Want to relight an old stove

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Leongnirps

New Member
Dec 29, 2017
2
Bruce, MI
Hi all, so we just bought a house and moved in. The house we have was built in the late 1800s revamped in the late 70s

It has an old "conestoga" wood stove in one of the front rooms, the previous owners had it running for awhile then they said their insurance wouldnt cover it anymore.
They stated due to the chimney size, which the hole is an 8" round. Which went through the roof above
They sold the actual chimney and connections and covered the hole up.

So my question is being in michigan is there a rule applying to how big the chimney diameter is for a woodstove?
Also is there a reducer i could get, should i go to tractor supply and get a through the wall kit or should i go out the roof again

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Noel
 
They still sell stoves that require an 8" chimney. I'm thinking you only have half of the story.
 
I suppose the first thing to look at, is if the stove is safe to burn. This applies to the physical stove, hearth design, and distance from the walls. Even the height required of the chimney will vary between stoves. If not, or you choose not to run that stove, you have an awful lot of options. Stoves have come a long way in performance and efficiency since your stove was built.

6" is the most common chimney size and straight up through the roof will offer best performance.
 
I agree w/ EAL, there's no reason that an insurance company would cover an install w/ 6" inch chimney but not an 8". Most likely they wanted more money, didn't want to cover stoves at all or (maybe most likely) it was installed improperly w/o observing proper clearances.

Does it have a UL tag or better yet do you have the manual so you can determine clearances? It may be that you'd be better off getting a new unit w/ 6" chimney than installing an 8" to run an old unit.
 
We think they sold the chimney and the pipes for scrap, we have found out the previous owners are pretty untrustworthy.

I have no manual, and i dont see a ul tag, ill check again.

The proper clearances might have to be double checked.
 
It might be that it has no UL listing so the insurance said no go.
 
So you are saying the hole were the pipe use to go is only 8 inches, if that is the case I could see why the insurance company would reject that, even a thimble for a 6 inch pipe is going to be a lot greater then 8 inches. But in the late 1800's there were no codes I bet, and there is a reason so many of those houses burned down. I bet it was the flue the insurance company rejected not the stove, assuming that is even true.
 
Most insurance companies in our area require a UL listing or owners manual and if their is not one then it reverts back to 3’ clearance on all sides.
 
Newer stoves ofen have clearances on the sides and back around 8". Of course, check the tag on the stove! Often, it becomes the single wall stove pipe that needs a greater clearance than the stove.
 
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