New Wood Stove - Pipe Install Question

[Young_Buck]

Hi all,

I worked this weekend on hooking up our new Englander 30-NC wood stove and I had a question about the way the stove pipe setup ended up working out.

The background:

- The wood stove is installed in our partially finished basement of our 1200 sq. ft ranch home.
- No combustibles are within 3 ft of the stove
- The chimney is a 25 ft or so masonry chimney with only the wood stove hooked up to it - it's also somewhat centrally located in house.

What I did:

- Set the stove on 4" concrete blocks to raise it off the floor a little
- I hooked the wood stove up to the chimney by using Ventis single wall (24 ga) black stove pipe
- I used 18" vertical piece out of the stove, a 90 degree fixed elbow, and then a 24" horizontal piece into the chimney.
- I chose not to use a damper at this time
- I screwed all of the pipe together using 4 screws per joint (including at the flue collar on the stove)


My question :

- Does this install sound acceptable?
- My horizontal pipe (24") does not have the 1/4 or 1/2 inch rise per foot as I've seen mentioned. Is this a problem??

Anything else that I'm missing?

I haven't fired it up - checking with the insurance company first, but I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Thanks again for the help.

Regards,
YB

 

[SteveKG]

Not a professional here, just a long-time stove user. I didn't gasp or shake my head at your installation description. The usual advice is to have the slight rise in the horizontal pipe, or, better, use a couple of 45-deg. elbows rather than a 90 [for quality of draft]. But go on and try the stove. If it draws well, does not smoke from the pipe into the room, you should be good to go.

If there are problems, then you can figure out what best to do to remedy. I have been around quite a number of stoves with pipe installations such as yours, and they all seemed to work fine, though it was in other people's homes...so I have no full-time experience with them. But it does not sound as if you are gonna burn down the house, so give it a try and see how it goes is what I'd do.

 

[Young_Buck]

Not a professional here, just a long-time stove user. I didn't gasp or shake my head at your installation description. The usual advice is to have the slight rise in the horizontal pipe, or, better, use a couple of 45-deg. elbows rather than a 90 [for quality of draft]. But go on and try the stove. If it draws well, does not smoke from the pipe into the room, you should be good to go.

If there are problems, then you can figure out what best to do to remedy. I have been around quite a number of stoves with pipe installations such as yours, and they all seemed to work fine, though it was in other people's homes...so I have no full-time experience with them. But it does not sound as if you are gonna burn down the house, so give it a try and see how it goes is what I'd do.

Thanks, Steve. I appreciate the response.

-YB

 

[Young_Buck]

Does anyone know if the horizontal rise is a code requirement, or will the insurance company require it for our homeowners policy?

I'm really kicking myself about this. I spent a good amount of $$ on the pipe and I would hate to have to re-do it.

Thanks again for any help.

-YB

 

[BrotherBart]

It is dictated in NFPA 211 standards for chimneys and fireplaces. And NFPA has been adopted statewide in Vermont in the their building and inspection codes.

 

[BrotherBart]

This is the section in the Vermont code.

11.5.4 Vents. All chimneys, smokestacks, or similar devices for conveying smoke or hot gases to the outer air and the stoves, furnaces, incinerators, boilers, or any other heat-producing devices or appliances shall be installed and maintained in ac- cordance with NFPA 54, National Fuel Gas Code, and NFPA 211, Standard for Chimneys, Fireplaces, Vents, and Solid Fuel-Burning Appliances.

 

[mellow]

* The connector pipe’s horizontal runs should rise ¼” for each foot of
pipe, with the highest point being at the thimble.

I got that from the state of Maine's install guide: (broken link removed to http://www.state.me.us/dps/fmo/documents/Woodburning)Stoves.pdf‎

I am sure that applies to Vermont as well.

 

[Young_Buck]

This is the section in the Vermont code.

11.5.4 Vents. All chimneys, smokestacks, or similar devices for conveying smoke or hot gases to the outer air and the stoves, furnaces, incinerators, boilers, or any other heat-producing devices or appliances shall be installed and maintained in ac- cordance with NFPA 54, National Fuel Gas Code, and NFPA 211, Standard for Chimneys, Fireplaces, Vents, and Solid Fuel-Burning Appliances.

Thanks, BrotherBart. Very helpful as always. So, my current setup needs to be fixed. Any suggestions? Should I do away with the 90 degree elbow and go with 2 45s?

I worked on this all day yesterday and had such a feeling of achievement afterwards, but I guess that was premature.

Thanks again everyone.

YB

 

[BrotherBart]

I would get it inspected and if the inspector doesn't gig it for the rise and the stove draws well I would consider all good. I don't have a rise in the horizontal in the connector pipe in the basement and it works fine.

 

[Young_Buck]

I would get it inspected and if the inspector doesn't gig it for the rise and the stove draws well I would consider all good. I don't have a rise in the horizontal in the connector pipe in the basement and it works fine.

Thanks. I will do that. Should the insurance company be the one that inspects it, or are you talking a building code/fire inspector?
I'm excited to try this thing out, but I also want to make sure I have all my ducks in a row first.

Thanks again.

YB

 

[BrotherBart]

Local building mechanical inspector. You probably needed a permit to install it in the first place and the inspector has to sign off on it. That is all the insurance company will be concerned about.

 

[Young_Buck]

Local building mechanical inspector. You probably needed a permit to install it in the first place and the inspector has to sign off on it. That is all the insurance company will be concerned about.

Ok. I'm not sure I needed a permit? I did not check into that as I was replacing an old Shenandoah stove with this new one. Hopefully I didn't break any rules.

I just called my insurance company and talked with my rep about it. I explained in the install and he said that he was fine with everything and would document it as an approved install on my policy. His main concern was clearances and I have absolutely no issues with that.

I'm going to try it as-is. I think the draft will be strong as it always has been.

Thanks again for your help BrotherBart. You guys are awesome.

PS - Would love one your infamous Englander shirts...
Thanks again,
YB

 

[BrotherBart]

Just got a new order of them in.

Here's yer shirt.

 

[Dan Johnson]

You could probably loosen all the screws then replace the 4 inch blocks with 3-1/2 inch blocks and have a half inch rise in your 2 foot pipe.
Re-tighten the screws.

 

[Young_Buck]

You could probably loosen all the screws then replace the 4 inch blocks with 3-1/2 inch blocks and have a half inch rise in your 2 foot pipe.
Re-tighten the screws.

Thanks, Dan. The blocks that I got are more like 3 1/2 inch tall (advertised at 4 in blocks but they are not), so I'm not sure I could just switch the blocks out to gain that extra 1/2 inch. Great suggestion, though.

Thanks,
YB

 

[oldspark]

24 inch, would not worry about it unless the inspector don't like it, you are missing a 1/2 inch rise, not sure what thats going to do for you, I think it becomes important on a longer run.