Frosty OAK

[1750]

Last night I noticed a small pool of water accumulating under the stove. It took a bit to figure out what was happening... but when I did it was interesting.

It's very cold here at the moment (~ 10F). The frigid air coming in the OAK is growing a thick frost on the outside from the exterior wall to about 8 inches toward the stove. At that point the heat from the stove is melting the frost. The melt is following the line to the lowest point, where it's pooling. I noticed a bit of rust under a foot of the pedestal, so I'm guessing this has happened before and I just never noticed it.

The OAK is a single-walled flexible 3 inch aluminum dryer vent pipe. I'm guessing an insulated pipe would help this, but I've never seen one. It also makes sense that I wouldn't want to pipe that frigid air into the house, so maybe there's an additional reason to try and figure out an insulation option for this.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[semipro]

Could you wrap the 3" pipe with thin fiberglass insulation and then put a section of 4" aluminum flex over that?
It would need to be airtight so no moisture can make its way in to contact the inner pipe.

 

[richg]

This is a very common problem on outside air kits, both on wood and pellet stoves, but the fix is easy. Go to Lowes and find a product called Shurtape IT-100 Foam Pipe Wrap. It is a closed-cell foam tape that wraps around your outside air kit piping almost like duct tape. Problem solved.

 

[Crizzoft]

16.50 on amazon. Just ordered. 30 feet I'll be able to insulate some hot water pipes to boot. Thanks

 

[Highbeam]

That cold air will either enter your stove directly and be sent up the flue or it will enter your house to replace the heated air that your stove sucks out of it if you didn't have an OAK. You're doing the right thing with OAK.

I use the warmer air under my house in the crawlspace for OAK and haven't experienced frost even in single digit temps. I have seen light condensation on it though.

 

[1750]

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and suggestions on this. And, thanks to richg for what sounds like a very elegant solution.

The deep knowledge base and helpful folks on Hearth.com once more for the win!