Improving Jotul install for better cleaning. How?

[bigealta]

Hi. I have and original Jotul 3 and have been burning it almost 24/7 during the heating season for about 10 years. It is "Slam Installed" in the existing fireplace (in the center of the house). I've run the single wall pipe up into the 1st clay flue tile 9x13 (i think) and wrapped insulation to fill the gaps. I take every thing out 1 time a year to clean. Usually the clay flue is pretty clean with not much if any creasote. I do however get small pieces of crusty tar/ash that find there way past the fiberglass and onto the top of the stove and floor. And also there is a huge mess each year when the pipe comes out and the fiberglass falls to the floor full of a years worth of ash.

The draw and burning have always been excellent and continue to be.

I am looking to make the install better after the next time i clean it. I don't really want to run a liner as this seems to be a waste. I'm thinking about an adapter that would catch falling debris from the flue tile.

A 6" to 9x13" adapter that would fit snugly inside the flue tile. If the debris falls inside the metal pipe than cleaning would be much easier and neater.

Also would a blocking plate help me here? Would it really help push more heat into this house? and as far as removing it to clean when i have to take the pipe out will it be a big hassle getting it in and out?

Also i've niticed some fine fibergalss hairs on top of the stove. I want to replace the fiberglass at least with another material that won't shed the fibers. Would rock wool be better? I think the kaowool may shed?

Thanks so much for any help. E

 

[gpcollen1]

How on earth is a liner a waste? The standard install is a liner with a block off plate. Anything less than that is lame. Any reason not to do this is an excuse to do it wrong.

 

[Shari]

6" SS insulated liner, pull stove forward a bit and install T-connector off the back of the stove, insert proper block-off plate.

 

[bigealta]

2 reasons i'd prefer not to run a liner.

1. This has been working well for 10 years.
No backdrafting, gulping, week draft or problems except for the annual cleaning mess.

2. The chimney runs up the center of the house and is fully exposed on the second floor (cape style house). There is no heat on the smallish second floor but the thermal mass from the brick gets nicly warm and keeps the bedroom heated all winter with no add'l heat. The brick is in great shape and can be easily visually inspected at anytime.

If i line the clay flue (which is already a liner) i fear i will lose the heat gain into the upstairs and now i'll need to find a way to heat it. Not a small or easy job in this house.

 

[bigealta]

Any thoughts on a clay flue to 6" metal adapter?

 

[Hanko]

Wow that does look like a can of worms. I think Sheri has the right idea, but it will take a liner to do the job. That install looks like a guy I know, his initials are R.G.

 

[Shari]

At minimum, pull the stove forward into the room, vent thru rear stove flue, add a t cleanout. Blockoff plate would still help. This would still not be an optimum installation.

BTW Very nice setting!

Shari

 

[bigealta]

Yes the pic is deceiving, the stove is out about as far as it can go with about 1/4 of it infront of the face of the fireplace. Doesn't look like it in the pics. But the problem for me is with the fiberglass used to wrap the pipe in the clay flue. That is where the annual mess and shedding of fiberglass needs to be addressed.

Has anyone seen a stock pipe adapter 6" round to rectangle clay flue.( ? x 12"?) to hot to measure now.

 

[Shari]

Yes the pic is deceiving, the stove is out about as far as it can go with about 1/4 of it infront of the face of the fireplace. Doesn't look like it in the pics.

I understand what you are saying but possibly you are not following what I am trying to convey. Look at this image:

If you pulled the stove forward, you could come straight down with your liner, add a T fitting (the red circle area in the diagram above) on the back of your stove. Cleaning would be a breeze: Just remove the bottom of the T fitting and sweep the liner.

 

[bigealta]

Shari thanks for that pic but i don't have that set up. If you look at the pics i don't have a traditional damper. Rather they just built this fireplace with a T damper in the 1st flue tile. (Like a damper used in a 6" metal pipe above a woodstove.) the inside of the fireplace just narrows like a pyramid till it gets to the 1st flue tile. My pipe is now coming out the back of my stove and goes directly straight up into the flue. And if i were to move the stove further it would be on the wood floor in the living room. Have a look at the original pics to see the inside of this unusual fireplace.

And the problem is not with the ash falling inside the pipe it is the ash falling to the sides of the pipe on the insulation.

I can add a t fitting as it sits now. Just switch out the 90 elbow for the t.

Yes i can see how to get a blocking plate in here but will it be a pain to take out to clean to ash that will fall on the top of it?

Thanks

 

[Shari]

Okay, I 'finally' understand what you are saying.

(EDITED)
You have a 'slammer' install. With that type of install you can not stop crud coming down.

The only recourse would be to install a full height liner - don't know if you can/want to do that.

 

[Shari]

duplicate post for some reason......