Stove Pipe/Pricing

I finally had my chimney cleaned, and now we need to replace our stove pipe and the 5 foot section that goes up the flue. We went to our local dealer and he quoted us at $305 at which point I went into a homeowner depression. Just had back surgery so I'm out of work and that's a load of coal for a few lengths of pipe! I just wanted to see if this pricing is outrageous or if I should just suck it up and order from him. Also wondering if there are any cheaper places online to get these. We are still new to coal and home ownership in general I will list the parts and prices we were quoted and see what you think.

1-6" SS flex quick tee, 316L - $83.33
1-6" SS tee cap -$26.67
Z-Flex 6"x5' oval-round -$170.20 (ouch!?)
Black 6"x12" (this is the straight piece)- $7.38

Grand total-$305.54

I went with Selkirk's "Heat Fab" (Safe-T-Pipe) from Northline Express, which is welded seam, and the thickest wall I could find at 22 gauge, but it is not stainless. My figuring is that the acids in coal are not very kind to stainless, so why pay extra for it. Going into my 4th full heating season with it, and it still looks great.

https://www.northlineexpress.com/chimney-pipe-sto ... -pipe.html

Northline has stainless also. Look for DuraBlack Stainless.

https://www.northlineexpress.com/6-inch-durablack ... steel.html

EPugs45 wrote:I finally had my chimney cleaned, and now we need to replace our stove pipe and the 5 foot section that goes up the flue. We went to our local dealer and he quoted us at $305 at which point I went into a homeowner depression. Just had back surgery so I'm out of work and that's a load of coal for a few lengths of pipe! I just wanted to see if this pricing is outrageous or if I should just suck it up and order from him. Also wondering if there are any cheaper places online to get these. We are still new to coal and home ownership in general I will list the parts and prices we were quoted and see what you think.

1-6" SS flex quick tee, 316L - $83.33
1-6" SS tee cap -$26.67
Z-Flex 6"x5' oval-round -$170.20 (ouch!?)
Black 6"x12" (this is the straight piece)- $7.38

Grand total-$305.54

Holy Moley ! That's a lot of money for something that's going to last 3 or 4 years. You could replace a lot of black pipe for that. Why are you looking at stainless? If this pipe is running from the stove into a tee and up and through the flue and up the chimney why wouldn't black pipe work. Yes, you may have to replace that black pipe more often but you could do that every year for 4 or 5 years before you reached the cost of the stainless.

As a matter of fact, we just installed our Mark I in our brick and mortar chimney using 6 inch black pipe. We used a 18 inch straight piece, a Tee, a 24 inch which was "field modified" to fit through the flue and 15 ft of straight pipe also "field modified" to fit through the flue all for under 80 bucks.

When I say "field modified" that means we squashed the pipe to an oval. We connected the pipe and laid out on the floor. Then we squashed it to four inches where necessary. Then while sitting in the fire box, we feed it up through the flue one piece at a time, fastening them together with 3 screws when we reached a joint. We debated using metal tape at the joints but didn't. The last piece through the flue was modified with an oval on one end and a O on the other. That O joined the Tee which joined a straight piece into the stove.

After we got everything connected we stuffed Rock Wall fireproof insulation in the flue to close it off. This installation works well and someone without much tool savvy could do it. I'm thinking my teenage son. This year I'm going to make a "holder" for the insulation because I found that hard to work with, it kept falling on my head. I'm going to take some metal fabric and wrap the insulation in it so it has some substance to push around.

This installation works great in the chimney. It had a great draft. My only disappointment is that I have no space for a Baro. No worries, the draft is easily controlled with the stove's air control dial. For the installation you described I'd definitely think about using "field modified" black pipe. Good Luck, Lisa

Thank you for the ideas, everything helps. From what I understand we definitely need the flex pipe because there is a slight curve or jog going up the chimney, so I'm not sure how we could ever bend the straight pipe enough to get past that. The black stove pipe piece and the Tee I think I can definitely find for cheaper, but I'm not finding any of this Z-flex or flex pipe for any cheaper. I am glad we found out there is a big hole rotted in it though, I guess I'd rather spend the money and get it going than not know it's there. Ignorance is not bliss when there is combustion involved....

The elbows are adjustable. With two you can get any off set you want.

Try
http://www.elmerspipe.com/
they shipped to me in Albany NY in 2 days. Nice folks.

Go find an Amish sheet metal shop that makes stainless stove pipe. Or simply use black stove pipe.

Oliver. Do the amish crimp or weld the pipe?

wnycoalier wrote:Oliver. Do the amish crimp or weld the pipe?

Weld They don't have electricity Or stokers

I got mine from the local Dutchman sheet metal shop. They do weld here. I got two pieces of 5" about 30" long each, a 5" tee with cap, 6" tee, and an 8x8 chimney cap to keep the birds out for $135. All made of 304 stainless plate. Couldn't hardly buy a similar chimney cap for that anywhere else.

Just wanted to say thanks for everyone's input on this thread. We ended up going stainless, so a stainless T into the 5 foot stainless Z-flex up the flue. It all went up pretty easy, my husband had to modify the sheet metal plate a tiny bit to push the z-flex through. It was a bit pricey for the stainless, but we'll see how it holds up. Thanks again for all the info

Damn pricey compared to the black pipe ya could safely used:(

Epug

Hope you are coming along OK since the back surgery. Been there done that myself. Stay WARM!

Thank you ONE! Doing okay and much warmer today now that the stove is going

The SS was definitely pricier, but since I am not the one installing it I didn't really get the final say. Considering the limited space to work in and the bend in the flue, I can see that the Z-flex tube was much easier to shove up there....I measure the ease of my hubsand's projects by the number of swears. He only flipped out once while installing it so I just let him go to Home Depot with a huge black circle of ash on the top of his head