Do insert pellet stoves need fire brick behind them?

[imichel]

Hi all,

We just had a fireplace insert pellet stove installed with an outside air intake. In order to build the intake my mason took out a single rectagular fire-brick out of the back of the fireplace. Then he put a pipe through to match the width of the flexible air intake pipe would eventually run from my pellet stove. After a few months when I finally got the pellet stove installers to come out, I asked the mason to come at the same time to mortar from the inside two 1/3 pieces of brick around the pipe. When he arrived he told me he didn't have any fire bricks. Instead he said he had the red fire bricks. I said "Fine" and he broke up a red brick into 2 pieces and put them on either side of the pipe, and then mortared those in around it. Then he put mortar over the entire new red broken brick surfaces and so it now looks grey and no you can't see any brick is even there around the pipe. Now that it is all done and the pellet stove is in I am kicking myself - is it unsafe not to have fire brick here?. There is fire brick everywhere else in the fireplace other than around the hole for the air intake, which has regular red brick surrounded by mortar. I don't think this will be an issue for the pellet stove, but I am also worried about code/safety if we ever want to take the stove out and put a fire in there.

Should I be worried about the pellet stove needing the fire brick there? Before we build another fire should we remove the red brick and replace it with a fire brick?

I am up late tonight worrying about this after he did it today.

Thanks for your help!

Ian

 

[teetah222]

I really doubt that you have to have firebrick since clearance requirements to flammables for a pellet stove exhaust pipe are 3 inches at most, 1 inch if you have certain double walled pipes. It's hardly anything for the intake air pipe. Standard brick should be ok, but I could be wrong.

However, if you decide to go back to a wood fire you definitely have to put fire brick back in.

 

[rickwa]

that setup is fine. red brick and mortar do not burn. if you go back to wood fireplace you will have to take air pipe out anyway then put a fire brick back in. sound like they did a great job on the install

 

[imichel]

Haubera,

My general contractor stopped by this morning, the person who hired the mason, and he told me he will replace the red brick with fire brick if we every end up using the fireplace for a real fire. Or if we want to remove the stove in the spring then he'll have the mason come out again at that time. So for now I'm happy, and I agree with you that the pellet stove doesn't necessarily need it.

Thanks!

Ian

 

[imichel]

rickwa,

Yes it is a good job, but some problems were there. The mason was trying to rush out the door to get to another job, so it was a bit hectic. And at one point he pushed the outside piece that connects to the air intake tube from the stove, and out popped the two bricks and some mortar around them he had just mortared on the interior. Really he should have left it to dry first. The pellet stove guys were busily trying to push it back in, and we ended up smoothing it out with our hands. It was a mess, but I suppose the job is done now. The intake doesn't seem to leak air, except for through the pipe that I can feel.

In general Im not sure how pellet stove air intakes are usually placed into the back of fire places, but I think the best way is to have a mason come out. Our pellet stove guy said he would have normally just stuck insulation around the hole and had done with it.

Thanks for your advice.

Cheers,

Ian

 

[rickwa]

i would not bother with the fire brick unless you go back to burning wood. you will have to replace the partial brick anyway with a full brick. there is nothing on the back of the stove that gets hot enough that you cant touch anyway. some parts you will not touch for long but you can touch it. all your heat is out front where you can use it!

 

[hossthehermit]

Well, there are kids starving in Somalia.

 

[rickwa]

??????????