Hopefully your pellet stove installation is better than this one

[hearthtools]

Elk
help me out here
You noted that you must have a block off plate even if you do a FULL reline?
I have not seen this in any intall manual for the pellet stoves i sell UNLESS you do a Partial Reline.
My practice for the past 18 year has been to Stuff the Damper with Insulation to keep Soot from sucking into the blowers of the stoe and into the room.

Just checking with you not questioning you.

 

[elkimmeg]

Pelet stove codes are sparce leaving it up to manufactures specs to determine correct installation proceedures.
There is language regarding limiting intrusion of room air into the void created by a permanently open damper.
There is als additional language concerning the block off be ridgid and securely fastened.
However this applies to solid wood burning appliances it does not single out pellet stoves or exempts them
One can interpet pelets as solid fuel burning and apply this code language. Another part of code language is concerned about draft stopping and energy conservation. Even with a thin metal top cold air decends down a chimney when not in use Ever scrape frost off
a single glazed window inside a home? this same principle can be applied to the top chimney metal plate. It may stop drafts but not the cold. Same as the glass it stopped the draft but enough cold came threw to create frost. This is a round about way that can be applied to require sealing that opening. this is more of an issue with wood stoves due to cresote build up enhanced by cooler room air cooling the ss liner creating the conditions for rapid cresote development. IF a permant sealed damper block off plate is installed along with a sealed top is this not a formation of dead air space? Is not dead air space a form of insulation? Pelet exhaust does not approach wood stove temps so fiberglass insulation can create a seal and insulation factor. The issue then becomes is it ridgid and permanently fastened. What about humidity and condensation in summer collecting in that fiberglass insulation it gains weight sags and changes positions now it is not acting as a seal. Can fiberglass insulation store mold. you bet. Another reason code can address its usage in this application. I can present a compelling arguement for requiring a galzanized metal block off, even for pellet stove instalations. I doubt your inspectors look at your installations the way I do. Do what they will accept