I was tired if watching the curtains blow around and of feeling a draft over my moldy old toes.
Why did you install an outdoor air kit?
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HP52NOVA
Member
I had my oak installed first because I had to clear the distance to a window outside, using a horizontal run. Then, I re-vented my stove vertically with a Ventis DT pipe (exhust and oak in one pipe). Great product.
I do have a newer and rather tight home, but due to its size I probably would have been just fine without one. I just never tried without...
A large factor in my decision to use a DT pipe was due to this forum and the large support for oak's around here. It just makes sense to me, especially if you can use a DT and save on the extra hole in the wall!
I do have a newer and rather tight home, but due to its size I probably would have been just fine without one. I just never tried without...
A large factor in my decision to use a DT pipe was due to this forum and the large support for oak's around here. It just makes sense to me, especially if you can use a DT and save on the extra hole in the wall!
bogieb
Minister of Fire
This was me with my first stove - the basement dwelling P61a. I got all kinds of cold drafts on my main floor, from the stove running (and this was by no means a "tight" house). After a couple of months of that, I put in an OAK and the cold drafts stopped.
When I put in the main floor stove, I had to put in an OAK for clearance, but I would have put it in anyway from my previous experience with the P61.
Deezl Smoke
Feeling the Heat
Though I do not run an OAK, what you say about the stove drawing outside air no matter what, is 100% fact. The part about a window open is not however. The part about outside air no matter what is a constant. Where the outside air comes into the house from is not.
Pete Zahria
Minister of Fire
It was really metaphorical.....
Not scientific data.
However, I will stand by it.
Dan
Not scientific data.
However, I will stand by it.
Dan
Because everyone else on this forum said its a good idea. Being that I can not form a opinion of my own I had to do it.
That said the house seems warmer with it.
That said the house seems warmer with it.
+1
To me it's Spockable logic to have one - always has been.
Might as well talk about hot water heaters while we are at it. 
- Nov 18, 2005
- 701
Might as well talk about hot water heaters while we are at it.
Why would you heat hot water?
Marina1327
Member
I have that same kind of "OAK" when it's open to let the herd out...
Edsson
Member
Question. I have a Quad E2 on a brick hearth, in my living room, on an outside wall that the brick goes up to the ceiling. Can I run my OAK over the brick hearth, down into the basement through a hole in the floor and then horizontally outside through the sill plate. I don't want to cut a hole in the living room wall, so I want to do it in the basement. Any issues going down vertically and then outside horizontally? Total piping about 8'
see no issue with that arrangement,
I do some what similar, about a 6' run, and it works very well
Lake Girl
Moderator
Eric, you pot stirrer you! Forgot to mention if you have an OAK on your stove at home... Fair is fair, if we are sharing so should you. Why the interest in the first place?
I have an OAK that was installed a couple of weeks after the stove was installed. Lots of reading here convinced me it made logical sense and our house is actually more air tight than one would expect (had a blower test done). Much happier with the OAK installed...
As to rusting out the stove, that's why you cap things in the summer and put damp rid in the fire box...
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- Nov 18, 2005
- 701
Another issue not mentioned yet is safety. A pellet stove pulls a lot of room air and if you have an air tight home that air has to come from someplace, possibly reversing the flow from your furnace/water heater vent.
DneprDave
Minister of Fire
![[Hearth.com] Why did you install an outdoor air kit?](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/174/174420-a4a7c1a20f8da628875e3a419347db25.jpg?hash=PRqDHgUSCG "[Hearth.com] Why did you install an outdoor air kit?")
Arti
Feeling the Heat
Have an oak for the St Croix in the basement. Can't really see any difference as we ran it 2 years without.
Quadra Fire in Living room doesn't have an oak hooked to it and likely won't. It is run during the shoulder season and really cold evenings. It is for a little added heat and ambiance.
Seems to me a bottle of wine and would make the Quad more efficient for the ambiance part ?!
Quadra Fire in Living room doesn't have an oak hooked to it and likely won't. It is run during the shoulder season and really cold evenings. It is for a little added heat and ambiance.
Seems to me a bottle of wine and would make the Quad more efficient for the ambiance part ?!
TLHinCanada
Feeling the Heat
a oak should be installed to prevent a back flow of CO from other appliances. That is why it is code. (Haven't been on this site in about three years. Good to see hyour still stirring the pot.)
womaus
Feeling the Heat
I've been lusting after a Ural for sometime...maybe this year. But it will be a recent one.
Still stirring the pot: Viva the election! This should be a good one...
It came free with my englander. Why would anyone not use something they got for *free* (a $65.00 value!)
All joking aside, taking already heated air, heating it up even more as it passes through the pellets, reclaiming a percentage of that and sending the rest out the vent seems silly.
While i dont have a cat, my friend had a great use for her oak. She connected it to the top of her cats litter box. those ones with the snap on tops. she said it works great - sucks all the smell right out!.
All joking aside, taking already heated air, heating it up even more as it passes through the pellets, reclaiming a percentage of that and sending the rest out the vent seems silly.
While i dont have a cat, my friend had a great use for her oak. She connected it to the top of her cats litter box. those ones with the snap on tops. she said it works great - sucks all the smell right out!.
![[Hearth.com] Why did you install an outdoor air kit?](/talk/data/attachments/174/174470-97e1dcbea01687ea10fe5a53e99c3c1a.jpg?hash=1A8juY9N5d)
NYBurner
Burning Hunk
My stove is installed in a finished basement, we ran last year without one and had issues with heat NOT rising (we have a central completely open entrance to the basement). I did a lot of looking into it and fiddling and found interesting info on 'stack effect' or pressure differentials in multi level homes and basements/first floors are typically in vacuum which explains the heat not moving up. Having a stove sucking in air along with hot water heater and occasional furnace were not gonna help the situation. So I ran an OAK to take the stove out the equation, and an 8" cold air return duct from the top floor to the basement (with a variable 750cfm duct blower) and it works great.
I have an XXV in the front room and a Qudra Fire Isle Royal in the dining room. NO OAKs.
Eric
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