Gas Direct Vent Reverse venting - Vermont Castings Radiance

[tn-ken]

Hi - I've got a15 year-old VC Radiance stove that's been working great until this year. Now it is reverse venting (hot air out the intake port at the bottom). I initially thought that the intake was clogged so took down the pipe and found a wasp nest. Thinking that was the issue I made sure there weren't any additional issues and reconnected only to find the same thing happening.

Then, I took the vent pipe off and ran it without and found it doing the same exact thing. Then, I restricted the intake port (using fiberglass insulation) and it seemed to be ok but wasn't working well. There appears to be some small leakage at the bottom of the glass panel but I'm stumped as to what to do next. If I leave the insulation blocking most of the intake vent and put the pipe back in place then it works mostly ok but not great.

I would greatly appreciate any info you care to part with.

 

[DAKSY]

OK. You say Direct Vent, but your description is that of a B-Vent.
What type of vent pipe do you have?
6-5/8" outer with a 4" inner or simply a 4" pipe?

 

[tn-ken]

OK. You say Direct Vent, but your description is that of a B-Vent.
What type of vent pipe do you have?
6-5/8" outer with a 4" inner or simply a 4" pipe?

I may not have the terminology correct but it has the pipe within a pipe (outer for intake and inner for exhaust). Since this is a Vermont Castings stove, I took out all of the "logs", made sure that there were no obstructions in either of the pipes (found a small crispy wasp nest in the exhaust pipe). At first it was still doing the same thing but after restricting the intake almost completely for a short while the stove is now behaving itself. I think it needs a bit of a restrictor on the intake side as the vertical rise is about 6 ½ feet.

Any other input graciously received!

 

[DAKSY]

Unless the manual says there is restriction required, I don't think that short of a vertical would need it.
Generally, vertical runs over 20 feet or so are detrimental to DV units.
The air drops in so fast it disturbs the pilot & causes safety shutdown...
Glad you got it going.