Isle Royale corner clearance confusion

[Jags]

Quad responded:
"Thank you for your inquiry.
Because we want your appliance to be installed safely and according to the correct installation specifications, local and national codes, we recommend that you work with your local dealer. Addressing very specific dimensions and clearance requirements can be difficult by phone and email.


Minimum clearances listed in our manuals are first of all just that – minimums. Secondly, any authority having jurisdiction may choose to place more stringent restrictions than what we have tested as safe.



Your local dealer can best meet your needs based on your specifications and home. We ask that your dealer contact us if further assistance is needed."

A pretty canned response in my opinion. I have responded to this with a very pointed question:

"Can you confirm that you have tested the 15" clearance to combustibles as stated in your manual?"

 

[begreen]

Sounds like something straight from India's database. Escalate to tier 2.

 

[Jags]

Whoa - this was unexpected:

Jags:
Thank you for your response. Can you confirm that the 15” clearance as stated in the manual has been tested to?

Quad:
Yes.

 

[MattFoley772]

Whoa - this was unexpected:

Jags:
Thank you for your response. Can you confirm that the 15” clearance as stated in the manual has been tested to?

Quad:
Yes.

I assume you told them you're talking about dimension A, right?

"Yes." How nice of them to elaborate.

While 15" is a surprise it's not that much different from 18". Anyway, my fascination is with their E dimension of 22" reduced to just 6"from the wall. From double wall pipe alone--no heat shields--the stove can magically be moved 16" closer to the wall. Somehow the double wall pipe up above is making the stove sides cooler down below. This is what we're supposed to accept without question? I'd love to see their answer about that.

Everything I've read about QF so far suggests their standard reply to customers is "see your local dealer." That's the way they're set up. Ok, whatever. The problem is he's not "my" dealer, I bought used on craigslist. And I'm sure dealers would love to spend their time during their busy season going over specs in a manual with a non-paying customer (sarcasm).

In my neighborhood are about 10 prefab chimneys and 6 or 7 do NOT meet the 10/3/2 height requirement, it's quite obvious just from looking from the street. So either they weren't inspected or they were inspected by somebody who didn't know what they were doing. This does not make me confident about inspectors.

 

[begreen]

They may have tested to the stove flue collar but the connecter is under NFPA ruling isn't it? Explain how to have the connector at 18" and the flue collar at 15".

 

[Jags]

They may have tested to the stove flue collar but the connecter is under NFPA ruling isn't it? Explain how to have the connector at 18" and the flue collar at 15".

Dunno. Every other place on the planet has the pipe at 18". Alien technology?

 

[begreen]

Do they sell a very tight 3" offset adapter?

 

[Jags]

Not that I am aware of. Isn't it recommended that the offset be closer to the ceiling than the stove?

 

[begreen]

I was saying that tongue in cheek.

 

[mliiiwit]

I think dim E for double wall is a typo and should be 16".

 

[MattFoley772]

The more I research this the more I realize what I don't understand.

It started with this question:

Q: How much can clearances be reduced with wall protection?
A: The manual for the Isle Royale gives no info to answer this question.

Q: Why doesn't the manual provide this? In comparison, I found a Vermont Castings manual that provides clearances for a) single wall pipe, b) double wall pipe, c) single wall pipe with wall protection, d) wall protection and stove heat shield.
A: ?

Which led to:

Q: The Isle Royale is tested to UL 1482. What does UL 1482 say about how it determines safe clearance to combustibles?
A: I tried to find UL 1482 online. Unavailable unless you want to pay big bucks for the manual. However, I did find the following excerpt from this document about how UL 1482 came about: http://preview.tinyurl.com/lvcnus3

Even the most basic requirement of the three fire tests—that the temperature not rise more than 117° F on exposed surfaces and 90° F on unexposed ones[30] —is largely guesswork. "There is some evidence to support these temperatures," observes a widely respected woodstove expert, but "they are still doubtful. Lots of different temperatures are plausible." A challenge to the rationale for these specific temperature tolerances was raised in the canvass process, but UL was unable to provide a specific response.[31]

31. An internal memorandum dated September 6, 1979, from C. E. Layman, an associate engineer at UL's Santa Clara, California, office (and on file at the Standards Department at UL headquarters in Northbrook, Illinois), states, "We are unable to comment at this time on the 90 and 117F temperature rise."​

Q: In the absence of an answer by the manufacturer, am I allowed to reduce clearances with wall protection? Says who? NFPA 211? UL? Local building code?

Q: Cheaper than double wall pipe, I have seen for sale heat shields that attach to single wall pipe for reduced pipe clearance, according to the manufacturer. Curiously, NFPA 211 rev. 2003 says nothing about reducing clearance with either double wall pipe or pipe heat shields; it mentions wall protection only. So who determined the reduced clearances for those two solutions?
A: ?

I would love for an expert to read this and provide evidence-based answers. I won't hold my breath.