Major issue with wood-stove - Need advice!

[PILOON]

One trick we used to use on a friend's wide/tall stone chimney at his 2 storey cottage was take a big shop vac, stick the hose on the exhaust port, and run it up inside the chimney before lighting the fire.

That would have the same effect as using the light bulb trick: getting rid of the cold air in the stack and starting the convection flow by blowing warmer air.

Eyeballing the pics I suspect (hope) that that stack is insulated double wall type due to the apparent outside diameter. If not double type then it is much to wide to ever work well. I would guess that that fireplace/furnace would want about a 6 inch flue or maybe 8 max.

 

[MH8675309]

Is the outside chimney made out of insulated pipe? The same kind you use to go through floors or ceiling? If not HEC is probably on the right rack. That chimney is tall enough it should draw well but if its not insulated it will collect creosote faster especially since you don't run this stove all the time. Hold a lighted match in front of the stove door opening with the door open. The draw itself should be enough to make the match go out. We run ours all winter long with it rarely going out if ever yet our chimney has negligible build up since it doesn't cool down enough for creosote to stick. And, we've used the same chimney for 20 years now. Something else to think about - a friend of mine had a house built back in the late nineties and had a stove set up in the basement. It didn't burn though - it just punked along and wouldn't really burn the way you'd expect. Turns out the house was so well insulated that there was no way for the stove (or occupants in my opinion) to properly breathe. They wound up making a fresh air inlet just for the stove and that made all the difference. Good luck with it.

 

[PILOON]

"One trick we used to use on a friend's wide/tall stone chimney at his 2 storey cottage was take a big shop vac, stick the hose on the exhaust port, and run it up inside the chimney before lighting the fire."

That would have the same effect as using the light bulb trick: getting rid of the cold air in the stack and starting the convection flow by blowing warmer air.

I re-examined the pics and see a plate below the joists, decent distance from combustibles (could be greater) and the flooring looks to be ceramic tiles=OK.(You want a minimum of 24" from combustibles)

Eyeballing the pics I suspect (hope) that that stack is insulated double wall type due to the apparent outside diameter. If not double type then it is much to wide to ever work well. I would guess that that fireplace/furnace would want about a 6 inch flue or maybe 8 max.

 

[dave1949]

The flue pipe coming out of the stove looks on the large side (diameter) to me. You may get a better draft with a smaller flue. Flues can be too large.

The horizontal portion of the flue pipe from the elbow to the wall thimble looks like it needs more upward slant. Pics are hard to tell but it looks like it runs downhill a bit to accommodate the thimble angle--which looks like it goes on the wrong slant too.

The outside stack is tall and cold exposed as it is, +1 on that. Have you brushed it out recently?

 

[Country Geek]

You should check out the forums at hearth.com. Excellent wood stove community there.

 

[Scooby074]

To my eyes, that install doesnt look up to scratch.

Home built stoves will void your insurance here, so the last thing Id do would be run a home built stove that doesnt appear to be up to code.

 

[teg]

....Have you brushed it out recently?

Got a photo of the bottom of the pipe, outside? Doesn't look like it would be fun to clean that...

 

[KennyG]

I don't usually get overly "safety police" but that installation scares me big time. If you really want to use the wood stove, put a true fire proof floor under it. Install a qualified double or triple wall pipe outside the house.

A smaller modern design stove would work a lot better. Basements always have a negative pressure problem and taking combustion air from the room will just make it worse. An EPA stove with an outside air intake will help a lot. Don't just open a window. To equalize the pressure you need to install a vent pipe from outside that has an inverted "trap" in it so cold air will only come in when the pressure is low and you won't lose heat you don't need to. With a trapped air intake you will only take in air to make up for the exfiltration from the upper part of the house, which is going to happen anyway. By making it easiest to come in the basement, you will solve part of the negative pressure issue.

 

[frankroberts]

If you aren't sure of what you are doing....don't do it. Get a small electric space heater in place of the wood stove. Be safe. Burning wood seems easy but there are a lot of variables...dry wood?...chimney clean....etc.

 

[charlz]

Sounds like you somewhat recently bought the place? If so was a home inspection done? The outside chimney really doesn't look braced/supported in anyway. If so a big windstorm could bring it all down. It also looks like it just squares off on top (although the photo is a little fuzzy) if so that could explain the lack of a cap..... caps are not made to fit on top of single wall pipe.....