenings that's to be expected. Even so, Simpson's "cleanout T" makes cleaning the pipe much easier.

I'd go for the insulated SS.
Scotty

 

[DiscoInferno]

The original (1981) chase cap on my house was galvanized, and was completely corroded through. Water had been leaking into the chase for years before I had it repaired and recapped this year (with more galvanized). But, it had become somewhat concave and allowed standing water, which a chimney presumably wouldn't.

 

[jtp10181]

I must have tried a different stove pipe system every year for a decade back when we first moved to the high mountains. All of them worked - some better than others - but I never could cure the creosote buildup while burning pine at a smolder. In fact several designs made creosote really bad. Finally I bit the bullet and changed to an insulated stainless chimney - the type now known as Duratech/ Duravent by Simpson. That was in 1976; the pipe cost about $700 which was lots of money back then but we had to have it as we heat 100% with wood from our land. The pipe was and is a tremendous improvement. Thirty years later it's still as good as new and creosote hasn't been seen since we installed it. It isn't perfect....requires lots of brushing the soot out, but since we burn pine and let it smolder overnight on cool evenings that's to be expected. Even so, Simpson's "cleanout T" makes cleaning the pipe much easier.

I'd go for the insulated SS.
Scotty

The insulated Simpson pipe he speaks of is called "DuraPlus", and yes, it is expensive.

 

[Metal]

S.S. casings are not necessary for wood burning, but would last longer in corrosive locales (i.e. near the ocean).

Metal-Fab states in their brochures:

"Application Reminder: For oil or coal burning appliances, use only pipe with S.S. casing and S.S. or Aluminum accessory components outside the envelope of the building."

 

[scotty]

The insulated Simpson pipe he speaks of is called "DuraPlus", and yes, it is expensive.

Uh...I guess I didn't describe the pipe adequately. The pipe that I've used for 30 years and still like is the Simpson double wall Dura-Tech with the sealed-up ends and the powdery insulation between the walls. You can get it in either a galvanized or SS outer skin. I sure agree on the expensive part. Worth it in my opinion. Locally, prices ranged from $2000 to $3000 for enough parts to make an approved installation. That buys the piping system plus a variable amount of design support but no installation help. I designed and installed the system myself...but have to emphasize that I have experience with stove pipe systems. It's not rocket science to design a system. You can do it right the first time if you don't mind ending up with some extra parts. The pipe came from www.hearthsidedistributors.com and cost just under $1000.
Scotty

 

[jtp10181]

Duratech pipe is air insulated, Duraplus has white insulation in it. That I was I said you must have DuraPlus pipe.