Pellet Stove vs. Wood stove installation...

[Warm_in_NH]

I'm a carpenter, it's my trade. I've installed two chimney's for myself over the past three years for wood stoves. Double wall, to the through the wall kit, then up the outside with Stainless, done.

We've got a basement finishing job on the books for the near future and the owner (who is also a friend of mine) is wanting a pellet stove installed in the basement. He wants to "do it himself" with my help.

I found both installs I did to be pretty straight forward, with great instructions provided by Selkirk, can expect the same ease of installation with the exhaust system for a pellet stove? Seems like it should be easier with a smaller pipe.

Anyone familiar with both, that you can give me a quick comparison?

 

[semipro]

The stoves are inherently different in how they operate.
Wood stove operates under a vacuum produced by the heated flue.
Pellet stoves have a fan that pushes air through the flue.
This makes leakage at connections much more critical on pellet stoves. This is why the sections are sealed together with silicone o-rings and/or high temp RTV silicone sealant.
Pellet pipe is typically smaller and is double-walled. Most pellet stoves use 3" pipe or 4" pipe (the larger for longer flues or higher elevations).
Pellet pipe is much more expensive.
Pellet pipe is double-walled so clearances to combustible will differ from single wall wood stove pipe.

 

[OhioBurner©]

Pellet pipe is much more expensive.
Pellet pipe is double-walled so clearances to combustible will differ from single wall wood stove pipe.

I would disagree on those two points, they certainly can be both expensive with some class A wood burning exhaust being very expensive. Double-walled... they both are. An clearances are different not only between pellet and wood, but between different brands of pipe so the difference lies in the specific pipe non wood vs pellet. For example single wall stove pipe has huge ctc, whereas my duravent wood liner is 0" ctc so you can experience the full spectrum with wood venting.

Pellet venting is nice in that you don't always have to run it up so high, many setups work fine with just a few feet of pipe horizontal through the wall. Some manufactures require a certain vertical gain like 3', so read the stoves installation instructions of course. Being able to vent just out the wall though brings up other problems... usually you have to be a certain distance in both horizontal and vertical directions from windows, doors, decks, eaves, etc. again that should all be in the stove's manual. And very important as semipro pointed out make sure to seal all interior pipe joint sections. Exterior is less critical, but I still seal them anyhow. And if its something you need to take apart fro cleaning, I'd not just silicone it like usual (very hard to get apart) but use the silicon tape like 'x-treme tape' which comes in clear, black, etc and can be had from amazon for example. Much easier to peel off later and replace when needed. Unless you get the nicer gasketed venting, then the seal is already a part of it.

Also some pellet stoves require an OAK (and most benefit from them anyhow due to the much larger volume of combustion air required). So another aspect of installation you need to plan for.

While draft is very important on wood stoves, pellet stoves are still very finicky about EVL. I've tried a couple different configurations with mine, initially using the same chimney as my wood burner (which according to my manual was fine) and had very poor results. The woodstove would be fine, but the pellet stove can get clogged up fast if venting isn't ideal. And it becomes much more of a pain, when they start to burn dirty that might require a pot scraping daily or more, and having to pull apart the combustion blower (requiring gasket) to clean, getting in the hard to reach passageways behind the firebox... much more of a PITA than a woodburner to clean if things aren't working ideally.