combustion air intake

[chrisasst]

I think only one other person on here has a kozi stove, so not sure if other stoves have this or not. On the back of my stove I have of course the smoke outlet pipe and in the middle I have a small er pipe that goes into my burn pot. The manual says this is the combustion air intake. According to my manual there are 2 methods to hook this up....(broken link removed) you can read that if you could ( page 14)
Well I have no exhaust pipe or nothing hooked to this combustion intake.
Should I have? What does combustion air do? I have to believe this is part of my heat out put problem, but I don't know..
It also kind of scares me a little because ashes and fire can easily go in this tube and possible go right out the back..
Does this make sense?

 

[crausch]

As stated in your manual, "Conventional homes may use room air for combustion", you can just let this alone if you are in a conventional type house. By doing this the stove will draw in the air from within your room/house. If your stove is in a small room or enclosed in area you may want to draw your air from outside ( running an air intake kit into the stove). This is highly recommended in mobile home installations where you have a small sq footage which is air tight. You wouldn't want the stove sucking all the air out of the trailer. Plus this creates a negative air pressure in the trailer which can make it harder for the stove to intake its air for combustion.

Your manual also states that if you let the stove draw its air from the room, then you need at least a three foot vertical rise on your exhaust pipe vent. I would recommend this anyway so that you create a better draft going out the vent pipe. As long as you are not doing a direct vent (straight out through the wall and terminating) you should be fine. What you are preventing with the vertical pipe is the possibility off smoke drawing back into the house during a power outage. Thats why its best to have the vertical pipe to create the draft.

 

[chrisasst]

As stated in your manual, "Conventional homes may use room air for combustion", you can just let this alone if you are in a conventional type house. By doing this the stove will draw in the air from within your room/house. If your stove is in a small room or enclosed in area you may want to draw your air from outside ( running an air intake kit into the stove). This is highly recommended in mobile home installations where you have a small sq footage which is air tight. You wouldn't want the stove sucking all the air out of the trailer. Plus this creates a negative air pressure in the trailer which can make it harder for the stove to intake its air for combustion.

Your manual also states that if you let the stove draw its air from the room, then you need at least a three foot vertical rise on your exhaust pipe vent. I would recommend this anyway so that you create a better draft going out the vent pipe. As long as you are not doing a direct vent (straight out through the wall and terminating) you should be fine. What you are preventing with the vertical pipe is the possibility off smoke drawing back into the house during a power outage. Thats why its best to have the vertical pipe to create the draft.

well lets see, yes it is vented straight through the wall and vented. If you look at page 10 figure 7 of the manual, that is the set up I have minus the combustion pipe. No vertical run at all...
so should I add a vertical rise to my exhaust on the outside? or should I do something with the combustion tube or both?
My real concern is something is messing up the performance with my stove ( I think) and the exhaust and combustion tube is the only thing I can come up with. If I add a vertical rise should it help the heat / performance or is that basically for smoke back draft?

 

[rap69ri]

It's a good idea to have a vertical rise in your pipe to create a natural draft in case of a power outage. Smoke in the house is no fun. I would also highly recommend the combustion air kit (outside air it). This helps prevent your stove from exaggerating any drafts in your house, and should keep your house a little warmer.

 

[crausch]

The vertical rise is best when it can be done, but you will find plenty of folks here that have direct vent and do not have smoke issues. You should go by what your manual says though. I believe the manual recommends that if you hook up the OAK, then you should include a vertical rise on your exhaust venting.

As far as an efficient burn, I am not sure adding the OAK will help or not. If you have tried all other adjustments to get the best air/fuel ratio and have had no success, then at the outside air kit won't hurt.