Fireview

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I

irishfan

Member
Oct 9, 2014
34
Southern Michigan
Hi,

This is my first post on this forum and I am a newbie to wood burning. I bought my current house 2 years ago and the people we bought the house from had a pellet stove which they took with them.
This year I purchased a woodstock fireview. I connected the stove with single wall pipe. There is a clay flue that goes through the wall and up the chinmey. I've cleaned the flue out really well and have alrealy lit 5 fires.

My question is: Is the clay flue safe to burn in or should I be looking for some type of liner? The flue is in great shape I've look down the chinmey and cannot see any cracks or gaps in the flue.


Thanks for your help!
 
I would also thoroughly read the manual for the stove about venting installation.
 
Welcome.

I would have the flue inspected by a certified sweep with a camera. There may be cracks in the flue or mortar joints you can't see. This should help you locate one.
http://www.csia.org/

There is nothing wrong with a properly sized, clay lined flue in good condition. If it works for you, great, but a properly sized, insulated stainless steel liner will likely work better. It is safer, easier to clean, and will keep the flue gasses warmer, which will leave less creosote buildup.
 
Welcome, irish. If you had 5 fires with no problems even though it hasn't been real cold, I'm guessing that it must draw decently and probably has a smaller clay liner than my 13x13 ID, and fair stack height. A liner will no doubt perform better, in addition to being safer and easier to clean. With my 6" liner at 16', I could burn the Fireview when it was 50+ outside, no problem.
 
Woody Stover said:
Welcome, irish. If you had 5 fires with no problems even though it hasn't been real cold, I'm guessing that it must draw decently and probably has a smaller clay liner than my 13x13 ID, and fair stack height. A liner will no doubt perform better, in addition to being safer and easier to clean. With my 6" liner at 16', I could burn the Fireview when it was 50+ outside, no problem.
Click to expand...
It has a 6 inch clay liner through the wall and a 10x10 clay liner for a flue. Here are some pics of the stove and chimney.
 
[Hearth.com] Fireview [Hearth.com] Fireview
 
Last edited by a moderator:
What's under the tile? Concrete, by chance?
 
10x10 exceeds the recommended flue cross-sectional area. Up to 2x is acceptable. 6" round is ~28sq in. It sounds like you have 100sq in. That is going to cool the flue gases a lot and may affect draft and creosote build up. I would line it with a stainless liner to bring it within recommended spec.

Chimney Sizing:

The size and location of a chimney is as important as its construction. If a chimney is too large in diameter (internally) it will be difficult to maintain high flue gas temperatures, which will result in reduced draft. The internal cross sectional area of a chimney flue should be no more than 3 times the cross sectional area of the appliance flue collar if no chimney walls are exposed to the outside below the roofline . The cross sectional area of the chimney flue with one or more walls exposed to the outside below the roofline should be no more than 2 times the cross sectional area of the flue collar.

The Fireview Stove has a 6” flue collar, thus 8” x 10” rectangular or 10” round are the maximum flue sizes we recommend for this stove. For an outside chimney, we recommend an 8” x 8” square or 8” round inside dimensions. The smallest size we recommend is 6” round, as the flue size should not be less than the flue collar size. Remember, round flues are more efficient and easier to clean than square or rectangular flues.
 
For the last 3 days/nights I have had a fire going non stop without a problem. It seems to have a great draw. Will that change when it gets colder?

Just curious what do you think it would cost to line my chinmey? It is 18 feet tall. Do you think I can get away with not lining it this year? I will be checking the chimney on a regular basis.


Thanks for all the help. This forum is great!!
 
irishfan said:
For the last 3 days/nights I have had a fire going non stop without a problem. It seems to have a great draw. Will that change when it gets colder?

Just curious what do you think it would cost to line my chinmey? It is 18 feet tall. Do you think I can get away with not lining it this year? I will be checking the chimney on a regular basis.


Thanks for all the help. This forum is great!!
Click to expand...

For the last 3 days/nights I have had a fire going non stop without a problem. It seems to have a great draw. Will that change when it gets colder?
Just curious what do you think it would cost to line my chinmey? It is 18 feet tall. Do you think I can get away with not lining it this year? I will be checking the chimney on a regular basis.
Thanks for all the help. This forum is great!!
 
Give Woodstock support a call. The stove is an easy breather and it may be ok. From a safety standpoint I would be much more concerned about the thimble. It appears to be be passing too close to wood in the walls. How was it constructed prior to the rough wall patch that is showing in the picture?
 
I'm not the rough patch was there when we bought the house. There is a clay liner that goes through the wall and I connected my single wall pipe through the clay liner. Should I go triple wall pipe through the wall and into the clay liner? Can triple wall pipe connect to single wall pipe?
 
The thimble is a critical point as it passes through the wall. Based on the patch it looks like it just passes through the studs. That is not proper, nor is drywall acceptable next to the flue pipe. Here is an article on how a thimble should pass through the wall.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/articles/passing_a_chimney

Not sure what the best solution is without opening up the wall and discovering what is there. I suspect the thimble may need to be replace with a sleeve by Insul-Flue or Saf-T-Thimble, but this will need to be verified. Maybe the previous owner did this?
http://www.amazon.com/Heat-fab-Insulated-Combustible-Diameter-Stovepipe/dp/B001D1KZWS
(broken link removed)
 
I know it does have a clay crock like the article you posted. I'm going to take the rough patch work and dry wall out around the thimble to work on it. Is there a heat retardent dry wall that I put up?
 
It depends. The Saf-T-Thimble cover shield will span the stud, so no patch may be needed. Not sure about the Insul-Flue, but I think it has a similar cover that is about 16" x 16"
 
I haven't installed either. Both installations look pretty straight forward. I have seen more Heat-Fab installations, but that doesn't mean the other is a lesser product.

Instructions here:
(broken link removed to http://www.hartshearth.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=4033)
(broken link removed)
 
An insulated stainless liner kit will cost about $3-400. If can be self installed if you have good DIY skills and are careful. The chimney must be cleaned first.
 
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