T connector cleaning farce

[Stove Goon]

OK, now that the heating season is more or less over, I thought I should clean the pellet stove. It is a fireplace insert, a Whitfield Profile 30. When it was installed, a T connector was mounted on the back, not readily accessible. To get at anything in the back, I had to disassemble the surround and pull the stove out as far as it would go, which wasn't far because of the pipe going up the chimney. I could not get at the T connector to even examine how I might attempt to clean it out, so I left it until now.

The only way I could do anything was to reach behind the stove and blindly unscrew the nuts holding the flange on the exhaust fan housing. So I did that, and an explosion of fine ash billowed out. Lovely. At least now I could pull the stove out of the way. So with a plastic bag attached to the flange, I banged on the pipe to collect as much as would fall out. But the T connector was still attached to the pipe. I thought I should pull the bottom off the T to get the ash out. The bottom of the T would not come off. So I tried to coax it off. It would not budge. I ended up using a wrecking bar and hammer to mangle the bottom enough so it would come off. What a joke. This is supposed to be cleaned once a month? The way this is made I have to disconnect the stove and destroy the parts and install new ones every time it needs cleaning. This is completely nuts.

In my situation the fireplace has an opening in the back with ash pit below. It seems to me the only thing that makes sense would be to not have a bottom on the T, since it is inaccessible even if it were possible to remove it which with this T it wasn't, and have a pipe attached to the T that goes down through the ash pit opening with a terminus right behind the ash pit cleanout door in the basement. At that point, a cap should be on the pipe, but a cap that can easily removed. Then it could be cleaned without disconnecting the stove and without ash covering everything in the parlor.

The T connector is a Simpson Dura Vent "Tee with Cleanout". With cleanout? Really? Could have fooled me. There is no way that T can be opened for cleaning. It was friction fit but also had indentation locks on it. It was designed to prevent being opened.

So my question is: Does anyone know if there is a T connector that is not designed by idiots? Thanks very much for your help.

 

[Xena]

I put some never seize on the inside of the cap
which helps a lot with the removal. IF you didn't
destroy the entire T you may want to just get
another cap and try it. Works great for me.

 

[imacman]

......The T connector is a Simpson Dura Vent "Tee with Cleanout". With cleanout? Really? Could have fooled me. There is no way that T can be opened for cleaning. It was friction fit but also had indentation locks on it. It was designed to prevent being opened.

So my question is: Does anyone know if there is a T connector that is not designed by idiots? Thanks very much for your help.

OK, now don't bite my head off for asking this, but you DID turn and unlock the cap before you tried to remove it, right?

 

[Xena]

Macman makes a good point. Many people don't
realize the T cap is a twist-lock. Especially folks who
didn't install the stove themselves.

 

[Stove Goon]

Thanks all for the replies. The idea of turning it did in fact come to me before I got the wrecking bar. So I tried to turn it by hand, no luck. Dangling at the end of the pipe that goes up the chimney, options were limited, but I tried my really big pipe wrench to crank that thing. It managed to scrape the paint off and grind some bits of metal off as well, but did it turn at all? No. It may as well have been welded on. Indeed turning it was the first thing that occurred to me. It just looked like the thing to do. But after the hand and then the pipe wrench failures I did not know what to think. Then I got creative.

It was installed for me. I did not know anything about how the Tee was supposed to be cleaned out. At the time I did not think to ask the installer. But after getting it apart and examining it I can see what the intent is. Pity that intent does equal results. No way would it turn. I think it may have complicated things to leave it in place all season, but when access requires disassembling the surround and pulling the stove out (the stove is massive dead weight) and even then the access is really lousy, I have to wonder how anyone imagined this arrangement would be anything close to reasonable.

If I put this back into service next winter (I say if for other reasons) I will definitely not put on a Tee with a cap. Since I have the ash pit below, there is no reason to go through all that struggle just to broadcast even more dust all over the room. A pipe going down to the cleanout door below, with a tight but easy to remove cap behind the door, is the way to go. Unless, of course, one or more of my helpful comrades here has a more elegant suggestion.

 

[ablejoy]

I would try a strap wrench one used on large truck oil filters to loosen the clean out cap.

 

[Panhandler]

I don't have an insert, but my bottom cap was stuck on. I just use a piece of flexible tubing on the end of my shop vac hose to reach and clean the clean out tee going in thru the adapter.

 

[firewarrior820]

I have excel pellet vent pipe with a t-clean out,it doesn't leak,you don't have to silicone it,you don't have to unscrew it, it works like a charm.

 

[KINGOFTHENORTH]

These t-caps are different,could also make one instead of buying one....