I am asking this question just in case the internet provider decides to let me back on to check for answers sometime before spring. You see, I have these two woodstoves that I bought for Y2K. Poverty is forcing the installation of them now, although we really are going to be pinched for room after they are installed. One is a cookstove, which I need because my gas oven has died deader than a hammer and I cannot replace it. The other is a boxwood style heater. The question is this: Can I vent them both out through the same chimney? If so, what do I have to do to prevent the smoke from one coming out through the other if both stoves are not in use? I have 6" round stove pipe, and we really need to vent them through the window. I know this is not in any of the recommedations, but that is the way we need to do it anyway. Also, I am having trouble finding an oval adapter for the cookstove. It was suggested that I could force some of the 6" round pipe into the 7"x4" oval and it would work. What do you think? Has anyone done this? Any help would be appreciated. We have no real heat source now, and it is going to be in the thirties for the next several nights. The propane heater also went kaput. Thanks.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), December 13, 2001

Answers

Don't force the pipe into the cookstove. You really don't want all that smoke or early creosote buildup from a poor join. Maybe just hook up the boxstove until you get the proper part for the cookstove.

As to ventingout the window, does that mean that you are using just stovepipe and no actual chimney? It might be hard to get good draw that way...that could result in a fair amount of smoke in the house and an inability to get the fire going real well.

Make sure you have at least 24" between the stove and anything that is combustible. You can minimize this distance a bit by putting a floor fan behind the stove and blowing the hot air into the room, but you still need a fair amount of space.

Be really careful!!! and good luck!

-- Doreen (bisquit@here.com), December 13, 2001.

Yeah, we are just planning on sticking the stove pipe out through a board inserted into the window. I friend of mine in Oklahoma has done this for years and gotten away with it so far. Then in warm weather, you just take the pipe and the board down and have an open window. I've been relunctant to just for the pipe. Just wondered what others thought.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), December 13, 2001.

Green, in my experience, the oval of the cookstove is DESIGNED to accept a round stove pipe. No problema.

Place the male end down, so the creosote runs back into the stove, and not down the outside of the flue.

Put the seam of one section of pipe on the opposite side from the seam on the next section, and then place at LEAST three self tapping sheet metal screws through the joints where the pipes meet. The idea is so you don't have the pipes split open when you have a chimney fire, as I did about twenty five years ago. The one pipe holds the next pipe together. I don't know how clear I am being here; if you don't understand, don't be too proud to ask a stove store!

Stove experts, and the building code, tell me never to connect two wood stoves through one flue. I can't tell you why, though, as I never asked!

Don't put the stove pipe through a piece of wood in the window. You'll be just asking for a house fire that way. In fact, it's not a good idea to "just vent" the flue through the window, although I've run straight pipe out the door that way, then elbowed up to above the roof, a dozen or more times. This was temporary, and only done to enable me to burn wood scraps when I was building a house which was not going to have wood heat. I just removed a door, and placed a piece of plywood over the opening. But I didn't put the flue directly through the plywood. I used a "wall thimble" in the plywood.

A friend of mine has done the window routine, and he ued an old cookie sheet in the window, with a hole cut in it for the flue. The point being, don't ever put the flue against, or even very near, a combusible surface. Even though the flue may not get hot enough to start a fire MOST the time, just wait until you have a flue fire! You'r almost GUARANTEED to start that wood on fire!

Worse, you'll be a lot more likely to get a flue fire if you put single wall pipe ouside the house, as the smoke cools off way bad, and causes excess creosote buildup.

Be very careful, Green. If you're not absolutely sure what you're doing, don't do it. Get help. It's not worth losing your family in a fire, man!

By the way, when I jerry rigged the wood heater for my construction projects, I was not, nor was my family or anyone else, sleeping in the house. I never worried for my safety, that way. I'd also let the fire burn way down before leaving for the day.

-- joj (jump@off.c), December 13, 2001.

We have a box stove that has the black round pipe inside and vents through a special joint at the window. We have the requirement that any time pipe goes through a wall(or window) it needs to go to a special grade of chimney pipe. We bought it all at Menards (fix it store) and had it inspected. We have the stove 3 ft. from the walls, the bend in the pipe is a bummer, but can not be helped with it going out the window area. We also have the wood peice in the window, but insulated pipe is passed through there(with the special joint). It is also insulated pipe all the way up outside. Check for your local codes, but you can do it this way and have it legal. If you have questions about what insulation, etc. Just go to a place that sells the pipe and you can find the silver insulated pipe (like a double thick pipe) and they have the special joints and rounds and chimney caps and all that. I like the cap because it keeps big stuff from flying out. I understand they can get gummed up every once in a while, but ours has been fine. (P.S. the insulated chimney was our biggest expense!)

-- notow (notnow@blabla.com), December 14, 2001.

If y'all do go with insulated pipe, Hubbard's Hardware, in Medford Oregon beats any other source I've seen by almost half on Metalbestos.

-- joj (jump@off.c), December 14, 2001.

All good old stoves had the oval holes in the top, and they where ment to have the round pipe forced over them. And many old chimneys were placed between two rooms with a hole to the chimney in each room. Not sure it's a good idea out the window though.

-- Skinner (normanskinner48@hotmail.com), January 25, 2004.