Questions about cleaning stove pipe- Quadra Fire Discover II

[christocyclist]

Hi there... new to these forums.

I have a question about cleaning my stove pipe/chimney.

We had a Quadra Fire Discovery II professionally installed last year in our new home. 6" pipe. Previously there had been a Vermont Castings VIgilant c.1983 or so with an 8" pipe. They installed a tapered pipe (8" to 6") that goes to the original 8". Original 8" installation goes straight up through ceiling. Pulled a permit with my town, etc. Burns great... we love it.

I'm a self employed carpenter and handyman and so decided to tackle the pipe cleaning yesterday. Got a nice 8" round brush to clean the upper pipe. I pulled down the 6" where it connects to the tapered pipe and secured a bag at the bottom of the tapered piece and it cleaned nicely. All good.

Here's my challenge/problem/advice needed-

• The 6" section attached to the stove is about 48". I can't seem to get it off. It rocks back and forth but won't come off.
• I thought that perhaps I could just clean it with a 6" brush and let the stuff fall into the stove BUT am concerned that this is a bad idea. The Discovery has ceramic batting and baffles. It would seem to me that it's a bad idea to just let the stuff fall back into the stove... I'd love to be wrong!

Advice please. I like to do maintenance on my own things (truck, house, etc.) and so this seems like a reasonable task. I think. But I'm open :D

• If I could figure how to get the 6" section of pipe off that won't come off, I could tackle this easily.

Thanks in advance. This is my first post although I've been gleaning lots of great info from this site for the last year or so.

PS I've cleaned old stoves that were more straightforward...

 

[kennyp2339]

You have to remove the baffle board and reburn tubes. Check your manual. Also do you have a pic of the pipe in question? Is it a slip pipe or just a 1 piece, look for screws or apply a little more force to slid the pipe into itself if slip type

 

[christocyclist]

You have to remove the baffle board and reburn tubes. Check your manual. Also do you have a pic of the pipe in question? Is it a slip pipe or just a 1 piece, look for screws or apply a little more force to slid the pipe into itself if slip type

Thanks... not sure I know how to remove the baffle board and reburn tubes but I think it might be pretty straightforwared. If this is what is right above the main part of the inside of the stove, it is attached with two screws on each side. If I do this, will the debris simply fall into the stove?

The 6" pipe is slip on. It has two sections. One is about 48" and a smaller section is right on the stove. I've removed all screws. Correct to assume that any sort of spray to loosen would be a bad idea (noxious when burning stove... seems like a bad idea unless there is something that I'm unaware of...

 

[Highbeam]

You know that the 6" piece comes off, you just need to find the fasteners or give it the proper amount of pull. The original installer put it in so it can be removed. Normally there will be three screws at the flue collar if this is single wall.

 

[christocyclist]

You know that the 6" piece comes off, you just need to find the fasteners or give it the proper amount of pull. The original installer put it in so it can be removed. Normally there will be three screws at the flue collar if this is single wall.

Thanks. I've removed all of the screws and am still having trouble. I'm pretty mechanically inclined...

Any tips on how to get this first piece off? Some trick of the trade?

 

[kennyp2339]

Post a pic of your black pipe so we can advise properly

 

[christocyclist]

 

[christocyclist]

I think that I found the problem... it is visible in the close up shot. It seems that the original installers somehow snapped off a screw when they were installing the pipe. You can see the nub just to the right of the hole. I need to reverse bit remove it and take it from there I think.

 

[Highbeam]

I think that I found the problem... it is visible in the close up shot. It seems that the original installers somehow snapped off a screw when they were installing the pipe. You can see the nub just to the right of the hole. I need to reverse bit remove it and take it from there I think.

You might be on to something there. I can't believe that they tried to zip a self tapping sheet metal screw into that heavy wall appliance collar. Should have predrilled. Judging by the paint removed by the tightly torqued screw heads elsewhere on that pipe these guys were way overtightening things as well.

 

[christocyclist]

You might be on to something there. I can't believe that they tried to zip a self tapping sheet metal screw into that heavy wall appliance collar. Should have predrilled. Judging by the paint removed by the tightly torqued screw heads elsewhere on that pipe these guys were way overtightening things as well.

That was it. I was able to get it off (after failing with a screw extractor bit). I ended up drilling out the screw and filling it down a bit so that I could get to get the section off...

....thanks for the help and advice.

 

[Highbeam]

When you reinstall those screws just get them snug. You aren't trying to hold a head gasket down! The nicer you are to those threads, the less likely you are to strip them if you need to remove them a lot.