Combustion Air Intake (Outside Air)

New on the block, last year burned pellets and corn,this year a new Channing III. set it up yeasterday,no problem. got it in the basement with a dolly and a winch of an ATV! no sweat. Using an existing chimney,draws real good.

My question is does anyone use piped in outside air for combustion instead of drawing your warm air from inside the house, pellet stoves do this especially in mobile homes,I aready have one set up,all I have to do is attatch it to the intake blower.

I am surprised to hear of many people having trouble with the stoves mine started right up and works perfectly so far,just did what the dealer told me to do.

BK

I would use your outside air source since you have it there and available. Any time you can reduce the slight vacuum on the whole house, you will be reducing cold air infiltration.

If you can, at least leave the outside air vent open near the intake of the combustion blower. A direct hookup to the blower intake may not be needed.

Welcome to coal burning, I'm sure you will enjoy it..

Greg L

I see you are in Lexington Ky, Are you burning bagged anthracite coal? Do you have a stove dealer that is supplying coal??

I'm in Michigan, and finding anthracite coal this far away from the Pennsylvania coal mines is difficult. I had to go get my own in Pa.

Greg L

We do have a coal dealer in Carrolton KY, he was out of coal and between stove dealerships when I bought my Channing, got mine in WV. and brought back 3 tons of bagged. He called me the yesterday and has picked up Reading stoves and has coal again, he waited a little late to order I guess, it is about an hour drive for me,I can handle that once every year or so. So far he handles bagged coal only.

I would like to get more people on this band wagon so we could get coal closer to home.

Only my second night running my Channing, this thing works great,A cold windy 38 degrees, but warm in here.

BK

I am also in the process of installing a 3" fresh air intake on my Alaska Stokerstove. Its going to be a tight fit attaching the 3" pipe directly to the combustion blower but I think it will work. Hardest part has been finding or making a flange to connect pipe to the blower or I could just terminate the vent close to the blower.
Another concern of mine is getting condensation with the cool air in the intake and the warm air around it - does anyone have experience with this?

My only concern about hooking directly to the inlet of the combustion blower is that if you get an obstruction in the fresh air pipe, then the stove will be starved for combustion air. This could create an unsafe condition.

I would probably lean towards just ending the pipe near the fan inlet. Whenever the fan runs, the majority of the air pulled in will be the outside air. The room air has to be replaced by leaks around doors and windows, so the easiest air for the blower to get will be the outside air right at the blower inlet.

As for condensation, if you use a flexible dryer vent or other flexible hose, it is usually made of aluminum which won't corrode very fast, and should give good service. Stainless steel would be better, but more money. Insulating the pipe might help too.

Greg L

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This is my simple and cheap recipe, your intake on the channing is 2-1/2" in diameter and is 12" off the floor, use the 4" side of a 4" to 2-1/2 PVC reducer over the fan intake, add to that a short piece of 2-1/2" and then a 2-1/2" tee,on the bottom of the tee put a threaded piece like a compresion fitting to contact the floor, put this together so when the compresion nut is screwed all the way on it will fit between the blower and the floor then unscrew the nut and it will snug it up to the blower housing,

From the side of the tee a 2-1/2" to 2-1/4" female thread coupler screwed onto a 10' lenght of galvinized flex exhaust hose from a truck parts store, that fits nicely into a chain link gate post 5 or 6 feet long that goes through my basement wall, on the outside I use a 2-1/2" pvc elbow turned down,with a small piece of ratwire to keep the varmits out.

All this is clear as mud, I am sure, read it a time or two, everything goes together easily...

P.S. In the summer when it is unhooked you can talk into it or yell 'help', it really drives the neighbors nuts,they can't tell where it is coming from. They think the place is haunted!

BK.

I have burned pellets for 5 yrs. and I have a fresh air connection as well. I tried the unit I have now with out the fresh air intake and it most defininately ran more efficiently with outside air. All sloid fuel needs Oxygen to burn and if your house is closed up pretty tight like mine your air quality isn't the best for a solid fuel appliance. I will be changing to coal for next heating season I needed to use the pellets I have left over from last year. Also be wary of having your intake to low to the ground. I now have mine up about 40" in the air do to snow blocking it off during my first season using it. Also helps with the critter problem Does any one know how this fresh air connection affects the draft of a chimney when used on a coal stoker? ie. increase or decrease

Jim

Jim,,

I have used my fresh air intake for 2 weeks now and have no problems at all, my chimney is about 35' tall 9x9 tile lined. With the stove running on low my barometric pamper will open 2 inches on a setting of .04, I keep it set around .06. I have no smoke at all when I open the lower door.

This system is working very well for me. It is the same one I used on my pellet/corn stove.

So far this coal stove beats pellets and corn by a long margin. Only draw back is more ashes. Small trade off in my book.

BK in Lexington KY

Just finished hooking my fresh air intake up. I used 4" PVC thru a window that was boarded shut. A 45 turned down outside to keep the weather out and a screen to keep critters out. Inside I reduced the 4" to 3" PVC and slipped a piece of 4" dust collector hose over the 3" "hub" of the PVC connector - fits almost perfect.
The blower motor has a removable flange which I used PC-7 (epoxy) to attach a 3" piece of stove pipe to - wanted to use metal that close to the stove. Finally I used a 3" to 4" reducer to connect the metal pipe to the 4" hose.
Seems to be working fine, in fact It must be helping the flow of warm air from my basement cause the upstairs temps have started to rise since hooking the intake up.