DOUBLE WALL STOVE PIPE: IS IT NECESSARY?

[csterry9]

IS THERE ANY ADVANTAGE TO INSTALLING DOUBLE WALLED STOVE PIPE? I'M ASSUMING THAT IF THE PIPE IS FAR ENOUGH FROM COMBUSTIBLE SURFACES, SINGLE WALLED PIPE WOULD GIVE OFF HEAT WHEREAS DOUBLE WALLED PIPE WOULD NOT. TRUE??

GREAT SITE AND THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!

CRAIG STERRY
HINGHAM, MONTANA

 

[PapaDave]

IS THERE ANY ADVANTAGE TO INSTALLING DOUBLE WALLED STOVE PIPE? I'M ASSUMING THAT IF THE PIPE IS FAR ENOUGH FROM COMBUSTIBLE SURFACES, SINGLE WALLED PIPE WOULD GIVE OFF HEAT WHEREAS DOUBLE WALLED PIPE WOULD NOT. TRUE??

GREAT SITE AND THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!

CRAIG STERRY
HINGHAM, MONTANA

Hi Craig, welcome to the Hearth.
First, please turn off caps lock. Hurts my ears when you shout.
You're right about the pipe. I've got single wall, and it cranks almost as much heat as the stove. As you mentioned, just maintain proper clearances from combustibles, and you are good. Some folks will tell you that the double wall drafts better, I have no experience with that.
Putting in a new stove? Replacement stove, or just new stove pipe?

 

[KP Matt]

Caution, this way of thinking leads to Magic Heat, and that is the way of the dark side.

That said, I use single wall, and hope to upgrade to that 22 gauge welded seam single wall eventually (if I can find someone who stocks it in Canada!).

But my set up is very basic and drafts very well (almost too well): straight shot about 7 feet to the insulated chimney.

If I had a long run of stovepipe, or a couple of turns, or an outside chimney, or clearance issues, I would definitely go double wall.

 

[begreen]

Double-wall pipe keeps the flue gases hotter. This can be helpful by improving draft, especially if there are elbows in the flue. It also helps keep the flue gases hot enough to prevent condensing into creosote. That's very important if there is a lot of pipe exposed outdoors. Single wall pipe runs shouldn't exceed 10 ft for this reason. Double-wall pipe will last a lot longer than single wall because of the inner stainless liner.

 

[fossil]

I've got single wall on both my stoves. I'm seriously considering swapping them both out for double wall. The additional heat transfer to the space from the stovepipe, while non-trivial, is just a small fraction of that from the stove itself, so I really don't see any big benefit to it in that regard. The price paid for that small additional heat transfer to the space is heat transfer out of the exhaust gas stream. I've observed, by placing multiple mag thermometers at intervals up my stovepipe, temperature drops vertically up the pipe that surprised me...like more than 150°F in ~4'. I'll trade the heat to the space from the single wall pipe for heat retention in the flue. The hotter those gases remain on their trip to daylight, the smaller the likelihood of undue creosote condensation. Rick

 

[bmwloco]

I have single wall in the garage. Heavy gauge. Works well, keeps the garage to bearable on unbearable days.

Wife would never tolerate it in the house, but it works in my personal nirvana

 

[firefighterjake]

I opted for double wall for two reasons . . . 1) While clearances were not an issue for the stove pipe I wanted double wall for the peace of mind and 2) (more importantly) as BeGreen mentioned I wanted to keep the flue gases hotter since I have the Class A pipe running outside . . . and so far I think it was a good decision since I have a good draft and very little creosote build up.