Fresh Air Intake Kits for Pellet Stoves--Do They Really Make a Difference?

[DarbyDog]

What difference would I see in my old Whitfield Quest pellet stove's performance by installing a fresh-air intake? As part of my current summer work on the stove to prepare it for next winter, I'm considering doing this. But when I google it, I don't see a lot of strong support for the idea, with many pellet stove users saying they hadn't noticed any improvement in performance following such an install. And my install would be somewhat difficult because I'm going to have a cramped space on the exterior wall to work with.

Is it worth the work?

 

[johneh]

The only difference I found is no cold air being drawn across the floor
and the fact that now I use fresh air from outside instead of air that
I have paid to heat to feed the fire. So yes to me it makes sense
Just my nickles worth.

 

[blades]

cuts down on cold drafts. unit is pulling combustion from inside home envelope threrefore negative pressure ,so any chinks in the home envelope allow cold air to infiltrate and cooling already warmed air- double hit. The controversy on an oak system has been on going for ever. They are not like a HE furnace where the system is totally sealed, the unit still pulls some air from inside home for combustion, or glass air wash ect. I can not supply any percentages- and I have never seen any listed for any unit wood or pellet. That all said it does make a difference. There are some tricks to it. making the infeed line very long inside the home envelope allows for time for the infeed air to be warmed somewhat prior to being introduced to the combustion chamber and there by not cooling that down requiring more fuel to compensate. ( this goes way back to the 70's- Mother Earth News. No internet back then.) Back then we doing passive solar heaters either water or air and a ton of other things to reduce our energy bills. way before the " greeneies" got involved.

 

[Tonyray]

The only difference I found is no cold air being drawn across the floor
and the fact that now I use fresh air from outside instead of air that
I have paid to heat to feed the fire. So yes to me it makes sense
Just my nickles worth.

Agree!100%....
no more cold drafts running along the floor on the way back to the stove intake..

 

[Ricks]

Fresh air intakes work. But look at your Quest carefully.

There is a fitting or pipe for an outside air intake but it doesn’t connect to the fire box. So if you don’t fabricate something between the pipe and the firebox you will be dumping cold air into the room.

Good luck!

 

[zrock]

A few things i have noticed with mine. The colder it is outside the hotter the fire burns seems strange but i notice it. With the outside air the stove is not pulling air in from every crack and crevice in your home so it will heat faster and stay warmer.

 

[DarbyDog]

Fresh air intakes work. But look at your Quest carefully.

There is a fitting or pipe for an outside air intake but it doesn’t connect to the fire box. So if you don’t fabricate something between the pipe and the firebox you will be dumping cold air into the room.

Good luck!

There's no good diagram I can find online that shows air flow (intake and exhaust) thru the Quest. Since I've never broken down one of these stoves (and don't have time to anyway), I'm having trouble visualizing the internal anatomy.

So I don't get it. Isn't the 2" air inlet on the back of the stove the only inlet, whether for room air or outside air? And if that's the case, since it's currently able to burn pellets using room air, how could the inlet not already be connected to the firebox?

 

[stoveliker]

Some of these stoves dump outside air in a pedestal where the air inlet is rather than having a sealed connection between the pipe and air inlet.

 

[Ricks]

Can you see the back of the stove? If you are facing the stove from the front the exhaust pipe exits on the right and this is a fresh air intake just to the left of center.

The air intake on my Quest goes through the ash container and then up into the burn pot. I haven’t looked at it closely in a while but I believe their is a rectangular opening high on the back wall of the area the ash box slides into.

The air intake is very simple on the Quest. It flows under the box of the stove but above the pedestal into the ash container and then up to and into the burn pot.

On my Quest there is no connection between the pipe the air intake would connect to and the burn pot.

 

[Ricks]

The Quest is a very early design for pellet stoves and I don’t think the designer had figured everything out.

The stove is a great stove, simple to maintain, and once you know the quirks, it is easy to clean.

The hardest part to understand is the flow of the exhaust. To the left and right of the air exchange or heat tubes is a rectangular opening. The exhaust enters both of these holes. Flows downward to the bottom of the firebox. The left side (as you face the stove) travels across the firebox and joins up to the exhaust on the right side. Next it travels past the exhaust damper and into the blower and exits the stove.

 

[DarbyDog]

Can you see the back of the stove? If you are facing the stove from the front the exhaust pipe exits on the right and this is a fresh air intake just to the left of center.

The air intake on my Quest goes through the ash container and then up into the burn pot. I haven’t looked at it closely in a while but I believe their is a rectangular opening high on the back wall of the area the ash box slides into.

The air intake is very simple on the Quest. It flows under the box of the stove but above the pedestal into the ash container and then up to and into the burn pot.

On my Quest there is no connection between the pipe the air intake would connect to and the burn pot.

Thanks.

Yeah--Same with mine it looks like. So for me, that puts the kibosh to getting outside air connected and contained within a pipe. There's no way I'm spending all that effort pulling the stove out and then figuring out how to fabricate an enclosed system to fit in there.

I had googled info on the Quest a few months ago and came away thinking I may have the first pellet stove ever mass marketed in America (1993). And that being the case, and as you mentioned in one of your replies here that they were figuring things out as they were going along, I wouldn't be surprised if their original intention was to make the stove a cold-outside-air intake directly to the burn pot (and hence the 2" round opening on the back/bottom-left case) and then, as their plans evolved, they abandoned that idea in favor of using room air, and just left the already-manufactured frames as is. Hard to say.

Well anyway, yes--there is an opening behind the ash container that then splits left and right. And that does make sense as an air intake system. And I can see the two right and left rectangular exhaust ports on each side of the heat-exchanger tubes as you describe, so that's interesting. Doesn't seem like the most elegant system, but oh well.

Anyway, once I get my double-lined vent pipes back into good condition, I suppose I'll be set for another winter. And I'm fine with just cracking a window a wee bit anyway for some of that outside air.

Thanks to all for your comments.

 

[rickwai]

On my Harman I have a cold air inlet but I do not have it sealed to the inlet pipe on the stove. I left a 1" air gap. I found that if it is rainy or foggy and the air is heavy the stove takes extra time to ignite and bellows smoke then sometimes lights hard with a small boom when I had it sealed. With the air gap it still solved the issue of cold air pulling across the floor.

 

[DarbyDog]

On my Harman I have a cold air inlet but I do not have it sealed to the inlet pipe on the stove. I left a 1" air gap. I found that if it is rainy or foggy and the air is heavy the stove takes extra time to ignite and bellows smoke then sometimes lights hard with a small boom when I had it sealed. With the air gap it still solved the issue of cold air pulling across the floor.

 

[DarbyDog]

Thanks, rickwai,

Can you clarify what you mean by "I left a 1" air gap?" Where? In what?

Are you talking about a window?

 

[Ricks]

I think what Rickwai is referring to is he doesn’t have an actual direct connection between the fresh air intake and the stove. So the two pipe are close to each other but there is a one in inch gap between the two.

So on the Quest connect your fresh air intake directly too the fresh air intake pipe on the back of the stove. Since the Quest doesn’t have a sealed fresh air intake you will have the one inch gap that Rickwai mentions.

 

[DarbyDog]

RickS---Thanks. Still don't get it but thanks anyway.

 

[stoveliker]

The air intake pipe stops an inch short of the air intake on the stove.

 

[johneh]

The air intake pipe stops an inch short of the air intake on the stove.

This allows the stove to use both outside air and inside air at the same time
Helping to stop unwanted drafts in the home

 

[DarbyDog]

The air intake pipe stops an inch short of the air intake on the stove.

Wish mine did, but it doesn't. There's nothing but empty air space for at least eight inches past the outside-air intake collar on the back of the stove. And since I have never removed the stove from the wall to turn it around for a direct view inside (have been using mirrors which are impossible for viewing anything clearly), I don't even know exactly where the air intake is anyway.

 

[DarbyDog]

Thanks, gentlemen. Appreciate it.

As far as I can tell, there were two Quest models made and I'm pretty sure mine was the earliest. I learned from my previous thread here on installing an auger motor that my Quest is quite different from the other version. It doesn't appear that it would be at all easy to configure mine for a mixed outside-inside air intake, and the cost in time looks like it will outweigh the benefit for me, So everything considered, I think I'm going to have to settle for the "outside air" that will come thru an adjacent window cracked half an inch.

Thank you all for the input though.

 

[Ricks]

If you connect a pipe that feeds outside air to the pipe on the back of the stove that will allow both room air and outside air to be combined and feed into the stove.

If you open open the door to your stove and remove the metal grate that the pellets are burned in you should be looking into the large ash bin the Quest has. Next slide the ash pan forward and remove it completely. At the back of the pedestal you should see an opening. That is the air intake for the stove.

The pipe on the back of the stove leads into this area. So connecting up a fresh air intake will allow for inside or room air be blended with outside air.

 

[DarbyDog]

Okay, man, thanks. I'll check it out again and let you know.

 

[Ricks]

To be clear the pipe that extends out the back of the stove does not connect directly to the burn grate so you will have the air gap that was mentioned early.

The Quest is a simple stove. Easy to maintain and get parts for. Cleaning is very easy once you understand how to clean the exhaust pipes. A leaf blower or strong shop vacuum.

 

[Washed-Up]

Do you have a pic of your thimble? I run my outside air pipe through the bottom of my thimble, 3” hole saw and it works well

 

[DarbyDog]

Do you have a pic of your thimble? I run my outside air pipe through the bottom of my thimble, 3” hole saw and it works well