My BIL and I were talking over Thanksgiving about him replacing his wood stove. They have an A frame house with a too big wood stove and an 8" pipe. It goes up 3 sections then through ~6' of double wall stainless and then through the roof. So a new stove will be a 6" flue. What is normally done to have a proper draft? Pull the whole works and run the 6" all the way up or if it is reduced @ the double wall or?
KennyG
Elite Member
The "right" way to do it would be to change it all out to 6". However, I have a small wood stove with a 6" connection that I then adapt to 8" and it goes into an even larger masonry chimney and it works fine.
gsganzer
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One thing you have to watch for, is condensation if the pipe is too large. The exhaust can cool too much and reach the point where moisture condenses out.
When I was doing forestry work, the owner had a house built and thought he was doing a great thing by upsizing his chimney flue. He had a wood fired furnace in the basement and he was constantly fighting moisture when he wasn't firing hard. The moisture would run out all over the basement floor.
When I was doing forestry work, the owner had a house built and thought he was doing a great thing by upsizing his chimney flue. He had a wood fired furnace in the basement and he was constantly fighting moisture when he wasn't firing hard. The moisture would run out all over the basement floor.
Larry Caldwell
Super Member
People who burn wet wood should not burn wood.
gsganzer
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It's not just associated with wet wood. Even "dry" wood (<20%) has moisture.
With his scenario, you could see the changes in condensing follow barometric pressure changes. Or, if he had the main house fireplace burning he didn't have the issue, because they had side by side flues in the same chimney and would be just enough to get some added heat.
ericm979
Super Member
Most modern (i.e. EPA) stoves use 6". Double wall if it's exposed to the interior of the house, double wall insulated if it runs through a chase. Only the largest ones use 8". You need a really big space for one of those.
Like gsganzer posted, the current thinking is to keep the exhaust hot all the way through. Modern stoves expect it.
The modern EPA stoves not only burn cleaner but get more BTUs from the same load of wood. The only problem is that they don't deal with wet wood as well as older non EPA stoves.
Like gsganzer posted, the current thinking is to keep the exhaust hot all the way through. Modern stoves expect it.
The modern EPA stoves not only burn cleaner but get more BTUs from the same load of wood. The only problem is that they don't deal with wet wood as well as older non EPA stoves.
