I have an Enviro Empress with a through-the-wall installation. I have a Simpson duravent 3" pipe out 14" from the house with Simpson's 45 degree vent cap. I have read all of Rod's posts at the top of the forum, relating to how the stove should have been installed; however, given the current installation, changing over will be expensive; & as the stove is installed on the front of the house (maximum heat distribution), my wife is very opposed to vertical pipe (while she conveniently ignores the possible smoke issues.) Had I known what I know now, I would have considered vertical rise inside the house.
That said, This stove has nearly completely heated our two story house for the past month and a half on 1.4 bags of pellets a day (in Maine) - adding in the extra electricity - a savings of 40-50% over what it would have cost with oil. During that time we have lost power 3 times. Twice the stove was on low at the time & once it had shut down from continuous high heat about a minute before. We got only minimal smoke, one time when the barometric pressure was very low & it was raining very hard, & that cleared after opening a window for only a couple minutes. We are getting some sparks & soot through the vent. The sparks can be substantially reduced with better quality pellets & working the draft so that there is less air when the burn pot is near empty.
Questions: After burning about a ton & a half of pellets, I vacuumed the pipe. There was about a half to three quarters of an inch of soot on the bottom of the pipe through the length back to the stove. Is this normal? As the manual says to clean the pipe every 2 tons, I am assuming it is not too far out of range?
Will putting vertical rise on the pipe reduce this soot, or will it simply keep the soot from exiting the pipe?
With my ash vac, which has a plastic hose attachment about 18" long, I can clean the pipe all the way back to the stove. How often should the stove be disconnected from the vent pipe & actually vacuumed at the connection? Is there a clamp at the connector, or will pulling the stove off likely disturb the rest of the vent installation?
Finally, it appears that Simpson only make the 45 degree vent cap. Does anyone know of a flat style cap that will fit on the Simpson duravent pipe?
mark
That said, This stove has nearly completely heated our two story house for the past month and a half on 1.4 bags of pellets a day (in Maine) - adding in the extra electricity - a savings of 40-50% over what it would have cost with oil. During that time we have lost power 3 times. Twice the stove was on low at the time & once it had shut down from continuous high heat about a minute before. We got only minimal smoke, one time when the barometric pressure was very low & it was raining very hard, & that cleared after opening a window for only a couple minutes. We are getting some sparks & soot through the vent. The sparks can be substantially reduced with better quality pellets & working the draft so that there is less air when the burn pot is near empty.
Questions: After burning about a ton & a half of pellets, I vacuumed the pipe. There was about a half to three quarters of an inch of soot on the bottom of the pipe through the length back to the stove. Is this normal? As the manual says to clean the pipe every 2 tons, I am assuming it is not too far out of range?
Will putting vertical rise on the pipe reduce this soot, or will it simply keep the soot from exiting the pipe?
With my ash vac, which has a plastic hose attachment about 18" long, I can clean the pipe all the way back to the stove. How often should the stove be disconnected from the vent pipe & actually vacuumed at the connection? Is there a clamp at the connector, or will pulling the stove off likely disturb the rest of the vent installation?
Finally, it appears that Simpson only make the 45 degree vent cap. Does anyone know of a flat style cap that will fit on the Simpson duravent pipe?
mark
