I seen there was no listing for an oak. do I need one? Our house is a 1970s ranch with new windows and doors and ok insulation.
looking over work order for Ashford
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Oak is good whether you need it or not. You want it. My princess needed an oak adapter but the ashford may already be equipped with a proper snout.
I prefer not to have a cold air pump on my stoves. I have never once had any issues finding combustion air.
Let me ask you this: does your range hood have outside air? Your dryer? Bath exhausts? My point is, these appliances dump more air out of your house in a very short time than a stove does in an entire day.
I'd skip it unless its a new home or Unless your house is spray foamed. Otherwise I feel that it's unnecessary.
Let me ask you this: does your range hood have outside air? Your dryer? Bath exhausts? My point is, these appliances dump more air out of your house in a very short time than a stove does in an entire day.
I'd skip it unless its a new home or Unless your house is spray foamed. Otherwise I feel that it's unnecessary.
Where do you want to install the stove? Do you have an easy way of running a duct to an exterior wall in which you can cut a hole? The OAK adapter for the stove is only a small part of an outside air connection. Unless your house is really airtight and you have problems with draft, it is not needed. I usually like to recommend it for a new, well-insulated and airtight construction. For an older home, I am not sure if there is enough benefit to make it worthwhile.
This is one of the reasons for the OAK, see those devices suck air out of your house in competition with the stove. This weakens the draft and makes your stove burn worse or in extreme cases can cause a backdraft.
The other obvious reason is that without an OAK you will be burning indoor heated and humidified air all the time and sucking cold, dry, air in from the outside. It's hard enough to keep humidity up in the winter.
An OAK never hurt anyone, it can only help. When I added my first OAK (required for my stove permit) the whole family noticed the lack of cold drafts moving along the floor toward the stove.
The only reason I can think of for why someone wouldn't install an OAK is that they don't want to put forth the effort.
Another reason is that not all stoves direct connect the OAK to the primary and/or secondary manifolds. Some just dump cool air into the pedestal base or bottom area of the stove. That can leak cool air into the house when the stove is not running.
If your stove was pulling cool air across the floor, find the leakage and seal it. We have never experienced this since we put the house on a good foundation and sealed leaks. The floors are warm and draft free.
If your stove was pulling cool air across the floor, find the leakage and seal it. We have never experienced this since we put the house on a good foundation and sealed leaks. The floors are warm and draft free.
This is entirely a personal opinion.
Arent all those other appliances also pulling in air and causing drafts?
OAKs have hurt some, many people complain of cold air infiltration when its not being used, many fight condensation issues in all seasons. Even if its insulated it can be a battle in some situations.
I completely understand the idea behind an OAK, I just don't feel it's necessary on every application. It has nothing to do with being lazy.
Those appliances are pulling air also and causing drafts ONLY when they are running and like the stove, the draft is felt near the appliance. I don't lay around near my dryer but I do feel the draft on my feet in the bathroom.
It has everything to do with being lazy. There can be a reason to not install an OAK, it will be due to the stove location. There is no reason not to install an OAK, the colder the climate the more important it is to install an OAK for maintaining humidity in the home. Cold air does not infiltrate the home unless you open the door, besides, why isn't a fire burning?
OAK is required for me to pass inspection. Both stoves would have been failed if it wasn't hooked up. I asked each of the inspectors. They allowed me to go OAKless in the shop because of the slab construction.
How would outside air leak from the ashford? The beauty of the OAK setup is the sealed combustion system.
True for some stoves, but not for others. When our stove install was inspected he just glanced at it. Never said a word about needing an OAK. In our damp winter climate our house rarely drops below 35% humidity and more often is like 45% or higher. We are not like the NE where the outdoor relative humidity drops down into the low 20s and the inside humidity is in the single digits. I'm not adding another hole to the outdoors unless it is justified.
I agree. I sure don't want to make unnecessary holes in my house or any customers house for that matter. I have never heard of an oak being required except in a mobile home.
And I sure don't like being called lazy for making an educated decision that fits each individual install. I do dozens of new installs a year and to say an Oak is necessary across the board is just silly.
What's silly is being too lazy to install them. Perhaps it is a low profit part of the project?
Yes, I don't appreciate being called silly and you webby were the first one to use the word lazy.
Yes, I don't appreciate being called silly and you webby were the first one to use the word lazy.
To OAK or not to OAK is a frequently debated topic. I've been here long enough to see that the discussions always go the same way. The OAKs aren't always required but they never hurt anything. It is up to you to decide if you want to do it right or to skip a step and cut the corner.
Sorry the topic got of course a little. I hope you are still around here.
Is there some reason that you feel you need one? I also have a 70's ranch and have no issues at all, i have no Outside air on either stove. It certainly won't hurt anything to have one installed. But, be prepared. It's gonna be slightly hideous, in the dead of winter it will most likely frost up and drip condensation on the floor. Insulation prevents most of it but it still can drip from the connections. Again, not all do this but its not uncommon either.
If you really want to get fancy, you could use this combustion air pipe from Dura-Vent. It pulls combustion air down around the flue. I installed one of these systems earlier in the year, but it was in a foam house.
(broken link removed to http://www.duravent.com/Product.aspx?hProduct=23)
Still here trying to take it all in, We have an oak on our fireplace and just assumed it was the way to go.
Well I think you assumed right. I've never had any kind of dripping issue but that might be due to our climate.
You can always try the stove out without the OAK and then add it later. No harm in that. I would guess that most stoves do not have the OAK installed though after not having one and then having one I will always install the OAK unless it is particularly hard to do so.
I currently have a crawlspace under my home and used that for the intake location so no holes in the outside of my house. Do you have a crawlspace?
Most high Effiecincy fireplaces require it. But it's only required because these units are installed behind a wall that is all sealed up. It doesn't have free air available to it like a free standing stove. Many Zero Clearance open fireplaces have outside air hook-ups on them, some get hooked up just because they are there, but they do nothing but let cold air in. But a stove will be different, like was mentioned above, it's sealed up to an extent and less cold air is noticed.
Not putting in an OAK is not corner cutting. I have yet to see a wood stove manual that lists an OAK as one of the required installation steps for anything but a mobile home. Some stove manuals don't mention the OAK installation at all.
If you don't seem to have any other moisture issues in the house then I'd say the Oak is the reason for the rust on the fireplace.
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