A Vertical Exhaust Vent Caution and photo

[photogame]

It just amazed me when I took the vertical vent kit off the used Harman xxv that I had bought last week. Take a look at the photos. A lose of 80 - 90 % of the vent pipe outlet. Cleaning the vertical vent pipe, at least 2 cups of ash came out.

So my caution and hope that anyone venting their pellet stove vertically for any distance that you clean what ash falls back into your pipe to create a very hazardous situation.

There is even a clean out on the side of this vertical vent kit. It was probably never touched. I am curious if the engineers that make the stoves , or the exhaust blower , take into consideration of venting and blowing this ash for any vertical distance. I know the previous owner never thought of this problem

So if you are curious, no I am not going to be using the vertical vent kit. This is #2 XXV and a similiar vent of horizontal out side of house with clean out T.

 

[sparkydog00]

It really isn't as a hazardous condition as youthink...what will happen eventually is the exhaust will become blocked....and the stove will not light. Hazardous if it is your only source of heat...but hey beats a chimney fire anyday!

 

[Xena]

It's avoidable with regular cleaning of the vent.

 

[drizler]

Could be thats why he sold it. I bet it wasn't working too well and leaking smoke into the house. No excuse for that sort of thing to happen at all if you clean it even half-assedly every year. You should still keep a 5' vertical run to provide natural draft in case you have a blower failure.

 

[rona]

Thats a good example of what happens when people neglect to clean their stove. It has been said many times but a solid fuel appliance needs care and maintenence including cleaning. They are not gas stoves.
People want to save money but sometimes gloss over the maintenence end of things and then complain about the stove not working when it is plugged.
There is a small percent of people who need electric heat for its simplicity.

 

[MCPO]

I only got about two cups of super fine fly ash from my 35 + ft SS verticle chimney after running a brush thru it and maybe a 1/2 cup of super fine fly ash from the 7 ft of 3" exhaust pipe but my stove exhaust exit opening (near sensor) was pretty clean but I only burned 2 tons.
OK, that all said, I do agree with you that verticle vs horizontal vents are more prone to that fly ash not getting ejected out the flue and consequently it falls back down into the vent pipes and therefore needs to be checked more often.

It just amazed me when I took the vertical vent kit off the used Harman xxv that I had bought last week. Take a look at the photos. A lose of 80 - 90 % of the vent pipe outlet. Cleaning the vertical vent pipe, at least 2 cups of ash came out.

So my caution and hope that anyone venting their pellet stove vertically for any distance that you clean what ash falls back into your pipe to create a very hazardous situation.

There is even a clean out on the side of this vertical vent kit. It was probably never touched. I am curious if the engineers that make the stoves , or the exhaust blower , take into consideration of venting and blowing this ash for any vertical distance. I know the previous owner never thought of this problem

So if you are curious, no I am not going to be using the vertical vent kit. This is #2 XXV and a similiar vent of horizontal out side of house with clean out T.

 

[jtp10181]

I had one a couple weeks ago, it would not light. I found the vac switch would not trip, no suction in the firebox. Checked out all the usual things. This was an insert so removing the comb blower was a pain. Once I did... wow. Exhaust area totally clogged. So I sucked it out, no problem right....? I thought... I should bang the pipe a little, a little more might come out, wrong, A LOT MORE came out. Sucked that up, banged it come more, MORE came out. So then i just jammed my vac hose into the exhaust outlet on the blower housing and beat on the pipe for a good 30 seconds. Finally got that much of it clean anyway. I suggested a chimney cleaning, she wont call him until it quits working again I'm sure of it.

 

[MainePellethead]

I clean mine out twice a year.

 

[Salty]

When they did the cleaning on my St Croix insert in June the exhaust outlet T looked exactly like this. Kinda makes me nervous that it would be this bad on 4 tons so this year we're going to pull the insert after the first 2 tons and clean the whole exhaust pipe.

Would the stove actually go out or would it start emitting CO into the house? I got a detector right near the stove anyways but it still makes me nervous.

 

[jtp10181]

If the stove has proper safety sensors like the Quads do, there should be some sort of a vacuum switch. When the firebox no longer has a certain amount of "suction" the auger no longer runs.

 

[crausch]

I am not sure how close the Harman XXV is layed out when compared to my Harman Advance, but when I clean my stove, I take the combustion blower cover off, and I run the vacuum hose inside the exhaust port that you are showing. It keeps that area clean. I use a toothbrush wedged inside a 18" piece of PVC pipe to clean the probe.