Insert connector to flexible pipe

[jondaley]

Hi all. I've enjoyed reading your discussions, and it seems like a good place to get some advice (you all were recommended by a friend who bought a stove a year ago).

I recently bought an Englander 13NCI, partly based on recommendations from this forum, and I'm quite hopeful that it will work well for our house.

I purchased some 6" liner separately and it is in the chimney, but I'm having some clearance issues with regards to the damper and the angles from the chimney into the stove.

I cut out the back of the damper, and removed one brick, so the pipe fits pretty easily past the damper section (it previously had a 5" opening).

However, the front of the damper sticks down farther than the back, and is directly above the middle of the stove outlet. There is a 5.5" clearance between the top of the stove and the damper bar. I have had a hard time getting some sort of angle piece to make the angle quick enough to get out of the way of the damper.

If they make a 30 or 45 degree pipe that would only have 5.5" clearance going straight up, I think I'd be all set.

I can't find the 30 or 45 pieces locally anywhere (Pittsburgh, PA, or North). I bought a four piece adjustable 90 degree piece (thinking I'd be able to twist it around to make a lesser angle and end up a little further back, but it didn't really work at all). I ripped off two of the adjustable pieces from the 90, and so now I have a 30 or 45 degree piece, depending on how it is twisted, and if the 45 were a touch shorter, it might work, though really the flexible pipe/stainless insert piece that came with the pipe doesn't insert into the adjustable 90 far enough, since I've removed too much, or rather, maybe if I had just the two ends of the four piece unit, but that can't happen anyway...

The ideal piece would probably be a piece that starts out vertically into the stove, jags over 4" and then goes up vertically again. If it went up on an angle after that, that would be fine, or maybe even better.

Does that all make sense? I'll try a picture to explain it too.

It seems that the chimney/woodstove guys around here are mostly not interested in helping me, unless I buy a stove from them instead.

One solution would be to remove the entire damper, that would definitely solve the problem, but that seems like a lot of work and maybe there is an easier way.

 

[zanp]

http://www.hartshearth.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=3660&idcategory=0

this offset adapter could work for you. Unfortunately, they are not cheap.

 

[BrotherBart]

My stove in the fireplace is cold tonight so I just measured. The thirty degree fixed elbow I have between it and my liner rises 3 1/2 inches above the flue collar before the 30 degree angle back.

 

[drdoct]

If your stove is that high into your fireplace.... Are you within clearances to mantle or other combustibles? 5.5" isn't much to work with. I had a hard time making up the difference in my stove but I had about 15" to work with but it was still difficult to wrangle it in. It's about at the same angle. The offset adapter zanp posted seems pretty nifty, but he's right, it's costly. But then again, just 2 stainless elbows are probably that much. You couldn't get a sheet metal shop to make them for any cheaper.

 

[jondaley]

zanp: yes, I just found that part after posting. It does look perfect, though it'd be nice if there were a cheaper solution.

BrotherBart: Where are you measuring? (and thanks for taking the time to pull out a measuring tape!) I think you are measuring the vertical distance on the front of the pipe. My 5.5" max number is in the middle of the pipe. If you could measure on the back of the pipe "through" the angled portion to the top of the pipe.

(either the purple or red lines in this diagram.

 

[jondaley]

Actually, I realized I can pull out my high school geometry skills, and I think that the "red line" in my diagram on your stove will be 5.23", which would be just under the limit...

 

[jondaley]

drdoct, yeah, I though the 5" was pretty limited, but two guys who looked at it thought it would be any problem at all (though they wanted $500-$700 for the installation, so maybe "no problem" doesn't mean quite that in that case).

And yes, I think clearance to combustibles are fine. There is 25" from the top of the stove to the bottom of the mantle.
My stove manual refers to a 16" clearance to the "top trim", but I am not sure what that is - a decorative thing?

 

[DAKSY]

My stove manual refers to a 16" clearance to the "top trim", but I am not sure what that is - a decorative thing?

It's the scribe molding just below the breastplate, & at the innermost surfaces of the legs...
Generally speaking, the scribe is a 1/2" piece of adjustable trim that allows
for different finishing thicknesses around a fireplace...
Tile is about 3/8 thick...Marble & granite about 3/4...
HTH

 

[jondaley]

ack. I just realized I did the trig wrong last night. I drew the picture to be 60 degrees away from a straight pipe, rather than 30 degrees away.
A 30 degree angle isn't enough, and a 45 isn't either, since the height (of the red line) is 8.7" and 6.5" respectively. The 45 is easiest to imagine in my head, so I should have realized the 30 degree pipe would have to have a greater rise than the 45.
I guess I'm getting the offset piece.

 

[jondaley]

Offset purchased. Thanks guys.

 

[jondaley]

Hrm, the offset came today (fast and cheap shipping, woohoo - elitedeals.com)

But, two issues, one the piece is actually quite big, and sticks out farther than the back of my insert, so the stove can no longer be pushed all the way back in, though I can see how I could modify the offset to make it work.

However, there is another problem in that it only offsets the pipe around 3 inches or so, and so that isn't far enough back to let the chimney pipe drop in vertically. I thought I read somewhere that this offset would offset up to 11 inches or something like that.

Lastly, the male end going into the stove is 6" and fits snugly into the stove, but the female end is 6.25", so the pipe is quite loose. I am not sure what sort of pipe they are expecting someone to put into it...

I was (am?) thinking that it might offset it far enough back that I can put in a "regular" 90 or maybe even a 30 degree elbow and now there will be room for the angle. The top/front of the damper is still a bit of an issue.

Is it crazy to cut out the whole damper? I bought a big piece of sheet metal that I was thinking to use for the bottom plate; I was thinking of putting my new plate next to/on top of the damper, but maybe if it was entirely removed, everything would be easier.

 

[jondaley]

An offset plus a 30 degree elbow and I am good to go. Unfortunately, its been warm these last two days, but I started a fire anyway today, and we are enjoying it immensely, though the curing/paint smell is a bit much...

 

[BrotherBart]

Sorry I missed your question. Just too many posts flying through here this time of year. Glad you got'er hooked up and burning.

 

[jondaley]

I just realized that I never said how I got the offset adapter to work with the small amount of clearance to the back of the stove.

The top piece of the offset adapter is shaped like:
______________
___| |_______

I bent it to look like:

______________
|___ |_______

and then slid the bottom piece in, and now it only sticks out an inch or two past the back of the stove.

And once I figured out I had the blower upside down, the nice hot air is pouring out!