Chimney Elbows

[tiber]

Finally got in touch with Gordo who lives up the road from me. I'm actually glad I had my original ideas shot down because it's made me rethink the project quite a bit. He pointed out the township has a website where you can ask code questions and apply for a permit. Nothing like the new information age. Actually as a professional computer geek, I'm a bit embarassed to say I didn't think of checking there first. I probably owe him a beer.

The previous plan was go go straight up from the living room (putting the stove dead center in the house) which would also run the chimney up through a bedroom. Frankly I think there's an argument for doing this because of the draft, but the argument against it is that (god forbid) we have a chimney fire or a leak or similar and fill the kids room up with smoke or CO or fire.

The current plan is to put the stove in the same room (the living room) but in a corner. The stovepipe would run through a thimble into the garage, where it would turn into class A for the remainder of the install. The advantages here are simplicity and ease-of-use. Plus the garage has all fireproof drywall so it's one more safety between me and burning down the house.

Questions:
1) T Cleaning joints - any special considerations for these or will any one do? If it's in the garage I will care much less about the mess since I open the bottom, tape a trash bag to it and feed the brush in through the stove.
2) Horizontal limit - is there any special math for "so much vertical for so much horizonal" to keep the draft going? I need about two feet to make it go, I've heard three feet is the max. Is there a reason for this? Any considerations for the horizonal run I should be aware of?
3) How atomic do I need to be for stove placement? Should I be anal and go for dead center of the house? The living room is the biggest room on the first floor, will it make a difference between one corner of the room or another?

 

[Backwoods Savage]

A cleanout tee in the garage sounds pretty good. If you have enough clearance then you can also clean from the bottom and not have to climb up onto the roof.

On the horizontal, I've seen some over 10.' Don't forget though that you need a minimum of 1/4" rise per foot of pipe on horizontal. We have a couple feet horizontal but went more than the required 1/4" and have no problem with it.

I would not go for that center install if you could go through the wall and into the garage with the chimney. Going through the wall has many benefits including not having to look at all that stovepipe in the room.

 

[FLINT]

you would get better draft and better distributed heat by having the stove and chimney in the center of the house.

I have horizontal pipe going into an external chimney in the end of my house and it is not ideal. I get a poor draft from a combo of the 3 elbows I have, the horizontal pipe, and the cold external chimney. its not a huge deal, I just have to be more careful about only opening the stove after the wood is all burned and only coals are left or smoke will always come in the house.

also, the end of our house with the stove is 15-20 degrees warmer on average than the other end of our small ranch.

 

[tiber]

I have horizontal pipe going into an external chimney in the end of my house and it is not ideal. I get a poor draft from a combo of the 3 elbows I have, the horizontal pipe, and the cold external chimney. its not a huge deal, I just have to be more careful about only opening the stove after the wood is all burned and only coals are left or smoke will always come in the house.

The room or the stove? I was under the impression the stove would heat the room, then it was a matter of getting the air around the house. Correct me if I'm wrong.

What's your stove make/model if I may ask? You have three elbows in the chimney itself or is it stove-thimble-T?

 

[snowtime]

Being a wood only guy I vote for the center of the main room. If you have lots of room you could put a big soapstone in and it would be a great addition to the area. The wife would probably like it! As far as your fears of chimney fires go with a straight up pipe if you burn properly seasoned wood and clean the chimney you will be safe. I venture to say you have a better chance of a fire with the garage pipe install. Mainly because of draw and chimney cooling off easier. Of course if you do everything properly the garage install would be fine but you can not assume its safer because its not in the center of the house. Thats a big mistake.

 

[FLINT]

I have horizontal pipe going into an external chimney in the end of my house and it is not ideal. I get a poor draft from a combo of the 3 elbows I have, the horizontal pipe, and the cold external chimney. its not a huge deal, I just have to be more careful about only opening the stove after the wood is all burned and only coals are left or smoke will always come in the house.

The room or the stove? I was under the impression the stove would heat the room, then it was a matter of getting the air around the house. Correct me if I'm wrong.

What's your stove make/model if I may ask? You have three elbows in the chimney itself or is it stove-thimble-T?

yes, the stove heats the room, but its a lot easier for the heat to move evenly throughout the house if the stove is located centrally. I have a ranch home with the stove at one end and it heats the half of the house with the stove great, but we just cannot get the heat to want to travel down the hallway to our bedroom. We can get our bedroom to 70, but the living room will have to be 85 for a while for it to happen. We have a ceiling fan in the living room which does help distribute the air, but it doesn't do anything for getting it down the hall. If the stove was in a room central room so that heat could go 2 or 3 ways in to the rest of the house it would work a lot better - My dad built his house intentionally that way and they don't have this problem at all.

However, if its not convenient for you to locate the stove centrally, then I'm sure it will still work fine, you just have to try to facilitate air flow better, and you may have to heat one room more than you like.

I have 3 90 degree elbows because i have the one that comes off the back of the stove, then the one where the pipe turns and goes into the thimble in the chimney, and then the 3rd where it enters the stainless steel T and liner - so yes, you are right.

my stove is an old steet metal thing, that heats up immediately but unfortunately doesn't hold a fire long and cools down super quick too. usually add wood every 2 hours, but can only put a couple pieces in or else the heat would get ridiculous. I'd like to have a lower more consistent heat output centrally.