# How bad is it to have an outside chimney?



## kielbasa (Dec 28, 2008)

Hi guys, I was really looking forward to get an add on wood furnace (Yukon Big Jack or equivalent) for my home, and my initial thought was to plumb it to my existing ductwork and run a stack right outside thru the exterior wall (nearest the furnace)....after reading about how evil it is to run a chimney totally outside, I'm kinda bummed now since that is my ONLY option.
I may have room for 4 feet of inside run, but the rest (10~20 feet?) will have to be external of the house, how bad will the backdrafting be? One way or another I gotta make this happen, I'm sick of running my furnace!
Thanks for any input!


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## Rookie1 (Dec 28, 2008)

I see alot of outside Stainless Steel pipe woodburners. I dont know the people personally but it seems to work. I dont know the guy but a friend tells me about his neighbor that has one and he polishes it every year. You dont have to go that far.


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## Haywire Haywood (Dec 28, 2008)

Build an insulated chase around it. That's what we plan to do when we install ours.

Ian


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## havenodog (Dec 28, 2008)

I have a wood furnace and had to build my chimney on the other side of the house. I've read to that chimneys on the outside are not the best but sometimes its all you can do. 
I used chimney block with an 8" by 8" tile liner. The most important thing is to make sure all of your joints are sealed tight and add vermiculite or perlite as an insulator. I imagine you could even run steel down chimney block and then insulate. I have a rancher and the chimney is only about 20 to 22 feet high and there is always plenty of draft and hardly any creosote build up. The insulation really helps to keep the flu from cooling down in cold weather which in turn keeps down any build-up in the flu. 
It's important not to build to big of a chimney. I'd think the largest you would want to go on a wood stove is 8". Hope this helps


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## dwinch53 (Dec 28, 2008)

kielbasa said:


> Hi guys, I was really looking forward to get an add on wood furnace (Yukon Big Jack or equivalent) for my home, and my initial thought was to plumb it to my existing ductwork and run a stack right outside thru the exterior wall (nearest the furnace)....after reading about how evil it is to run a chimney totally outside, I'm kinda bummed now since that is my ONLY option.
> I may have room for 4 feet of inside run, but the rest (10~20 feet?) will have to be external of the house, how bad will the backdrafting be? One way or another I gotta make this happen, I'm sick of running my furnace!
> Thanks for any input!



Kielbasa...It is always better to have a chimney going up thru the house to keep it warmer...but there are plenty that go up outside the structure...check out this site...go under contact us...get there toll free # and call them...tell them what your needs are and they will give you professional help....enjoy the wood burner...DW http://www.selkirkcorp.com/


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## Wood Doctor (Dec 28, 2008)

dwinch53 said:


> Kielbasa...It is always better to have a chimney going up thru the house to keep it warmer...


But,
(1) you could lose up to 400 cu ft of living area to the chimney--maybe more.
(2) you have to seal the roof all the way around it.
(3) all structural elements inside the house (studs, sheetrock, etc.) have to completely surround its perimeter rather than only one-third of it.


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## Brian VT (Dec 28, 2008)

I put up a DuraTech this year. It drafts very well and no creosote problems.
(I'm burning dry wood but I'm a paranoid newb so I've cleaned it 3 times already this season.)
I figured I'd build a chase next summer but now I don't think it'll be necessary. Your results may vary.
Pics of mine here: http://s388.photobucket.com/albums/oo329/BrianVT16/Chimney/?albumview=grid
If the stove is left to go out/cold and I have to start a new fire I hold a lighter inside the stove's flue collar. If it's blowing the flame back into the room I crack open a window for a few minutes and then burn a wad of newspaper or aim a propane torch up the flue to reverse the "stack effect". From then on it's smooth burning.


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## ktm rider (Dec 28, 2008)

I looked into the stainless chimey when i was building. It was actually cheaper to build a chimney with flue block and terra cotta liner than buying the triple wall stainless. Just a thought..


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## kodiakattack (Dec 28, 2008)

I have a 8 inch stainless insolated outside chimmney second winter burning with it and it is mint! I burn a with a napoleon stove(wolf steel) located in the bacement.I have a 2 story home with a 12-12 pitch roof so i have a good 25-30 feet of outside pipe!The only time i have trouble getting draft is if the stove goes cold for a while when it is very cold outside.As long as there are coals it keeps the draft going,i burn full time so this rarely happens to me.
If it i don't have a fire for a few days in the dead of winter what i do is just light a candle and place it in the stove 30 minites or so before lighting the fire,and that does the trick!This was the only why i could get the wood stove in my house and i am very happy with it!!We get it pretty cold up here in ontario canada and have not turned on my furnace yet!!! 

I love this stuff and this site rocks too!!:greenchainsaw:


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## AOD (Dec 29, 2008)

Build a chase around it out of metal studs, wrap plain unfaced fiberglass insulation around the pipe, held on with loops of wire twisted around it, and cover it with corrugated steel painted however you want. That would be an insulated and fireproof installation.


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## WidowMaker (Dec 29, 2008)

"wrap plain unfaced fiberglass insulation around the pipe, "

===

Does this meet Fire Code???


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## Haywire Haywood (Dec 29, 2008)

The guy that advised us on installation told us to build the chase and insulate it like the outer wall of the house is, and then take the insulation out of the outer wall of the house where it joins with the chase so that the inside of the chase is close to the same temp as the inside of the house. That way your flue is always close to room temperature even when the fire is out.

Hmmm... that was kinda wordy, but read it a couple times, it'll make sense eventually. LOL You're essentially expanding the house envelope to include interior of the chase.

Ian


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## Mike PA (Dec 29, 2008)

Outside chimneys work just fine. I installed mine outside for several reasons:
1) I have a small house. I felt like I would be losing too much space to have a pipe going up through the house;
2) Safe for little kids. No little fingers touching hot pipe;
3) Quickest way to put it in for me. I bought the house in November (years ago) and installed chimney and woodstove in December. Needed to avoid electric baseboard heat;
4) No roof leaks;
5) Draft is good. Preheat chimney by burning a sheet of newspaper. Gets draft going.
6) Easy access for repairs.

It was expensive, but it was also worth it.


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## Tesen (Dec 29, 2008)

I am like Mike, I installed mine in Dec and having the house torn apart during the winter was a bad idea. Plus the wasted space.

I had an issue though; I used Duravent tripple wall and very late Dec/Early Jan I got backdraft issues. 

In my situation, I was had these issues going on:

1) Outside flue that was hard to warm up and cooled down fast (also was 35' tall, which plays a major part).
2) A leaky house.
3) Stack effect (negative pressure, related to 1 and 2).

I looked at the options, since it was late dec, I could either:

a) Freeze my backside off building a chase to fix the issue.
b) Freeze my backside off building a furnace room separate from the house and insulate the heating ducts back into the house.
c) Freeze my backside off by replacing the windows in my house (new construction windows was the best option) and is also $$$ to do it right.
d) Freeze my backside off by using my gas furnace and fixing the issue with either a, b or c during the spring/summer and wasting the $$$ I had put into the system for that heating season (equipment + wood collection etc).
e) Buy an exhausto fan; borrow a friends bucket truck (beer is cheap), spend a couple hours dropping conduit down for wiring and attaching to the top of the flue and then tweaking the appropriate min speed (just above stall) for the fan and be done.

I chose e; $900 + $100 for parts, beer etc later I have a working setup. This is not the final solution, but it gives me time to get my house reworked and correct the situation and many other issues in this 120 - 130 year old house.

So becareful about outside chimneys, they are not bad if they are installed correctly and you factor in the condition of your house, installation and location of your heating device. Irony is, when I did this install I had some professionals offer their opinion and they saw no issues for what I was doing... yay them.

There are a lot of things I would do differently in hindsight, but hey that is life right?

Tes


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## dwinch53 (Dec 29, 2008)

Good reading material....DW http://www.woodheat.org/chimneys/chimneys.htm


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## mikes334 (Sep 22, 2009)

That was some good reading. Thanks.


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## husky455rancher (Sep 22, 2009)

WidowMaker said:


> "wrap plain unfaced fiberglass insulation around the pipe, "
> 
> ===
> 
> Does this meet Fire Code???





when i bought my stove thats how they told me to do it too. 3 years and its still fine. where the insulation comes in contact with the stove it gets a little crusty and hard but thats it.


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## flotek (Sep 22, 2009)

i have an outside SS chimney pipe up the backside of my home ..mines triple wall interlocking Dura stainless the whole way to the cap ,nothing adheres to it ,creosote wont even stick to it ,has a nice quick cleanout tee that holds any fine dust that can be cleaned in 2 minutes ..outside the pipe is coo leven at full throttle ,in fact snow wont even melt on it ,this pipe setup makes burning and getting a good draft easy to do pretty much regardless of my outside conditions.yes its expensive mine was around 1,000 dollars but you get what you pay for and im about safety and ease of use ,plus i dont want a piece of ugly rusted crap running up the side of my house waiting to fall apart and cause a fire


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## CrappieKeith (Sep 23, 2009)

haywire haywood said:


> build an insulated chase around it. That's what we plan to do when we install ours.
> 
> Ian



+1


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## CrappieKeith (Sep 23, 2009)

flotek said:


> i have an outside ss chimney pipe up the backside of my home ..mines triple wall interlocking dura stainless the whole way to the cap ,nothing adheres to it ,creosote wont even stick to it ,has a nice quick cleanout tee that holds any fine dust that can be cleaned in 2 minutes ..outside the pipe is coo leven at full throttle ,in fact snow wont even melt on it ,this pipe setup makes burning and getting a good draft easy to do pretty much regardless of my outside conditions.yes its expensive mine was around 1,000 dollars but you get what you pay for and im about safety and ease of use ,plus i dont want a piece of ugly rusted crap running up the side of my house waiting to fall apart and cause a fire



+1


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## goof008 (Sep 23, 2009)

kielbasa, my burner is in my basement. It goes up to the above the ground line, out the basement wall and up 2 stories. All of it slekirk metalbestos, and all of it exposed. I would like to enclose it some day, but there is a door into my garage right there, so until I move the door the chimney stays exposed. It still works great with a good draft. 
On days when the fire has gone out, it takes a bit of warming the pipe to push the cold air out so it will start to draw again, but once it's going, it works well.


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## chainsaway (Sep 23, 2009)

Kielbasa; my set-up ; basement stove, outside chiminey 35' tall (6" stainless insulated 2")to clear the two story high duplex we have. we occasionally get back-draft. Solution: build fire in usual manner ( i light top down) but don't light it up just yet. i close the air inlet, open the front door of the stove and cover the opening with a pre-cut piece fo cardboard fitting snugly. this cardboard has a hole about 2"diameter in which i place a hair dryer running full blast for the whole of 1 minute sharp! . Remove cardboard and dryer, immediately light top newspapers, close door, open air inlet and voila! Has yet to fail from minus 5 to minus 35 degrees celsius! hope this helps Cheers! alain


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## smokinj (Sep 23, 2009)

flotek said:


> i have an outside SS chimney pipe up the backside of my home ..mines triple wall interlocking Dura stainless the whole way to the cap ,nothing adheres to it ,creosote wont even stick to it ,has a nice quick cleanout tee that holds any fine dust that can be cleaned in 2 minutes ..outside the pipe is coo leven at full throttle ,in fact snow wont even melt on it ,this pipe setup makes burning and getting a good draft easy to do pretty much regardless of my outside conditions.yes its expensive mine was around 1,000 dollars but you get what you pay for and im about safety and ease of use ,plus i dont want a piece of ugly rusted crap running up the side of my house waiting to fall apart and cause a fire


+1 got about 800.00 in it


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## goof008 (Sep 24, 2009)

chainsaway....I do something similar....I have 2 small space heaters I use...I put one in the firebox, one just outside it blowing in for a few minutes while I wad up newspaper and split up some kindling....works great....I might try your approach to see how it works.


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## Brian VT (Sep 24, 2009)

It's rare that I lose my draft, but when I do I open a window or 2 in the basement and make sure the clothes dryer or bath fan isn't running. Then I load up the stove. Then I check again for draft. I usually have one by then. If not, I aim a mapp gas torch up the flue for a minute or stick a ball of lit newspaper up there.


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## kielbasa (Sep 24, 2009)

flotek said:


> i have an outside SS chimney pipe up the backside of my home ..mines triple wall interlocking Dura stainless the whole way to the cap ,nothing adheres to it ,creosote wont even stick to it ,has a nice quick cleanout tee that holds any fine dust that can be cleaned in 2 minutes ..outside the pipe is coo leven at full throttle ,in fact snow wont even melt on it ,this pipe setup makes burning and getting a good draft easy to do pretty much regardless of my outside conditions.yes its expensive mine was around 1,000 dollars but you get what you pay for and im about safety and ease of use ,plus i dont want a piece of ugly rusted crap running up the side of my house waiting to fall apart and cause a fire



hmmm, my manual (Yukon Big Jack) clearly states NOT to use triple wall piping because of the thermosiphon effect between the 2nd and 3rd wall.....i could swear that's what I read, I'll go and make sure.....


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## flotek (Sep 24, 2009)

kielbasa said:


> hmmm, my manual (Yukon Big Jack) clearly states NOT to use triple wall piping because of the thermosiphon effect between the 2nd and 3rd wall.....i could swear that's what I read, I'll go and make sure.....



thermosiphon ..hmmm sounds like technical mumbo jumbo .triple wall stainless is great stuff . maybe some single wall for a short length internally but once its exposed and when running outside youd want the triple stuff for sure.you want that heat to resist creosote issues due to coldouter flue temps . inside the system on the duralock theres another chamber pipe for added spacing and hi temp insulation and in turn that would only protect the heat loss and the inner pipe from problems and retain heat and resist corrosian .im wondering how that would be a negative thing on any furnace or stove in this type of outter application. maybe someone can explain this better


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