Parts & Installation Help for Petit Godin Wood Burning Stove

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OwenskiJR

New Member
Dec 7, 2020
4
Richmond, VA
I recently bought a never been used Petit Godin stove and need help with parts and installation in my older home. The stove has a 4" flue pipe coming out the back that I'd like to convert to 6". My plan is to use a DuraVent DuraPlus Through-the-wall Chimney Kit (https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200316637_200316637) which is only compatible w/ 6" diameter pipe. The owner's manual for the stove also recommend 150 mm which converts to 5.9" so thinking it's likely to help w/ the draw. My question is can I use 4" to 6" Pellet Stove adapter with this wood stove or is there something else I need to use? Any help would be greatly appreciated since it's getting cold and I'd like to get it installed ASAP. Thanks!

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That looks like it was primarily designed to burn coal. Beautiful stove, but be careful loading it full of wood and be quick with fire adjustments. I've spoken to some folks who restore stoves like those for a living and they all say the tinwork on the outside of the burn pot can be easily damaged by overfiring the stove on wood and replacements are hard to find.

If you like the heat from your beautiful antique there is a high likelihood you will want a different stove that can manage longer burns. I would suggest making your wall penetration much higher than the flue outlet on your stove. This will allow you to easily put a different stove on the same chimney later.
 
It looks like that part is also for a pellet stove. Just checked the specs. Do they make a part that's specifically for wood burning stoves?
No, that is 24ga black stove pipe.
 
SpaceBus is spot on...on all counts!!

STOP!!If you want that stove to remain as is, either don’t use it, or find out what size anthracite coal to burn in it. It’s a coal stove!! Sure, you could burn small amounts of wood...as in barely filling it up, but bigger loads can cause it to get too hot and potentially ruin the outside finish.

Anthracite burns much different than wood. The coal burns from the bottom up through the top of the load of coal. Additional coal on top slows the air flow from underneath. Coal ash forms from below and grows upward and you can’t see it on top. Only when you shake it down.

With wood it burns top down, or outside towards the inside. You can see ash forming on the outside of a piece of wood as it burns. That is why you’ll see an old cowboy Chuck wagon cook fan the flames with his hat before laying his steaks on an open fire grate or even on the wood itself. Why does he do that? To remove the ash off the outer layer of the wood before placing the meat on the fire.

Also, the air paths inside that stove could clog with creosote if you burn wood.

I understand this is not what you want to hear, but I would not recommend you burn wood in that little stove if you want to keep it pristine.

Benefits of burning anthracite coal in it far out way the wood burning.

-Less tending
-Less heat cycling, as in more constant heat output at a more constant temperature.
-Less overall maintenance, as in creosote removal.
-Keeping the stove in better condition in the long run because...

...as long as you do your part in closing the ash pan door you are very unlikely to ever over fire this stove. More chance of that with wood because of the nature of the burn.

Do you want to sell it? I know where a good home is...where it remain in its current state.
 
For anyone reading this thread after all this time, ignore anyone saying you can only use coal in it, however many exclamation points they use.

That's a Petit Godin - (probably a 3720(?) - and they're intended for use with both coal and wood. We have the shorter, ovalised model (3726) and have burnt only wood in it for about 10 years, without any problems. (The advantage of the oval one is that you can fit logs up to 30cm in it sideways).

It's also not an antique, it's art nouveau style but you can still buy them today.

As for the pipe width, the manual recommends a 15cm minimum diameter, but says 12.5cm is acceptable. We have a 12.5cm pipe coming out of the back of ours.

I've attached an English version of the Petit Godin user manual, in case anyone needs one...
 

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