Helping to keep your family warm

QUESTIONS ABOUT CHIMNEYS

WHAT TYPE OF CHIMNEY DO I NEED WITH THE SEDORE STOVE?

Your chimney must be at least three feet above the peak of the floor to insure adequate draft. The stove must be connected to an UL or ULC factory-built chimney, installed in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions or a lined masonry chimney constructed in accordance with the national building code. An existing masonry chimney should be inspected, and if necessary repaired by a competent mason. If you intend to use a fireplace chimney, the fireplace opening must be sealed.
With the Sedore Stove, only 6", 7" or 8" inside diameter chimneys will work. If your chimney is larger, a liner must be put down to reduce the inside dimension. If you are putting a liner down, we recommend a 6" liner. Make sure your chimney extends at least 3 feet above the highest peak of your house. Masonry chimneys are fine provided that it is built to the national building code. Older chimneys with a larger than 8" round inside diameter will require a liner (check with your dealer).
The overall height of the chimney must be at least 15 feet. Do not use more than two elbows. Try to use 45° elbows rather than 90° elbows. I know sometimes it is impossible to avoid 90° elbows, and we have many stoves working perfectly with them but if you can change it to 2 - 45° elbows, it will draft better. (A straight up, inside chimney that extends at least 3 ft. above the highest peak of the roof is the best). Each elbow interferes with the draft similar to the effects of putting a kink in a vacuum cleaner hose. If you have 2 or more elbows, you may need to add height to obtain the required amount of draft.
Single wall stovepipe used to connect the stove to the chimney must be connected with the crimped end toward the stove. This will insure that condensing moisture from the burning wood or other fuel will flow back into the fire chamber. Each join in the stovepipe must be secured with at least three sheet metal screws. Single wall stovepipe must not penetrate combustible walls or ceilings
Have some 7" stove pipe to put into the flue collar. You will notice that the flue collar on the stove is not round, like the stovepipe, but rather OVAL. The reason for this is a simple one, if it were made round, and then the lid would not stay up when you rest it against the stovepipe. You do NOT need to find oval stovepipe, all you have to do is squeeze the round stovepipe a little to fit inside the flue collar. Once it is in, you may notice some gaps - don't worry about the gaps, this will not interfere with anything once you have the pipes connected to the chimney, it will be drawing air up, not down. If the gaps bother you, you could fill them in with some stove gasket and high-temperature caulking, but most don't do anything.
If you are connecting the stovepipe to a 6" chimney, then you will need a reducer. Never reduce at the stove, but rather use 7" stovepipe first, then use the reducer to connect to the chimney. Be sure each section of stovepipe is secured with 3 screws.

CHIMNEY HEIGHT

Chimney height really is critical to have your Sedore stove operate to maximum efficiency. You must be at least three feet above the peak of your roof. If houses around are higher than yours, then you may have to go even a little higher to compensate. A house that is down in trees seems to be the worst place to have your stove operate efficiently.
An inside, straight up chimney is the best you can have. However most of our stoves are connected to outside chimneys, and there is no problem whatsoever. If there is an offset, or elbows in your chimney, you will have to add height to compensate. If the trees around your house are more than 50 ft. away, they shouldn't present a problem. If the trees are closer, you could take them down, or just cut the tops off or experience an occasional "back-draft"(meaning smoke coming DOWN your chimney). You can experiment with different caps that are supposed to prevent "down-draft" but so far, none have satisfied us completely. The best thing to do is to simply go higher, even if you have to brace the chimney. These are a few symptoms that you may experience with chimney that is too low.

• It will take you longer than the five minutes mentioned to get to the required 550°F (stack - temperature) when starting the stove.
• The load will probably burn through quicker than the times stated.
• Stack temperature will settle to about 100°F and be difficult to get higher.
• You may experience some "dripping" running back down the chimney.

All of these problems are caused by either having too big (inside diameter) or too low of a chimney,and will quickly be corrected when the chimney is corrected. If you know you must go higher with your chimney, but are not sure how high, you could temporarily fasten a piece of stovepipe on top of your chimney, when you have found the correct height, replace this with proper insulated chimney.

CAN I GET CREOSOTE IN MY STOVEPIPE AND CHIMNEY WITH THE SEDORE STOVE?

The answer to this question is yes. Although the SEDORE stove is designed to reburn the smoke and gases, thus preventing creosote, there are certain conditions which when not corrected will allow some of the smoke to go through when not completely burned clean. Although most of our customers brag about having nothing more than "fly-ash" in their chimney year after year, I have seen creosote in some chimneys. It is like charcoal coloured whipped cream because it has been partially burned. I have NEVER in 16 years ever seen the type of creosote that you would normally get with an airtight. All creosote problems are cleared up, either by adding height, or making the inside dimension of the chimney smaller with a liner. The following are the three main reasons for creosote in your pipes or chimney:

• The main reason is that the chimney is not high enough-- It MUST be at least 3 feet above the peak of the roof, in order to draw properly. Also if the inside dimension is more than 8" round, then it is too big to suck sufficiently with an efficient stove. The inside diameter should be brought down in size with a stainless steel liner (we recommend 6").
• Burning the Sedore stove in an airtight house without an air exchanger or an outside air feed. This is a very seldom occurrence, but some of the modem houses (R-2000) are so air tight that the stove practically smothers, -- if you think this could be your problem, open a window near the stove and see if the stove runs better. If that is the problem, then you will need to get an air exchanger or order an outside air feed for your stove.
• The third reason for creosote in the chimney could be from burning green or wet wood on the bottom of the fuel pile. If you put wet wood half way up or on top of your fuel load, it doesn't matter much because it will dry out on the way down, it will however, make more creosote that goes on the underside of the lid, but this will dry and flake off as the wood or other fuel gravity feeds to the bottom. Only when green wood is put on the bottom, can creosote go in the pipes or chimney.

After a few weeks of burning your new SEDORE MULTI-FUEL Stove, take your inside pipes down and check them until you are sure of the method of burning your stove. The general rule is, the "junkier" the stuff is that you are burning, the more creosote you will get, but it will stay in the burning chamber and end up on the upper walls and the underside of the lid, where it will simply dry, flake off and fall back into the fire. In other words, never worry about creosote in the burning chamber, as it causes no harm.
The inventor of this stove recommends that you take your chimney cap off entirely for the winter, so the stove will draft better-- you can put it back on in the spring to keep the birds out.