Why are Chimney Caps Female?? !!

[theothersully]

I have a set of chimney pipes outside that is leaking creasote at an alarming rate.

It's leaking because I have my chimney pipes installed upside down.

I have them installed upside down because:

1) Chimney Cap is Female

2) First pipe under chimney cap has its male side pointing up, female side down to fit chimney cap

3) The rest of the pipes have their male sides up and female sides down

4) The final pipe that connects to my structure has its female side down because my flue collar/deck iron is male and needs a female pipe



My questions is... WHY??!?!?!

Why would a chimney cap be female?? I also don't understand why my deck iron (or flue collar) is male??

 

[Corey]

Ahh, another riddle to throw on the 'great mysteries of life' pile. I think it will have good company right beside "Why do hot dogs come in packages of 10 and buns come in packages of 8" and "Why are numbers on a calculator reversed from numbers on a phone"

Sorry I don't have a good answer besides the thought that you may need to throw in some gender-bending couplings to turn some of the females to male and vice versa.

 

[SlyFerret]

The flue collar on my stove is female. Everything fit together just fine, including the chimney cap. All the pipes are assembled so that any creosote runs down the inside and doesn't leak out.

I'm surprised to hear of this issue actually, cause mine would only work one way.

-SF

 

[jdemaris]

Why would a chimney cap be female?? I also don't understand why my deck iron (or flue collar) is male??

I don't get the problem. Round metal single-wall caps can easily be crimped with a hand-crimper and made into male, if desired.

As to caps for insulated, double or triple wall pipes? I've got three different brands here, and all have male ends. Never gave it much though eitherway, just the way then came.

Square or rectangle caps - made to clamp on the OD of clay flue tiles, are available with "inside grip" installation kits - which makes them a "male" fit also.

 

[BrotherBart]

"Why are numbers on a calculator reversed from numbers on a phone"

Can't answer the chimney one but I can the one about the phone. It was intentional. When touch tone phones came out there were so many of us that were lightning fast on ten key adding machines and the crude calculators of the time that we consistently outran the phone circuits ability to keep up. They reversed them to make us slow down our dialing.

 

[LLigetfa]

I'm confused. Chimney ends are both male and female. The "male" parts of the female end goes down into the male end and down the outside of it as well. The "male" part goes up in between the inner and outer "male" parts on the female end. Properly assembled, the creosote should not leak out the joints of a chimney. Now stovepipe is another story.

The real question should be why is there liquid creosote in the first place?

 

[LLigetfa]

"Why do hot dogs come in packages of 10 and buns come in packages of 8"

You are supposed to give two of them to your dog. Dogs don't eat the buns, just the meat.

 

[Shari]

Sully,

In another posting did you mention you were using stovepipe for your chimney?

Shari

 

[barnartist]

Like I said in another post, why is gas 1.69, but freakin Kerosene 3.50??!!

I also installed my black pipe chimney upside down, because when the stack gets to the roof I have stainless, and the male end fin into the stainless so I thought I was doing it right. So I have the melting creasote problem, cept it seemed to have sealed itself up a bit.

 

[Metal]

barnartist-a single wall to double wall adapter is required for the transition.

When talking about double wall caps, then flue (inside part) should be male (fits inside the piece below it) and the casing (outside part) should be female (fit over the outside of the piece below it). So I guess you could say all the pieces are mixed gender. In the industry they usually categorize a part by the flue, so a double wall cap will be called male if the flue (inside part) fits inside the next piece. This keeps the creosote inside the pipe as it travels downhill and the water on the outside of the pipe as it travels downhill.

By the way, what brand of pipe are you using? Surely you are not mixing different brands together? Did you read the included installation instructions and follow them?

 

[LLigetfa]

Ummm... single wall stove pipe isn't chimney. It's stove pipe that connects the stove to the chimney. There is also double wall stove pipe that isn't chimney either.

 

[Metal]

Au contraire!!

"A chimney is a structure for venting hot flue gases or smoke from a boiler, stove, furnace or fireplace to the outside atmosphere."

 

[LLigetfa]

Ja, well... if you want to split hairs, even that glass thingamabobber on a coal oil lantern is called a chimney.

Anyway, I got PM'd and got filled in about this makeshift shipboard install. That said, I did spend a Winter in a trapper's cabin on a remote island where we burned green wood in a redneck barrel stove and we reversed the smokepipe (yes Ma, no chimney!) so that all the liquid creosote would stay inside. As someone else posted, it's not rocket science to do a sex change by crimping a male end. Even if you don't have the hand crimpers purpose built for the task, it is really easy to do with long needle nose pliers.

 

[Metal]

Just don't expect the manufacturer to stand behind it if your house burns down. When they say "Install only in accordance with manufacturer's instructions" they mean it.

 

[jdemaris]

Ummm... single wall stove pipe isn't chimney. It's stove pipe that connects the stove to the chimney. There is also double wall stove pipe that isn't chimney either.

Hey - you've never seen a single-wall complete chimney around? If not, you haven't been around very long - or spent your life in an urban area.

Used to many around, single wall chimneys, top to bottom - especially for oil and gas heating equipment, but also for wood and coal burners.

My sugar house - for making maple syrup has two 12" single-wall steel chimneys, top to bottom.
One for smoke from the arc-fire, and one for steam from the evaporator.

There was a long period of history when double or triple wall pipe did not exist, and often just single wall black pipe was used.

My barn has a 6" single wall stainless chimney right now, hooked to an old oil furnace.

Also some newer condensor type furnaces use single wall PVC chimneys.

Long time ago, many household chimneys were single wall made of sticks and mud.

 

[LLigetfa]

Hey - you've never seen a single-wall complete chimney around?

I'm guessing you missed my several postings about my stint in the trapper's cabin. That of course, wasn't my only exposure to single wall smokepipe used in place of a real chimney. I even had one in my old schoolbus that I lived in a very long time ago. It was complete with elbows and dripping creosote, (made sure to angle it to drip outside through a small hole I drilled) but that was back when I knew everything and was invincible.

I didn't think that sort of thing still goes on in this day and age or do rednecks now have high speed internet?

 

[jdemaris]

Hey - you've never seen a single-wall complete chimney around?

I'm guessing you missed my several postings about my stint in the trapper's cabin. That of course, wasn't my only exposure to single wall smokepipe used in place of a real chimney. I even had one in my old schoolbus that I lived in a very long time ago. It was complete with elbows and dripping creosote, (made sure to angle it to drip outside through a small hole I drilled) but that was back when I knew everything and was invincible.

I didn't think that sort of thing still goes on in this day and age or do rednecks now have high speed internet?

Not sure if I rate as a red-neck or not. As to high speed Internet? I've got dial up that is dreadfully slow with 45 year-old phone lines, and . . . a HugesNet uplink-downlink satellite system which is not exactly "fast."

I live in a rural farming area, have over 50 guns, over 50 tractors, dozers, backhoes, etc., heat 100% with wood, make electricity with solar, worked most my life as a diesel mechanic, electrician, and carpenter, and my wife and I both have grad-degrees. What that makes us - I don't know.

As to single wall pipe -still common in some places for venting gas and oil equipment. Usually single-wall stainless that passes though a properly designed standoff of some sort. That is, unless it's an old hunting shack, sugar shack, or milking parlor - and then anything goes.

Still a few old school buses around here with chimneys - rotting away. Probably left here by some 60s hippies, broke down here in New York while heading for their final destination in Vermont.

 

[Highbeam]

Well I was going to make a comment about females being on top or something but since the trend is to discuss chimneys I think I won't.

 

[LLigetfa]

Single wall stainless and seamed, crimped smoke pipe are two different things.

You might have mistaken me for a hippie in my bus, what with my shoulder length hair, but if you would have called me that I probably would have punched your lights out. Unlike the lazy hippies on a quest for nirvana, I was living in my bus while working construction. Dunno if that makes me a redneck.

 

[jdemaris]

Single wall stainless and seamed, crimped smoke pipe are two different things.

You might have mistaken me for a hippie in my bus, what with my shoulder length hair, but if you would have called me that I probably would have punched your lights out. Unlike the lazy hippies on a quest for nirvana, I was living in my bus while working construction. Dunno if that makes me a redneck.

I had long hair and also was at Woodstock (and several other large outdoor rock parties). But, I hated the hippies - just liked the topless girls and all else that went with it. But, that was quite a while ago.

And you know what the sad thing is? Now, in the state of New York - it is 100% legal for woman to go topless - yet - nobody does it anymore. At least - not where I've seen them.