I bought a wood cook stove a couple of weeks ago and it is getting cold enough now to motivate me to install it. I have never dealt with a wood heater before. I bought the safety insulated special pipe for where it will be going through the wall. I also bought galvanized pipe. My problem is the pipe is split up the side. I know this is normal but how do I get it put together? I think I can figure out how to install it after I figure out how to get the pipe together(I hope). Any advice before I tackle this project would be appreciated. Thanks Amanda

-- Amanda S (aseley@townsqr.com), November 06, 2000

Answers

I noticed the part about galvanized pipe, heating anything galvanized gives off poisonous fumes, make sure you've got the right pipe for wood stoves, okay? Nothing like a real fire to warm ya up, but gotta be safe, for sure. GL.

-- Matthew in Central Illinois (matt777harris@webtv.net), November 07, 2000.

Here's alink for safe installation info: rochfd.org look under fire prevention.Make sure you're installation is safe!!!!

The pipe snaps together & is wrestled into this configuration!!.I know of no other description! I found it hard to do but I don't have the strenght.

-- sharon wt (wildflower@ekyol.com), November 07, 2000.

Amanda, be careful! Wood heat is great, but I've found that a lot of novices create serious hazards, both by improper installation and by improper use of wood. I sure did, and almost burned the house down with a flue fire, twenty-five years ago.

I also recommend against galvanized pipe. I recommend heavy gage black pipe; it's a lot longer lasting and safer than the thin walled "blue black" pipe. You can also get it in different lengths, such as four feet, preassembled. If you do buy the kind that you have to assemble, it just snaps together. "just".

The way I almost burnt the house down was by burning really crummy wood for about three months. This resulted in a lot of creosote build up in the flue. Then I burnt part of a very pitchy stump. Boy, what a lot of soothing heat that gave off! Then, rather suddenly, the heater, and the flue, started getting alarmingly hot, and turning red, then white. This was accompanied by a sound that I can only describe as like that of a lear jet taking off in my living room!

The flue pipe got so hot that it became translucent. You could actually see, faintly, the damper INSIDE the flue pipe! And then, the second to the bottom flue pipe (they were two foot long sections of the thin walled blue black pipe) came "unsnapped! This allowed the top four or so feet of flue pipe to slide down on the bottom section of flue pipe. About four or five feet above the heater, there was a ninety degree elbow where the flue turned to go into a masonry chimney. The flue pulled out of the chimney when it slid down the bottom section. The result was a "blowtorch" coming from the end of the flue, six inches in diameter, shooting from the flue about foot into the masonry chimney entrance. I had to lift the white hot flue with towels, hot pads, and anything else on hand; after several attempts, each of which resulted in almost instantaneous combustion of the towels and hot pads, I succeeded in reinsertng the top of the flue into the masonry chimney. I had to hold it in place (using sticks of wood), until the chimney fire finished burning up the creosote, and returned to a normal fire. Whew! I hope nobody ever has to go through this, as it was very stressful!

Ever since then, I've learned my lesson. I burn wood which is seasoned AT LEAST a year, and usually two years.

I also ALWAYS secure the flue pipe into the masonry chimney, if there is one, and I ALWAYS stagger the seams on the flue pipes so they don't line up with each other, and put four self tapping sheet metal screws in place to hole each piece of flue to its neighbor. Seams go on opposite sides from each other, with a screw an inch away from each side of the seam, and two more screws one third and two thirds of the way around the flue from the seam. I don't know if that's clear; I hope so. If you don't follow me, feel free to write me.

Don't let me scare you too much to use wood heat--I love it; it's the greatest! Just be careful! Also, avoid burning either trash or wood with pitch in it, such as many of the conifer species.

JOJ

-- jumpoffjoe (jumpoff@echoweb.net), November 07, 2000.

Amanda, I live in MN and have been burning wood for a very long time. Maybe about 30 years. Its a great way to heat the house if its done properly. I would say the most important thing is to have a decent chimmey and keep it clean. It can be very expensive up front but it will pay off in the long run. I would read Jump off Joe's post again if your not convinced. BTW, Jump off Joe, I was just sweating (not from the heat)but by just reading your post. Don't feel alone however, I almost burnt down my other house by a poor chimmey. Its nice to know that I'm not the only person in this world that has experienced this. And Amanda, Don't be discouraged by my post. Wood heat is great but just be careful

-- Bill (sticky@2sides.tape), November 07, 2000.

Amanda, I hope you're not shaking in your boots right now. Your project IS do-able, the problem is what everyone used to know, very few do today. You're going to need to make sure the stove is out from the walls a good bit, and you still might need to put a heat shield behind it. You do need a heat shield under it. Make sure you've got a damper in the inside pipe. A cap for the top of the outside pipe. By special insulated pipe do you mean the thimble? Are you planning on using the same pipe inside and outside? I'd feel a lot safer if you could scrape up the money and switch to insulated pipe outside. It will be a tremendous help in reducing creosoting problems, but it won't eliminate them. And if you have house insurance agents or building inspectors to deal with, it will make them (slightly) happier.

All our wood appliances (3) are set up so we can clean their chimneys from inside. The shop building we can get up on, but the house roof is tricky, even in the summer. We clean our chimneys OFTEN. And we can do it even during a raging blizzard.

Go back to where you bought your chimney. Ask a lot of questions, and demand that you get some answers. There probably were some instruction and information sheets in the stuff you bought, read and insist that any questions you have get answered by the people where you bought the pipe.

But, again, you CAN do this safely. Not cheaply, but safely. Early this morning, our power went off. However, we'd already figured out what to do when we didn't have power, and the wood furnace in the basement kept us comfortable. Now that the power is back on and the blower is running as usual, the house is nice and toasty. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), November 07, 2000.

Amanda, what ever you do, it is so important to install your stove to specific fire codes, get it professionally installed. My insurance company found that we had installed one, raised our rating from 6 to 9, sent a long form to be filled out, etc. and I am now waiting the results of the increase. And I live in a stone house. Of course ratings are determined by the distance to the nearest fire hydrant as well.

-- Patricia Raunick (patriciarnck@aol.com), November 09, 2000.

Which pipe is split, the standard galvenized or the heat insulative? In high school I worked with a local tin smith and made the standard galvenized for him. After cutting the sheet metal to length and outside diameter width, I had to run it through a lip folder to make the seam. The two lips interlock , the pipe section then is inserted on a track anvil so that the seam can be hammered flush and tight. One end is then rib rolled for interconnecting to the next section. The pipe sections you have should have been preped as above by the firm you purchased them from. The only thing you should have to do is insert the sections into each other and lock the joints with selftap sheet metal screws. Be sure to install the sections with the rib rolled ends in the draw direction to prevent joint leakage.

-- Jay Blair in N. AL (jayblair678@yahoo.com), November 09, 2000.

Dear Amanda:

We had our wood stove installed last winter. At first, I think my husband thought he would do it himself. However, we decided that we would probably just blow enough money over time to go ahead and get it done right. Decided it just wasn't worth it to risk the house burning down just because we wanted to save a couple hundred dollars. We got the representatives we bought it from to install it. They had the crew that routinely did that and did it right.

Wanda

-- Wanda King (wanda7@edge.net), November 13, 2000.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I finally broke down and had a nice retired gentleman come and install it. He is retired and raising his grandkids.....I was happy to pay him to put it in. God bless.

-- Amanda S (aseley@townsqr.com), November 13, 2000.