Stove Pipe Adapter for Jotul F12 Firelight

[danieltp]

I'm in process of installing my Jotul F12 Firelight. I had to ask the guy to leave after one morning, as I was not impressed with their work (i.e. using wrong screws and not adding studs around the thimble etc).

Despite reading the instruction booklets and forum discussions, I really can't find anything about how to connect the stove pipe to my wood stove, Jotul Firelight.

I'm using double stove pipe from Metalbest.

I went ahead and bought two different stove pipe adapter as I wasn't sure which one to use. The instruction book states that I should screw the pipes into the wood stove, but my exit flue doesn't have any holes and it doesn't look like it's designed to be drilled. I have read somewhere about how some people use cement to seal it?

I'm really stuck with this part - please help! Weather has been really miserable in Texas so far and it sucks to be not able to use the wood stove to warm up the house, especially on the first floor.

Metalbest 6D8-AA



Metalbest DSP65A


Thank you!

 

[Fsappo]

Is your stove flat black or enamel? I have used that top adapter on installations. I would drill holes in the collar of the stove the attach that AA. The thing is, on some stoves, the inside surface of the collar narrows as it goes down, so trying to cram that adapter all the way is doesn't work. So what I have done is put the adapter in the collar until I feel it hitting, mark a line at the stop of the flue collar on the adapter, remove adapter, cut with snips to make the male end short enough so that the male/female "slope" sites on top of the cast collar. Then I use 3/4" metal screws thru the predrilled cast collar and thru the adapter to hold the adapter in place. I take care to make sure it sits level. Then slide the double wall pipe over the female side of the adapter so the wall of the adapter slides between the inner and out walls of the dw stove pipe. Screw and done!

 

[danieltp]

Is your stove flat black or enamel? I have used that top adapter on installations. I would drill holes in the collar of the stove the attach that AA. The thing is, on some stoves, the inside surface of the collar narrows as it goes down, so trying to cram that adapter all the way is doesn't work. So what I have done is put the adapter in the collar until I feel it hitting, mark a line at the stop of the flue collar on the adapter, remove adapter, cut with snips to make the male end short enough so that the male/female "slope" sites on top of the cast collar. Then I use 3/4" metal screws thru the predrilled cast collar and thru the adapter to hold the adapter in place. I take care to make sure it sits level. Then slide the double wall pipe over the female side of the adapter so the wall of the adapter slides between the inner and out walls of the dw stove pipe. Screw and done!

The stove is enamel - I think I get what you're trying to explain here. I'll take a few pictures when I get home then I'll re-post. It'd be great if I could use the SS Adapter as I don't like the fact that second adapter added 2 - 3 inches to my vertical 36" stovepipe.

Only problem is that my cast collar (a part of wood stove) doesn't have any predrilled holes in it?

 

[Fsappo]

That's why they make drill bits and beer, to make holes where there aint holes.

 

[danieltp]

So I drill in the iron cast? I always thought they were "brittle" type of material…I bought this stove used but it's still in a pristine condition and am puzzled that the previous owner did not pre drill.

Daniel

 

[begreen]

I haven't found stove cast to be brittle. A sharp drill will go through cast iron quickly.

 

[danieltp]

how do I prevent the enamel from chipping? tapes? any good instruction on how to drill enamel cast iron out there?

 

[Ashful]

Hi Daniel. I had the same problem with one of my Firelight 12's. It seems the first year of production (1993) did not have any provision for fasteners, to positively connect the stovepipe to the flue collar on the stove. Just a gravity fit, which has obviously worked fine for many customers for many years, but is not the modern safety recommendation.

Jotul handled this a little backward, in my opionion, since they drilled and tapped two holes into that cast collar. So, instead of having thru holes in the collar, thru which you would insert sheet metal screws and run them into the stovepipe, they want to to put two clearance holes in the stovepipe and thread machine screws into these tapped holes in the collar (which then protrude into the stovepipe and lock it in place... sort of). I'll get a photo of mine tonight.

I use two Firelight 12 stoves, and while the newer one came with these screws and holes, the older one had none. That older stove was actually run in this house for at least 18 years without those screws, but I figured I should add them when someone here mentioned it last year. I simply drilled and tapped holes in the older stove, to match those on the newer stove. I even went the extra anal-retentive step of doing it in metric, as Jotul is Norwegian.

The collar is designed to accept standard 6" stove pipe (crimped). I think I used a stovepipe adaptor on one of mine, and just crimped the pipe directly on the other.

I'll post more info tonight.

 

[danieltp]

Joful,

You don't know how reassuring your post is for me - yes, our stove is 1993. I'm already looking forward to see your pictures and will be extra anal, just like you were with the whole process of securing the pipe to stove. The stove is in pristine condition and I really want to keep it that way. I did wonder to myself, whether the stovepipe was meant to be "gravity fit" as you called it, but I have three children and want to make sure it's safe. I did not secure the whole stove pipe yet, as I'm still waiting for the universal adapter (the part that connects stove pipe to chimney pipe) and thought that may would help secure the vertical stove pipe.

Again, I'm looking forward to see what you did with your Jotul. Two F12? you must really like them

Thank you!

 

[Ashful]

Here's the "new" stove, manufactured sometime after 1993, and installed a few years ago by me. It's funny, I can't see that rust in person, but it's there in the photos... go figure.

In any case, you can see I used a stovepipe adapter to single wall stovepipe, here. It was just easier, but you could also just crimp end of telescoping pipe (what's above the adapter), and fit that into the collar.



Truthfully, I do NOT like the way Jotul did this, and if installing new parts today, I'd just replace the bolts (M5?) with no.8 sheetmetal screws thru 0.201" holes in the collar, self-drilling into adapter. The trouble with the bolts is partly getting the thru-holes in the collar in the right place, and partly with getting your chimney sweep to orient it right upon reassembly, so he doesn't crush your stovepipe when he runs the bolts back in after a cleaning.

I'm happy with my stove adaptor / telescope / stovepipe liner adapter setup, and would recommend going that route, if you're connecting this into a liner.

 

[danieltp]

Thank you for posting a picture of your jotul with drilled holes and giving me some ideas. It looks like I will have to MacGyver the whole thing

I personally like the stainless steel adapter better because I already installed the thimble in the wall with this certain height in mind and stove pipe will connect to the chimeny pipe near perfect. If I use the second adapter (Metalbest DSP65A), it will add two or three inches to the height of stove pipe (it's fixed 36 inches, not telescopic), meaning I'd have to move thimble up a bit. By the way, it's 36 inches up, 90 degree elbow, then through the wall set up.

What I'm thinking of doing here…



I liked Fsappo's suggestion of trimming on the bottom to push the adapter all way down. It is already snug and I really have to wiggle and pull to take it out. I'm tempted to do this without drilling, especially if it's more snug after trimming. If my guts is telling me otherwise, I'll go ahead and drill holes to hold the adapter securely in the place.

One more question, the female part of adapter doesn't go inside the double stove pipe. it goes in the gap between two pipes - Is that allowed and safe? Or do I need to have the female adapter go INSIDE the whole thing. This double pipe already has three pre-drilled hole, and I'll just screw this stove pipe to connect with adapter, and add a finishing band as well. I'm not sure why my photos are showing sideway.

Does this whole MacGyver plan makes sense? Again, thank you all for your time and help.

 

[Ashful]

Well, I can't speak to double-wall pipe, as I've never used it. However, I can say you want the pipe above inside the pipe below. So, it's correct that the inner pipe of your double-wall goes inside this adaptor, not outside. The idea is that wet creosote dripping down the inside of your pipe runs into the stove, and doesn't make its way out at the joints.

 

[Fsappo]

Back when I used to drill thru enamel (the days when the matching Vermont Castings stove pipe was all the rage, 3 or 4 layers of masking tape and a special bit...cant remember what it was tipped with, gave us about 90% success rate when drilling thru cast. The other 10%, touch up enamel took care of.