To use or not to use

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frenchbuck

New Member
Aug 4, 2008
1
Concord NH
I am getting conflicting advise from pellet stove dealers concerning whether I should use stove pipe to vent outside of the house. Some say this needs to be done to prevent smoke from being blown back into the house while others say it is OK just to vent through a wall direct without stove pipe. Can somebody please a be a tie breaker on this subject?
 
frenchbuck said:
I am getting conflicting advise from pellet stove dealers concerning whether I should use stove pipe to vent outside of the house. Some say this needs to be done to prevent smoke from being blown back into the house while others say it is OK just to vent through a wall direct without stove pipe. Can somebody please a be a tie breaker on this subject?

They're both correct. You can vent directl through a wall and it' OK to code as long as you maintain proper clearances to ground, windows, etc. If you want to ensure you don't get smoke back into the house during a power outage, you better have vertical rise on the install. Some people have said that they vent direct and don't have problems getting smoke back into the house during power loss, I'm not that brave -- bottom line, it's YOUR install and the person living with it is not going to be the installer, it's going to be you -- make sure you get what you want on the install.
 
Good advice. Direct venting with a short stub straight out the back may work, and it's cheap, but it is not ideal. It will soot up the side of the house and as noted, the smoke has nowhere to go in the event of a power outage.
 
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