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[tacoma30]

hey there, bought a heatmore 200 this spring and and have been running since first week of november in west-central pa, without a chimney as per suggestion of my dealer.  i've decided a 6' chimney and cap will benefit me and not sure what kind of chimney to get.  isn't the stainless triple wall insulated a bit overkill( and expensive)? being it's outside shouldn't need the insulation.  the only other thing i've seen is 10 gauge 8" pipe, but only one guy selling it. it kinda seems like he's got the market cornered.    guess what i'm asking is whats cheapest and what does everyone else use? and a website for such product. thanks yinz.

[Ridgekid]

You must be close. I'm in west central pa. Welcome!

The reason you want insulated pipe is prevent creosote build up in the pipe. Please consider this. Before deciding not to get it. You know how cold it gets here! 

[Bull]

Welcome to the site tacoma30, Ridge is rite on why is is best to use insulated but you could probably find stove pipe at Lowes, menards, or home depot that would work.

[MattyNH]

All I can say is spend the money for the insulated pipe..trust me..I did the wood stove black pipe at first..I gotta say it does work..But it only works for a season..Reason I say that..Pipe rots out, big creosote build up..They way I looked at it If I'm gonna spend money on pipe every yr ,why not get the good stuff and not worry about it..Yes insulated pipe is expensive..Buts its a one time fee..My owb uses "supervent or superpro" which I can buy a Lowes

[halfpress]

Just bought a 36" SuperVent extension at Lowes this evening and installed it barely three hours ago. It twist-locks into the 200CSS perfectly and feels rock solid. It's shiny silver, so I might be inclined to spray it black after I see it in the daylight. I also put a Chima-A-Lator cap/spark arrestor on that my dealer sold me. Will be glad to report back on any changes I see in the system with these new additions.

The SuperVent I found at Lowes was $139 and insulated. Quite heavy and seemingly well built.

- Aaron

[Ridgekid]

Did you pull the screen out of the cap?

[halfpress]

Ridgekid - no, I didn't remove the screen. I wanted it to function as a spark arrestor since I've seen enough hot cinders come out and hit the ground glowing (at least before I added the extension). Setting the woods on fire wasn't high on my list of goals for 2012.

I'll post a picture of it later, but I installed it around 7:30 PM on a pretty cold night. I loaded the furnace late that night pretty heavily (probably stacked a little higher than Heatmor suggests, but I wanted a long burn through the night). Had good coals and some log carcasses in there by 7:30 AM the next morning. Most of the mesh and the underside of the cap had turned black (as expected), but I also had brownish creosote streaks all down the shiny chimney extensions and, to a lesser degree, down my Heatmor's roof to the edge and dripping to the ground. Never seen that prior to extending it. I did NOT see any signs of liquid like that inside the firebox, on the door, etc. Was strictly on the chimney and roof.

Lovely. Every "improvement" I make seems to come with some new irritation.

So is the creosote normal as a result of this? Is it due to overloading the furnace and not getting the right burn? I'm pretty sure my wood (all oak) is in the 20-30% moisture range according to my moisture meter (and as recommended by Heatmor in the manual).

As I said, I'll post a picture in a bit when I have a chance to take one.

Thanks!
 - Aaron

[Ridgekid]

Just keep an eye on the screen. With 20-30% moisture content your going to get the streaks.

PS: You'll get more streaks with the screen but I understand your point about not getting Smokey Bear shaking his finger at you!

[halfpress]

Thanks for the reply. I had a feeling it might be the moisture content on the wood. My sources and level of seasoning will vary, so I guess the streaks will just be a fact of life.

I'm tempted to spray the whole thing a satin or matte black anyway to better blend with the rest of the furnace chimney and roof.

Aside from being ugly to look at... should the creosote be cleaned off frequently? Will it just hose off or is this going to be a big pain in the butt?

Thanks!
 - Aaron

[Tigrod]

This is the second winter for a heatmore 400.

The first winter I put a small (6 feet) metal stove pipe up. In a few weeks the metal has coroded to the point it would fall off of the OWB.

This winter I am adding a building to store wood around the boiler so I added a metal bestos chimney. Probably highter that HeatMore would spec but I had to get over the roof of the shed. At this point I haven't seen an difference in the operation of the boiler. Seems to be running as it did last winter after the metal pipe fell off.

[coonsrich@yahoo.com]

I know from experience the addon must be insulated and short as needed.  Dry wood is still 20% moisture or 20 pounds of water per 100 pounds of wood.  The water in the wood goes up the chimney but will condense on cold pipe run down into the fire box mix with ash and creosote and you have cancerous steel. Even stainless will rust if not very high grade stainless.  I tried non insulated but am now replacing with ss insulated.  There is a sheet metal shop in Lancaster County, PA which makes ss insulated for 1/2 the cost of other brands and they will custom fit for your chimney.