Flue on a Slow Combustion Wood Heater or Stove
So you’ve just installed a wood heater and the all necessary flue to go with it.
The heater looked great in the showroom and the salesman was very helpful.
And it was supplied with a flue kit, an item you hadn’t given any thought to until it was mentioned that you would need one.
And you most likely presumed it would be from the heater manufacturers and designed to suit the wood heater.
However, in 99% of cases the flue kit supplied is a generic type, where one generic design fits all but doesn’t suit all.
Selection
After it’s installed there’s a 50% chance you are going to be beset by problems in the operation of the wood heater.
One common one being smoke entering the room particularly when the fire dies down or when you attempt to light or reload the heater.
Mention of this to the installer and the most common suggestion will be that you elevate the flue by another metre.
So straight away you’re caught between a rock and a hard place.
You’re out of your depth and you don’t know enough about the situation you’re in.
Now you’re facing an additional cost with no guarantee, coupled with the fact that you need to stabilize the flue stack by guy wiring it down.
And you end up with an unsightly installation.
Precaution
This is not what you envisaged when buying the heater!
And if you go this route you may be confronted with a myriad of surprises.
One of which being that the extended flue increases the likelihood of carbon buildup in the active flue and resin drip.
Resin drip will look unsightly and will change the water quality should you wish to harvest the water off your roof.
That introduces an extra maintenance cost.
Then you’re told that thousands of installations have been done this way without any problems.
Not so!… We get your call eventually!