Hello,
First time poster here. Background story is that I have a finished basement completed by the previous owner. It's a completely tiled area up the back and side walls. Originally the PO ran a wood stove with 6" Class A straight up a 4' vertical rise inside the basement into a 90 degree bend through the basement wall foundation horizontally for about 2' (non-combustible) into a 2'x2' cement purpose built chimney (with ~20' vertical rise) with what appears to be a clay? sleeve (is that typical for this wood stove application?).
I'm about set to pick up a Harman Advance and I have two solutions, one seemingly less likely to be safe regarding the vent system. The standard approach that my dealer recommended is going with a 90 degree elbow off the stove and straight up 3" rigid to the 6" remaining Thimble sticking out of the wall. Run a converter from 3" to 6" before connecting directly to the thimble. The dealer said that not only does the combustion fan supply a good push up, but the 4' vertical rise would add some natural draft as well and once it hit's the 6", it'll be a short trip horizontally to the chimney outside. This seems logical enough and certainly believeable as a standard approach. Does anyone see a catch here?
The less likely approach that I would prefer is the following. A 90 degree elbow at the stove exhaust immediately into a 3" to 6" converter. Then run 6" Class A (double lined) up 4' into the thimble directly venting out to the chimney. Certainly, the Class A piping can tolerate the negligible heat of the pellet stove so I see that aspect as a non-issue. In the pellet stove manual, they suggest for longer runs of 15' or more vertical rise to convert to 4" piping immediately out of the stove to relieve pressure of a long run. Obviously, my run is even longer, so one might deduce that 6" is just expanding on what going to 4" does. In this case however, the increase in diameter is humongous and the concern is that the natural draft (which isn't that strong anyway since pellet exhaust isn't hot) is eliminated with piping this large (not enough exhaust to fill the pipe), and the combustion motor may have to work even harder to push the exhaust up as there is great backdraft currently (I removed the cap on my thimble and i would estimate there is 15mph winds blowing into my basement from it
).
The reason for wanting the 6" pipe is purely for aesthetics. I understand that they make 6" pellet vents which have a 3" insert giving the same benefits of 3" with the look of 6" but the cost for it is substantial and i'd like to explore the above option first. Does anyone think there is a chance at all that the 6" all the way up would work? Has anyone attempted it? If the answer is no, what is your justification. Please note that my basement is roughly 800sqft and it is extremely tight. The stairwell door is always open, and I have a walk-out door/window I can keep cracked open if necessary. No outside air kit is planned. Finally, is there any debate about the first option's validity as a solution?
Sorry for the long post but I'd rather give too much info than incomplete info.
Thanks for your responses,
Tim
First time poster here. Background story is that I have a finished basement completed by the previous owner. It's a completely tiled area up the back and side walls. Originally the PO ran a wood stove with 6" Class A straight up a 4' vertical rise inside the basement into a 90 degree bend through the basement wall foundation horizontally for about 2' (non-combustible) into a 2'x2' cement purpose built chimney (with ~20' vertical rise) with what appears to be a clay? sleeve (is that typical for this wood stove application?).
I'm about set to pick up a Harman Advance and I have two solutions, one seemingly less likely to be safe regarding the vent system. The standard approach that my dealer recommended is going with a 90 degree elbow off the stove and straight up 3" rigid to the 6" remaining Thimble sticking out of the wall. Run a converter from 3" to 6" before connecting directly to the thimble. The dealer said that not only does the combustion fan supply a good push up, but the 4' vertical rise would add some natural draft as well and once it hit's the 6", it'll be a short trip horizontally to the chimney outside. This seems logical enough and certainly believeable as a standard approach. Does anyone see a catch here?
The less likely approach that I would prefer is the following. A 90 degree elbow at the stove exhaust immediately into a 3" to 6" converter. Then run 6" Class A (double lined) up 4' into the thimble directly venting out to the chimney. Certainly, the Class A piping can tolerate the negligible heat of the pellet stove so I see that aspect as a non-issue. In the pellet stove manual, they suggest for longer runs of 15' or more vertical rise to convert to 4" piping immediately out of the stove to relieve pressure of a long run. Obviously, my run is even longer, so one might deduce that 6" is just expanding on what going to 4" does. In this case however, the increase in diameter is humongous and the concern is that the natural draft (which isn't that strong anyway since pellet exhaust isn't hot) is eliminated with piping this large (not enough exhaust to fill the pipe), and the combustion motor may have to work even harder to push the exhaust up as there is great backdraft currently (I removed the cap on my thimble and i would estimate there is 15mph winds blowing into my basement from it
). The reason for wanting the 6" pipe is purely for aesthetics. I understand that they make 6" pellet vents which have a 3" insert giving the same benefits of 3" with the look of 6" but the cost for it is substantial and i'd like to explore the above option first. Does anyone think there is a chance at all that the 6" all the way up would work? Has anyone attempted it? If the answer is no, what is your justification. Please note that my basement is roughly 800sqft and it is extremely tight. The stairwell door is always open, and I have a walk-out door/window I can keep cracked open if necessary. No outside air kit is planned. Finally, is there any debate about the first option's validity as a solution?
Sorry for the long post but I'd rather give too much info than incomplete info.
Thanks for your responses,
Tim
