Pipe Vent replacement

[Glenalmond]

I had my Harman Accentra freestanding professionally installed in 2008 in Malden MA and the local store has long since gone out of business. The stove I can maintain and clean but the pellet vent pipe on the inside has so many leaks now from me pulling off the clean out cap (which is siliconed in) that it needs to be replaced.

I am pretty handy but I am nervous about trying to disconnect the stove from the pipe and move it away from the corner myself. Also the current install is in a tight corner and it has a couple of bends in it to get it over the register in the inside of the house. The connect for the Accentra freestanding is pretty low to the ground and I am also worried on how to maneuver the stove to get the vent to connect back on it again.

Am I being too worried and this is an easy fix or should I try and find someone local north of Boston who can replace the interior portion of the vent pipe with a new one? Any suggestions would be gratefully received I have an 3 inch vent as best as I can tell its an ICC Excel connected to an OAK Thimble kit.

Thanks
Con

 

[DAKSY]

If that venting is ICC, & that silicone is from the original install, then the installer should be shot. There is no need for it to look like that. All that RTV on the OD is redundant. There are RTV gaskets internal to ICC pellet vent that prevent leakage. Does the outside look that awful, as well? Geez.

 

[Glenalmond]

The silicone is from me chasing down leaks for the last 14 years.

I am not convinced it is the excel vent with the gasket. I think it is older non gasket excel pipe. I don’t have the original paperwork anymore to confirm.

Would silicone tape over the seams work? The vent is in a really tight spot so trying to remove the old silicone will be very difficult without disassembling at which point I would use new vent. But the original concerns of manouvering the stove out and back to fit on vent come back.

Con

 

[Ocelot]

Silicone tape is a pretty popular option. As far as moving, I haven't done it with the Harman I installed last year, but moved out and pushed back my old Englander multiple times over the years for cleaning, auger motor replacements, other repairs, etc. I never had any issue in doing it, although I don't have any elbows. Mine is a straight pipe out through the thimble and then up outside. On my old Englander, it had two screws in the vent pipe adaptor holding it to the stoves exhaust port (which I know isn't the normal way it's done) and wrapped with metal tape. Once the tape and screws were removed, mine old stove slid out of the pipe on the tile hearth pretty easily. Putting it back was just a matter of aligning the stove with the pipe and sliding it back in. Once the exhaust port was in the pipe I just pushed and wiggled the stove to make sure it was seated all the way, put the two screws back in and wrapped some new tape around the joint. Yours with the elbows will have a lot more flex, so I would think you would have align and press the pipe onto the stove rather than push the stove into the pipe like mine. Mine was simply a foot of straight pipe coming through the wall to the stove and was non movable with no flex at all so it was the stove that had to be pushed into the pipe.