Sierra 4700 being burned without a pipe!!

[Blueyz25*]

We are strongly considering our first woodstove purchase, a used Sierra 4700 insert. It is in excellent cosmetic condition but my biggest concern is that it has been burned for the duration of its existence without any chimney piping whatsoever and its recommended pipe size is 6 inches?? We were concerned mainly about combustor damage and two, that a 6-inch pipe is too small for a stove of that strength as it will be going in a two-story 2200 sq foot colonial style home. From this attached picture of the stove fire box ceiling, can anyone tell if there is damage? I see a crack

 

[kennyp2339]

The front support bar looks a little warped but the rear looks ok for this angle, I'd check the by-pass damper to see if its warped at all. The black peeling stuff looks like creosote. The cat combustor looks ok, again from this angle, but regardless whether its ojk or not its better to start with a new combustor any way, same with changing out the door and window gaskets. I would tend to believe that since the stove was a slammer install (no vent pipe) that draft would be less than if it was hooked up into a true liner. Since the chimney is the engine of the stove I would say that the stove wasn't really ran as hard since draft regulates temp control of the stove (aka fire size) The best thing to do is inspect the stove in person, look for other signs of warping, make sure the bypass opens and closes smoothly, check the door seal (again a new rope gasket is cheap) but make sure the door isn't warped, and look for any cracks in the metal. I would look up stove parts ahead of the purchase so you can get an idea what a new cat will cost and other parts, no sense buying a stove to find out that the cat is a special back order item $$$

 

[Blueyz25*]

The front support bar looks a little warped but the rear looks ok for this angle, I'd check the by-pass damper to see if its warped at all. The black peeling stuff looks like creosote. The cat combustor looks ok, again from this angle, but regardless whether its ojk or not its better to start with a new combustor any way, same with changing out the door and window gaskets. I would tend to believe that since the stove was a slammer install (no vent pipe) that draft would be less than if it was hooked up into a true liner. Since the chimney is the engine of the stove I would say that the stove wasn't really ran as hard since draft regulates temp control of the stove (aka fire size) The best thing to do is inspect the stove in person, look for other signs of warping, make sure the bypass opens and closes smoothly, check the door seal (again a new rope gasket is cheap) but make sure the door isn't warped, and look for any cracks in the metal. I would look up stove parts ahead of the purchase so you can get an idea what a new cat will cost and other parts, no sense buying a stove to find out that the cat is a special back order item $$$

Okay- Sierra still stocks the combustors for about $145 so thankfully, that doesnt seem to present an issue. However, for such a big stove, wouldnt an 8" pipe be a better option?? 6" seems too restrictive...

 

[kennyp2339]

http://sierraproductsinc.net/customer-service/guides/pdf/140820_Sierra_4700_Manual.pdf

They say a 6" x 6" flue is the size, so we are not re-engineering a stove, I'd follow the manual 6" liner, minimum of 15ft length from stove collar to chimney cap
Look at page 6, insulated liner none the less, page 7 stipulates that a continuous liner must be sized at 6"