How to disassemble a QuadraFire Direct vent pipe

[Bob Edwards]

Hello esteemed community. We recently bought a house which has a non functioning QuadraFire Hudson Bay gas fireplace. We would like to remove it and replace it with an electric mini split. I am having a hard time figuring out how to disassemble the vent pipe. It appears to be a double wall pipe and, based on the installation manual, there are male and female tabs that lock together after you push one onto the other and rotate a quarter turn. Unfortunately, I have tried as hard as I can to counter rotate them so they unlock but nothing is moving. After many years, it seems those guys do not want to separate. The pipe goes straight up from the fireplace and then makes a 90 degree into a wall collar which leads into the attic. In there, I can see some galvanized pipe which goes to a second 90degree leading straight up through the roof. There is no section that can offers any easy disassembly such as a connector with screws or bolts or anything like that.

I've done a good amount of Google searching but cannot find any tips on how to take those apart. I would really appreciate any tips you guys might have.

Thank you very much.

Bob.

 

[DAKSY]

Can you post a pic of the stove, & venting, showing the seams in a close up?

 

[Bob Edwards]

Can you post a pic of the stove, & venting, showing the seams in a close up?

Certainly

 

[DAKSY]

OK. you have a STOVE not a FIREPLACE, that's why I asked you to post a pic.
First, turn off the gas, disconnect the gas line from the stove & cap it off.
If you have access to a of Belt Strap (or TWO), that's what I'd use.
The expansion & contraction of different venting sections can
cause them to lock together at the seams.
The installation is a simple cam-lock configuration.
Place a strap on the first section - just above the stove -- tighten it & turn to YOUR LEFT.
Turning lowermost section should unlock it at the top of the stove & the bottom of the 90 deg elbow.
Lift up from the vent to disengage the bottom section from the flue collar & either slide the stove out of
position or pull the venting away from the stove.
Drop the venting from the elbow.
Disengage the rest of the venting in this manner working from the elbow up.

 

[Bob Edwards]

Super helpful info, sir. Thank you very much.
Just to clarify, when you say turn to YOUR LEFT, that would mean clockwise if you are looking down at the stove, correct?

 

[DAKSY]

Yup.

 

[Bob Edwards]

Update: I was finally able to separate those pieces. But with one major difference from Daksy's suggestion. You have to unscrew by rotating COUNTER clockwise when looking down the pipe. So, not to the left but to the right. I had a feeling that was the case which is why I asked for clarification. Here is a pic to show how the locking system works.

Note that I tried to wrap some belts around the pipe but I had to apply so much force to try and unlock them that they just kept sliding around. So I ended up wrapping white duct tape with two "handles" so I could apply more torque.

 

[Highbeam]

Sawzall. I wonder why you would replace this with a mini split when they could actually complement each other very nicely.

 

[Bob Edwards]

Sawzall. I wonder why you would replace this with a mini split when they could actually complement each other very nicely.

I wanted to keep the pipes intact because the person who was buying it from me wanted to reuse them.