# Franklin stove installation issue



## timba (Nov 13, 2014)

I have an old Franklin fireplace with bi-fold doors and 3 legs. The cast iron collar that accepts black stove pipe is an odd size. It sits on top of the stove, tapers upward from oval to round, and contains the damper. The round top is tapered, and uncrimped 8" pipe fits OVER it. But isn't the pipe supposed to fit INSIDE the collar, preventing drips? The inside diameter is 7 1/2", and no adapter I've yet found fits that spec. If I install the pipe outside the collar and seal it with furnace cement, will that work? Thanks for your comments. Tim


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## coaly (Nov 17, 2014)

No one is going to condone the use of the type of stove you're connecting, and any stove not EPA Certified is illegal in your state. Here is some info so you understand why it wasn't important back then, and you're now relating the way newer, more efficient stoves need to be connected.

Sometimes there is an embossed number of chimney size on a connector.

Before stoves were made "airtight", chimney flues ran much hotter, wasted heat, and condensation was not a problem. It didn't matter as much which way the pipe was put together. I have some antique cook stoves that the pipe goes over the cast damper outlet and the pipe goes right to the stove top. The damper hits the pipe if installed inside. Condensation that forms in cooler running chimneys below 250 f can run down the outside of pipe joints. If your stove leaks a lot of air in, it will burn hotter and the chimney flue should stay well above condensation point. If you have a short connector pipe going into the side of a flue, the condensation in the flue would run down the inside of chimney, to a clean out at the bottom, and not back into the stove. Leakage out of connector pipe is more common with a prefab chimney or connecting to the bottom of a flue where any condensate can run all the way back to the stove.

  It could be a 7 inch stove collar. The bottom of _some_ pipe has a formed ring (ridge) that is like a stop to prevent the crimped end from going in too far. The enlarged ring fits some stoves very well. Sometimes the damper is in the way to insert pipe far enough for the ridge to go inside casting, so cutting off most of the crimp allows the ring inside.


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## colin.p (Nov 18, 2014)

timba said:


> I have an old Franklin fireplace with bi-fold doors and 3 legs. The cast iron collar that accepts black stove pipe is an odd size. It sits on top of the stove, tapers upward from oval to round, and contains the damper. The round top is tapered, and uncrimped 8" pipe fits OVER it. But isn't the pipe supposed to fit INSIDE the collar, preventing drips? The inside diameter is 7 1/2", and no adapter I've yet found fits that spec. If I install the pipe outside the collar and seal it with furnace cement, will that work? Thanks for your comments. Tim



Boy, now that does bring back memories. My first stove (1978) was the exact stove you mentioned and we just had the stove pipe over the collar and did seal it with pipe cement (or at least tried to). We "heated" our place for one winter and the following spring, couldn't wait to take the Franklin out and put in a stove that actually worked.
The Franklin really didn't heat very well (well actually didn't heat at all) and ate wood at a staggering rate, so you may want to shop around for a replacement (quickly).
In either case, try and keep warm.


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