Outside air kit in Alaskan temperatures (-40)

[jpowell1979]

I recently hooked up my outside air vent on my Harman XXV. I noticed right away that the outside air pipe frosted up. Just wondering if anyone has had any problems in extreme cold. I could imagine problems with frost buildup restricting air flow or maybe lost efficiency with air that is too cold. I run the stove pretty much 24/7 on room temperature mode and it keeps 1800 sq. ft. at 74 even at -40 outside. I figured that hooking it up would reduce outside air coming in, but I don't want to create new problems.

 

[imacman]

Do you mean frosting up on the outdoor part where the air enters the OAK, or the interior part of the pipe between the wall and the stove?

 

[Dougsey]

My OAK pipe frosted up as well. Wrapped it with some black foam insulation purchased at Lowes/HD.

 

[drizler]

My OAK pipe frosted up as well. Wrapped it with some black foam insulation purchased at Lowes/HD.

I made my own OAK out of aluminum dryer flex vent. They are right, when it gets very cold out sometimes it becomes completely covered with frost. For that reason I don't use mine all the time. It's just sleeved on so I simply unhook it to run room air when the humidity gets too high

 

[m159267]

My 2' OAK on my P38 will frost & ice in single-digit / sub zero temps. The only problem I had is when I wrapped the OAK with insulation. I guess something froze in the stove and it shut down. I removed the insulation, thawed the iced OAK with a floor heater and after a few minutes the stove started w/o issue. Other than that I have had no issues with a frosted/frozen OAK. I do lay a folded towel beneath it to catch a few drips when it thaws.

 

[checkthisout]

I recently hooked up my outside air vent on my Harman XXV. I noticed right away that the outside air pipe frosted up. Just wondering if anyone has had any problems in extreme cold. I could imagine problems with frost buildup restricting air flow or maybe lost efficiency with air that is too cold. I run the stove pretty much 24/7 on room temperature mode and it keeps 1800 sq. ft. at 74 even at -40 outside. I figured that hooking it up would reduce outside air coming in, but I don't want to create new problems.

It would be expected that condensation would form on the outside of the tube inside the house as moisture condenses and then freezes on the surface.

This is another good case for heating OAK air using the sel-kirk direc-temp stuff.