Radiant floors and Wiseway clearances

[Evelyn]

Hi! First Post!


We have a couple concerns before we can buy a Wiseway Pellet Stove. We will be replacing a Bixby stove and using that chimney.


1) The existing chimney is 3” surrounded by 5” double walled construction. The existing vent goes through a SuperiorWall concrete wall and out the side of the house. The Wiseway would have a straight of 2.5 feet and then a 90 to the outside- then there is another 3 feet of chimney, most of it outside, to the cap. Would this configuration work? It will be less than the 8 feet vertical straight I’ve read about, and it terminates horizontally.


2) We have orange radiant PEX in the concrete floor and internally aluminum shielded black tubing in the ceiling for the second floor. We have a blue PEX water line coming into the house in the wall behind where the Wiseway will be situated. I’m concerned about PEX melting. How much heat will the Wiseway radiate in all directions? The ceiling is 9’3”.


3) Our house is an Enertia Home with a vent of air coming from the attic space. Would we need an additional outside air input? The outside two inches of the existing pellet stove pipe served this purpose for the Bixby, but I don’t see how this could help with a Wiseway, other than providing some small buffer from the chilled air. And we will have to figure out how to seal that part of the tubing too, or have a continual draft. Any ideas? I suspect GreatStuff would not be heat tolerant close to the stove, but could seal it outside.


Thank you for your advice. I did call USSC but they do not have figures on temperature readings in the vicinity of the stove.

 

[johneh]

The stove must have come with a min. clearance chart
Us that as a guide and add what you feel safe with .
Not knowing your stove it is the best advice I can give.
Use Hi Temp Silicone to seal your pipes (the red one )
Welcome to the forum

 

[railfanron]

Pex tubing is rated at 180 degrees F and if the area is getting hotter that that you have a real problem developing.
Ron

 

[Evelyn]

Thanks John and Ron... I read the Wiseway published clearance to combustibles, but they don't specifically say anything about radiant tubing embedded in the immediate vicinity. The PEX radiant is supposed to run below 140, and the Wiseway can get to 700 at the chimney so that is our biggest concern. I have serious doubts that the temp at the ceiling will cool that much in the 28" space between the chimney and the ceiling. The heat from the Bixby is regulated at 140 from the blowers- too far away to cause any stress on the PEX in any direction.

Ah, I hoped we could go with the non-electric innovation... without solid numbers other than PEX parameters we will have to look at something else.

 

[mikelcan]

Hi! First Post!


We have a couple concerns before we can buy a Wiseway Pellet Stove. We will be replacing a Bixby stove and using that chimney.


1) The existing chimney is 3” surrounded by 5” double walled construction. The existing vent goes through a SuperiorWall concrete wall and out the side of the house. The Wiseway would have a straight of 2.5 feet and then a 90 to the outside- then there is another 3 feet of chimney, most of it outside, to the cap. Would this configuration work? It will be less than the 8 feet vertical straight I’ve read about, and it terminates horizontally.


2) We have orange radiant PEX in the concrete floor and internally aluminum shielded black tubing in the ceiling for the second floor. We have a blue PEX water line coming into the house in the wall behind where the Wiseway will be situated. I’m concerned about PEX melting. How much heat will the Wiseway radiate in all directions? The ceiling is 9’3”.


3) Our house is an Enertia Home with a vent of air coming from the attic space. Would we need an additional outside air input? The outside two inches of the existing pellet stove pipe served this purpose for the Bixby, but I don’t see how this could help with a Wiseway, other than providing some small buffer from the chilled air. And we will have to figure out how to seal that part of the tubing too, or have a continual draft. Any ideas? I suspect GreatStuff would not be heat tolerant close to the stove, but could seal it outside.


Thank you for your advice. I did call USSC but they do not have figures on temperature readings in the vicinity of the stove.

#1 - Since the Wiseway stove is a draft based stove it needs more vertical pipe to develop the draft. What I read is that you have less than 8 ft rise with two horizontal runs (from inside to outside and at the cap). The newer models installation calls or 4" pipe. My older stove did allow for 3" pipe. It think 15 ft vertical is the recommended rise with 45 degree angles preferred over 90 degree angles. Also since it is a draft driven stove I believe that it is required that the stove pipe terminates higher than the highest point of the roof.

#2 - The installation manual has the clearances listed. Ask USSC for the manual for the model you are thinking about prior to purchase to ensure you can meet the clearances. The manual will also answer #1 for you.

#3 - My county requires a OAK if the stove has the connection for it which the Wiseway did. If not they require an OAK terminated within a set distance (I think 3 foot) from the stove. If your permit does not require an oak I would figure a way to connect the OAK that you had from the Bixby to the Wiseway.

Mike

 

[Evelyn]

Thanks Mike for the first hand experience. I hear you about the drafting, OAK, and the clearances, but, yeah, I'm not getting enough hits to qualify for the Wiseway with our existing situation. Too bad for us- it's such a great idea!

 

[Evelyn]

I have a new question. Our Bixby 110 won't run. It starts and runs for about 15 minutes, then the convection fan idles down but I can hear pellets are still feeding into the burn pot. We replaced our broken door glass with stainless steel, so we can't really see what's going on. Unplugged it, made sure all connections at the boards are tight. The only error message is 1 and 7 blinking - left igniter out. If I turn up the heat, the fan stays at idle.

 

[Mt Bob]

I have a new question. Our Bixby 110 won't run. It starts and runs for about 15 minutes, then the convection fan idles down but I can hear pellets are still feeding into the burn pot. We replaced our broken door glass with stainless steel, so we can't really see what's going on. Unplugged it, made sure all connections at the boards are tight. The only error message is 1 and 7 blinking - left igniter out. If I turn up the heat, the fan stays at idle.

You should start a new thread about the bixby.There is an expert,will try to find link for you,but start new thread

 

[Mt Bob]

I have a new question. Our Bixby 110 won't run. It starts and runs for about 15 minutes, then the convection fan idles down but I can hear pellets are still feeding into the burn pot. We replaced our broken door glass with stainless steel, so we can't really see what's going on. Unplugged it, made sure all connections at the boards are tight. The only error message is 1 and 7 blinking - left igniter out. If I turn up the heat, the fan stays at idle.

In this link,send private message to rona,he will help.https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/bixby-maxfire.162746/