ICC Excelpellet Leaking at every seam...Oh crap.... All good now w/ pics:)

[richkorn]

Just installed. Leaking like crazy out of appliance adapter. Pretty good above the female flex adapter and slightly at all seams. Have stove adapter, 12" straight, T, female flex adapter.

Guess i need to start over.

 

[gbreda]

ICC should not be leaking at all. Make sure that you seal the appliance adapter up good with high temp RTV inside and outside. The rubber seals inside the seams need to be seated properly and not damaged.
I had a minimal leak on an elbow at startup only and just put tape on that. No leaks at all after that.

 

[richkorn]

This is partly due to lack of experience and partly due to bad/vague instructions in ICC instructions.

Stove adapter was not sealed good at all. I believe it is now. Need to fill the whole channel between the inner & outer pipes then I put in two screws. Flex adapter to flex liner needs the crap sealed out of it with RTV also. Dealer just gave me info from ICC on sealing that. The rubber seals were probably not seated properly on the pipes. I will be careful with that when i put it back together.

Do you use dish soap on the silicone gasket like the instructions say?

Thanks for your reply.

 

[Dr_Drum]

Hey Rich, I use a dab of silicone grease smeared along the leading edge of the gasket. Dishsoap I'm sure would work just as well.
Mike -

 

[richkorn]

Mike what kind/brand of silicone grease? I've never used it.

Thanks

 

[vinny11950]

Richkorn, sorry to hear it leaked so much. I am interested on how you do, as I will replace my install with ICC in the next couple of weeks. Good luck.

 

[richkorn]

Richkorn, sorry to hear it leaked so much. I am interested on how you do, as I will replace my install with ICC in the next couple of weeks. Good luck.

Vinny I finished the new ICC pipe install. I haven't fired up the stove I am going to wait 24 hours for RTV to cure real good. I went into my existing flex liner so it was real pain laying on my back inside the firebox wedged behind the stove

The pipe slides/twists together pretty easy. Instructions say use a little dish soap on seals. My snags were how to correctly put in the flex adapter and I did not originally silicone the stove adapter correctly. The channel needs to be filled & then put stove collar into it to dry.

I'll post a few pics soon.

 

[vinny11950]

I just picked up my pipe yesterday, and looking at the stove adapter, I have to say it looks like one solid piece. I tested joining a pipe to the adapter and I could only get 1/2 inch deep. I didn't use soap and I didn't want to put more pressure being I was just fooling with it. But it does seem like the pieces will require some force to get them to join the 1.75 inch of slip with the gaskets in there. but I guess that seals it too.

I agree with you, the ICC install manual is pretty poor. I wish they gave more pictures and talked in more detail on how to join the pieces together, specifically about overlap, and attaching the screws.

I think i will add a little RTV in between the pipes of the adapter. It won't be seen and will protect again smoke coming out of there. I had that happen to me with Duravent and it is a pain in the ass putting that stuff on the adapter when attached. Like you said, "laying on my back" is no fun! Good luck when you fire it up. I used to get anxious when I was trying to seal the Duravent. Failure meant hours of orange silicone finger fun under the stove.

 

[richkorn]

Just make sure you fill that whole adapter gap with RTV and I also put RTV on the inside where the inner pipe ends inside the stove output collar. Dish soap on the silcone seal helps a lot and keeps the seal from unseating. Twist them back and forth into the seal. It will go.

 

[vinny11950]

thanks, rich.

good luck and looking forward to the pics.

 

[gbreda]

Rich,

Sounds like you have the hang of it now and hopefully all is well when fired up. A little dish soap should work just fine.

My final problem was at the 90 deg elbow on start up only. I tried 2 different elbows and both leaked on the 90; "around the corner". That's when I just taped up those joints.

Good luck and post some pics when it done

 

[richkorn]

All done. A clean install and no leaks. Now i can take pipe apart for annual cleanings if i desire.

THE OLD and THE NEW:

 

[vinny11950]

Sweet install, Rich.

What type of stove adapter is that? looks different from mine.

Also, how do you get back there? pull the stove out and crawl some?

It looks so much better than the old. Thanks for sharing.

 

[richkorn]

Thanks Vinny,

It's the same stove adapter I sprayed it with my Stove Bright "New Iron" finish.

I pulled out the stove to do the install so i could squeeze back in there. Only ripped holes in one t-shirt doing it! Now that it's back in I should not have to move it out again even to take the pipe apart. the only thing left to do when I get around to it is stuffing some insulation up around the the flex liner to block off the gap in the damper area.

 

[Dr_Drum]

Mike what kind/brand of silicone grease? I've never used it.

Thanks

The grease is really "Dielectric Grease" in the automotive section at Walmart. You can use it for all sorts of electrical connectors and I was using to coat boat trailer light bulbs as they corrode fast. I doesn't really matter, vasaline, dish soap, even spit should all work fine.

Mike -