New ICC Excel pellet vent pipe....big thumbs down

[skibumm100]

Had fun today. Not really. Spent a few hours on my roof installing 20 feet of ICC Excel pellet vent. Then taking it all back out...then half of it back in again.

There appears to have been a design change somewhere along the line for the Excel vent pipe gasket. I have five sections of 48" vent. Four pieces had a floating silicone gasket. It just sits in the groove in the inside of the pipe. The other piece of vent pipe had a bonded-in-place silicone gasket of a slightly different shape. The one with a bonded gasket also has dimples where the inner and outer parts of the pipe are spot welded together. Even though I used copious amounts of dish soap to lubricate the gaskets, they where a VERY tight fit. I was careful to line them up and gently twist as I put the ends together. After it was all installed I went in the house and looked in the fireplace and saw a bunch of chunks of silicone gasket. Not happy. The pipe with the bonded gasket went together much easier. I took all of the pipe apart and found two of the floating gaskets had been cut into chunks. I brought all of the crap off the roof and into the garage. I scavanged a gasket off another fitting and took the one out of the top piece at the cap. I cleaned the inside of the pipe at the groove and put some red RTV into the groove and inserted the gaskets. Hopefully they will stay in place once they're glued in. I'll give it another try in the morning. I'm still PO'd. I don't know which is the newer design. Both types have the same model number.

 

[skibumm100]

Well, bonding the gaskets in place helped but didn't completely solve the issue. One of the pieces went together easier. The last piece still didn't want to go together. I screwed with it for over a half hour, making sure it was straight before twisting it while pushing it together. I used a bunch of dish soap and ended up taking it back apart numerous times when it failed to fit together properly. It finally popped together but when I looked down the inside of the pipe it had a chunk of gasket hanging inside the pipe. It had pulled the glued-in gasket out of the groove and it got caught between the two pieces. Looking at the end of the pipe that mates with the gasket, the inner and outer pipe was not perfectly centered but it was pretty close. I finally gave up and sealed the outside of the pipe with a coat of RTV and some aluminum tape. I am going to send an e-mail to ICC to find out which is the newer design and why it was changed. I will also see if they will send me a couple of gaskets to replace the ones I scavanged. The pipe isn't that tough to put together if you have two pieces in your hands but it's a whole different story when you're holding onto the very bottom of a 4 foot piece while trying to hold onto the top of a 16 foot piece on a ladder on your roof.

 

[DexterDay]

All brands have there quirks.

I haven't had a lot of trouble with Simpsons Pellet vent Pro. But others have.

Thanks for your review.

 

[vinny11950]

Good luck, Gregg.

I used ICC and experienced some of what you are explaining when I did my install. The first time getting the pipes to fit together with the gaskets is tough. But then they get used to each other and work fine.

However, not sure why you have to different gasket systems. I am wondering if they sent you different models. Definitely contact them.

 

[skibumm100]

I like the way the pipe is built and it is well put together. I went out of my way to get it. The one gasket system is a good idea, it's just hard to deal with if you're in an awkward position. Putting it together was much easier on the ground. I took pictures of the shrapnel and of the two different gasket arrangements. The oddball gasket fit together snugly but was easy to join. If it was all that type, the job would have been a breeze. Both pipes were Model 341. My first thought was that I had two different models so I checked that first. I'm not gonna sweat it. The bad gasket is very near the top of the flue and it is well sealed on the outside.

I think I would still recommend cleaning and bonding the gaskets in place if you're going to be wrestling with long pieces up on the roof. If you're assembling it on the ground, I wouldn't bother.

 

[imacman]

skibumm, if the sections you're having problems with are ALL on the exterior of the house, just seal them with silicone as best you can.....they don't have to be perfect, just assembled mechanically so they don't come apart. They're outdoors, so no issues with CO leaks anyway.

If any of the sections are indoors, that's obviously a different issue.

 

[SmokeyTheBear]

Sounds like you could have used another pair of hands or so.

 

[skibumm100]

Sounds like you could have used another pair of hands or so.

Yeah, it sure would've helped. Only one person allowed on the step ladder at a time, though. I think it would've been much more do-able with two more hands on the pipe. That being said, the "older" style went together without much fuss. I was on a step ladder on a roof with a fairly steep pitch leaned up against the flue chase. I was fully tied off with a fall protection harness and zipper lanyard. Either way, I had no intention of falling off. I think this will be fine. I just hate going to all the trouble and expense and not have it "perfect". Unfortunately, I spent more time working on my oil furnace than the pellet install. The ignitor/transformer was on its way out and finally quit sometime Friday night. I had ordered parts for it but they weren't here yet. I found a heating and plumbing supply house that was open til noon so I got my parts and fixed that. Then I went up on the roof just when the wind started kicking up.