Is my chimney too hot?? help

[grizburner]

Hello everyone, I joined up to ask you a question on my new stove. I had this stove professionally installed and recently fired it up for its first fire. I am concerned about my chimney getting too hot. The pipe from the stove is black and appears to be a single wall pipe and I expect it to be hot. This pipe then goes through a wall and joins a wider diameter, polished stainless pipe which I presume is insulated and double walled. It then runs through a guest room upstairs before going through the roof.

With a normal firing burning, the stainless pipe in the upstairs room is very hot to the touch. I can brush my hand on it briefly without burning my self, but if I kept it there any longer I would likely get burned. It is definitely not safe for children which will be a likely scenario for me.

Is this normal? How hot does your insulated chimney become? Can I enclose this chimney safely (label says 2 inch minimum clearance to combustibles)

 

[begreen]

We have class A passing up through a second floor. It gets warm, but never so hot that I would be concerned about a quick touch causing a burn. It would be good to know what the flue temps are coming out of the stove. Is there a thermometer on the flue pipe about 12" above the stove? Is so, what temperature is that pipe?

 

[summit]

put a thermo onto it, see what it reads.

 

[PapaDave]

I've been in the attic as the fire is burning in the stove, and the class A is only warm to the touch. I can keep my hand on it.
The stove pipe, however, is off limits.

 

[polaris]

I've been in the attic as the fire is burning in the stove, and the class A is only warm to the touch. I can keep my hand on it.
The stove pipe, however, is off limits.

Ditto.
Joe

 

[Backwoods Savage]

My chimney runs along the outside wall of the house. When burning good in the winter months I too can put my hand there but can not hold it there because of the heat and this is outdoors! No, I've never checked the temperature there as I don't think I'd get a true reading with just a thermometer.

 

[vvvv]

My chimney runs along the outside wall of the house. When burning good in the winter months I too can put my hand there but can not hold it there because of the heat and this is outdoors! No, I've never checked the temperature there as I don't think I'd get a true reading with just a thermometer.

paint a black spot on it & use the IR thermometer gun

 

[Backwoods Savage]

That is why I stated about a thermometer. Not too many of us have the IR gun.

 

[70marlin]

Doesn't it have to be enclosed if it passes thru a living space?

 

[Danno77]

Doesn't it have to be enclosed if it passes thru a living space?

that's my understanding. Also, it sounds like the black-pipe goes through the wall? I hope I'm reading that wrong.

 

[oldspark]

Doesn't it have to be enclosed if it passes thru a living space?

that's my understanding. Also, it sounds like the black-pipe goes through the wall? I hope I'm reading that wrong.

That's what it says and also he is assuming the SS pipe is insulated.

 

[SKIN052]

Simple answer here, yes! If you are concerned it is too hot, then it is too hot. Allot of common sense can be applied to wood burning. Get it checked by someone with experiance.

 

[colebrookman]

Check your bill.What kind of pipe did you pay for? Don't assume, be safe.

 

[begreen]

Post pictures if you are unsure. Something sounds amuck.

 

[Fsappo]

It does need to be enclosed. It would be good to know the type of stove, surface temp of the stove, surface temp of the single wall pipe and surface temp of the pipe upstairs. Also, get us a photo of the ceiling box and what it looks like up stairs. it "sounds" like it is getting two hot, but in the name of safety lets get some more data

 

[Ratman]

Simple answer here, yes! If you are concerned it is too hot, then it is too hot. Allot of common sense can be applied to wood burning. Get it checked by someone with experiance.

Best answer!

 

[grizburner]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will get some pictures up soon. As far as temperature, I don't know...is there a special way to record the temp?

 

[SKIN052]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will get some pictures up soon. As far as temperature, I don't know...is there a special way to record the temp?

The way you did it was fine. The black pipe is going to be too hot to touch. As long as it goes into a stainless steel looking pipe before passing through a wall then you should be good. The stainless steel pipe can be warm to the touch, but should not burn you.

Be safe.

 

[grizburner]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I will get some pictures up soon. As far as temperature, I don't know...is there a special way to record the temp?

The way you did it was fine. The black pipe is going to be too hot to touch. As long as it goes into a stainless steel looking pipe before passing through a wall then you should be good. The stainless steel pipe can be warm to the touch, but should not burn you.

Be safe.

yes, this is my concern, the stainless pipe seems extraordinarily hot, I can only stand to place my hand on it for about a second before I feel like I might get burned and I remove my hand.

It sounds like from most of you that the stainless pipe should only be luke warm or so to the touch, so I think I have a problem. I think I will hold off until I can have the installers come check it out.

 

[begreen]

If the class A is very hot, something is not correct and your concerns are justified. The question is why? If everything checks out, it could be a bad piece of class A pipe in which the insulation failed, settled or is missing. That's pretty rare, but who knows at this point. What is the stove make and model?

Pictures will help us look out for installation problems. Do you have a thermometer on the stove or connector (flue) pipe. Knowing what temps the stove connector pipe is at will also help. You are probably burning fine, but it would be good to be sure that you are not overfiring the stove. Also, is there a label on the stainless pipe? If so, please look for and report what it says for UL, or temp specification.

 

[grizburner]

Here are some pics of my setup...

Downstairs

upstairs

 

[begreen]

Ugh. That is a long horizontal run. Is that where the pipe is getting hot? How is the temp on the pipe in the room above?

Also, is that single wall pipe coming into the thimble? If so, how far is it from the top of the single-wall pipe to the ceiling?

If it is single-wall, it appears to have been installed backward.

 

[fossil]

Third pic down is sideways, I think. Needs to be tilted 90° CCW to be correctly oriented.

 

[grizburner]

Third pic down is sideways, I think. Needs to be tilted 90° CCW to be correctly oriented.

yes the third pic was sideways, but I fixed it.



pretty much all of my pipe is hot as far as I can tell, upon first firing, the single-walled pipe gets hot first while the stainless is still cool, but once the fire gets going, the double-walled pipe becomes very hot, both upstairs and down.

it is about 8 or 9 inches from the ceiling to the top of the single-walled pipe.

The system seems to draft just fine, I have to leave the door open just a crack to get it started, but once the chimney warms it draws just fine with the door and draft closed.

 

[begreen]

Besides being installed backward, the single wall installation is not up to code and would be my greatest concern from what is showing. It needs a 'minimum' of 18" between it and the ceiling. This installation should have a double-wall connector pipe to reduce the ceiling clearance requirement down to 6". Also, Simpson says that the thimble is supposed to project 6" of class A into the room. ICC says 4". That seems to be another issue. It would be good to confirm there are firestops at the ceiling penetration points and a radiation shield in the attic. It's a very neat looking job, but there appear to be some essential safety errors.

http://www.icc-rsf.com/en/icc/insta...-chimney-ultrablack-exceliner-excelpellet-ris