Stove pipe/chimney question

[MrsSouthy]

I'm so thankful for how helpful you all have been. I hope to someday have as much knowledge and be able to pay your kindness forward to others who need the help. My question is this....I'm checking out a stove with a rear flue which is 28" to the top of the flue and our fireplace opening is 29.5" tall (attaching pics to help with the visual). We would have to set the stove on the hearth then extend it to match the required clearances then run an elbow out the flue to go up the chimney. Here's the thing that has been giving us trouble the entire time we've been trying to figure something out (several weeks now)...The opening between the lintel and the back of the fireplace is about 5.75" so we were going to bring the flex liner down into the fireplace opening then attach to the appliance connector then attach to a stove. It is proving extremely difficult to find a stove that is short enough to allow the room needed to attach to a connector then to the flex liner prior to entering the chimney. So can we make regular stove pipe fit through that 5.75" opening (like using a vice or something to just compress it a little)? We are trying to avoid messing with the brick in our antique house and I know messing with the lintel is out of the question so IF we can fit that stove pipe up past the tight spot and then connect to the liner we would have SO many more options. Is this doable? And again, thank you so so so much!!

 

[mark cline]

Hard to tell how much room you have above and below the lintel, but how about a 6" to oval adapter back to an oval to 6" round to fit into the stove. ??????????

 

[Batman]

... IF we can fit that stove pipe up past the tight spot and then connect to the liner we would have SO many more options. Is this doable?


Yes you can but...

Why not squish, or "ovalize" the bottom end of the liner to pass by the narrow damper and then connect to that? It will be easier, more practical and arguably safer to have any stovepipe connection inside the fireplace opening rather than out of sight above the damper. Stovepipe wont last as long as the liner. If it is connected blindly to the liner, it would be damn difficult to see how the stovepipe is wearing. Also, it is best to have a mechanical connection of all pipe joints, i.e. screws or clamps. making that connection up above the damper would be a challenge. I make all these points because I have a similar situation. To accommodate my stove`s flue collar height, I had to remove a brick, nibble out a bit of the lintel (i realize you do not want to do disturb your fireplace). I also had to bash my tee in a little to make it through the damper frame.
When I insulated my liner this fall, it somehow shrunk a little. So after i fought with it for a while I ended up using a short length of stovepipe to make up the difference. It sucked, and caused much swearing. I knew it was wrong as I was doing it, too. My penance is that i get to do that part all over again when I swap out that hunk of stovepipe for stainless.


happy new year.

 

[Fireshoppe]

I've looked inside many hundreds of fireplaces and can't tell what is above the damper throat. Is that the damper plate? Anyway, call a local dealer who sells Olympia chimney liners and order a 7" flex liner kit with insulation. Have them ovalize the bottom 4' of flex and build a custom cleanout tee that accepts the ovalized flex and has a 6" take off the length you need to plug into the stove. Also look into upgrading the top plate/cap assembly to the terracotta mount cap for your size flue. It will look much nicer. (broken link removed)

Beautiful fireplace by the way.

 

[MrsSouthy]

Why not squish, or "ovalize" the bottom end of the liner to pass by the narrow damper and then connect to that? It will be easier, more practical and arguably safer to have any stovepipe connection inside the fireplace opening rather than out of sight above the damper

Ok, the best way I can think to explain it is if the top of the flue opening on the stove is 28" and the top of my fireplace opening is 29.5" I only have 1.5" til pipe is going up into the lintel opening. I can't think of a way to bring the liner down into the fireplace opening and elbow the stove pipe up and fit all that into the 1.5". That's so hard to explain. Does that make sense at all?

 

[Fireshoppe]

Don't use an elbow, use the tee in the above post. This tee will have a hose clamp connector at it's top. You will drop the ovalized flex through the narrow opening (this is why 4' is ovalized) connect the tee and pull it back up to the height to connect to the stove and trim off the excess at the top.

 

[MrsSouthy]

I've looked inside many hundreds of fireplaces and can't tell what is above the damper throat. Is that the damper plate? Anyway, call a local dealer who sells Olympia chimney liners and order a 7" flex liner kit with insulation. Have them ovalize the bottom 4' of flex and build a custom cleanout tee that accepts the ovalized flex and has a 6" take off the length you need to plug into the stove. Also look into upgrading the top plate/cap assembly to the terracotta mount cap for your size flue. It will look much nicer. (broken link removed) Beautiful fireplace by the way.

That sounds like a great idea. You think it would work given that we only have 1.5" from the top of the flue opening to the bottom of the lintel? I hope so! And thank you

Hard to tell how much room you have above and below the lintel, but how about a 6" to oval adapter back to an oval to 6" round to fit into the stove. ??????????

I would have 1.5" below the lintel and above the flue opening on the back of the stove.

 

[MrsSouthy]

Don't use an elbow, use the tee in the above post. This tee will have a hose clamp connector at it's top. You will drop the ovalized flex through the narrow opening (this is why 4' is ovalized) connect the tee and pull it back up to the height to connect to the stove and trim off the excess at the top.

Makes sense and totally sounds like it would work! Is it super pricey to have something like that tee made?

 

[Fireshoppe]

Well you will likely spend in the ~$1000 area for everything so "super pricey" is relative but this is the right way to protect your home and preserve the fireplace.

 

[MrsSouthy]

Well you will likely spend in the ~$1000 area for everything so "super pricey" is relative but this is the right way to protect your home and preserve the fireplace

That's not that much different than what we figured we'd be spending. When you say everything, are you talking about from chimney cap down to tee?

 

[Fireshoppe]

That's right. But of course I'm ball parking here.