Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Pellet Stove Pipe

Well I finally got my new pellet stove installed.

Got it up and running tonight and the frickin double-wall pellet stove pipe is leaking smoke behind the dang stove. Brand new Tee and elbow are leaking at the joints. It isn't as if this is cheapo pipe. The Tee is $60 and the allow near $40. All the same manufacturer.

Any experience with this? Suggestions?

I'm calling the manufacturer tomorrow. I hope I don't have to switch manufacturers because then I'm afraid my exhaust hole might not match up.

My neighbor has installed wood and Pellet stoves for 15 years or so,he helped me install my new Harmon a few days ago. While the pellets were igniting it blew quite a lot of smoke out of the tee and elbow. Naturally, I Thought I screwed something up. He assured me that it was common when the stove is cold and igniting the pellets.Sure enough once the flame took, it stopped immediately.

I've been working on installing my Harmon all week and was told to caulk the joints with high temp caulk. Real pain to do cleanly. Will be firing up this weekend.

I've only been using the harmon for two days,so far it seems way nicer than my old breckwell

Yes, the stove guys I spoke with said it wasn't unusual and I believe if I let it heat up it would have stopped leaking smoke. But, I can't have the thing smoking that much every time it starts.

I dismantled it and will re-silicone the pipe where it attaches to the stove. Then I'm going to use high heat foil tape around the joints. I really want to avoid the silicone in case I have to dismantle things again. The silicone nearly makes it impossible to take the pipe apart and reuse it.

I found some bands that wrap around the seams and cinch down tight with a fiber pad inside it to seal off the seams. For $8 or $9 bucks, it's worth a try.

Dealer told me to put a thin bead around outside of joint. Of course it's not the easiest thing to do neatly. My friend says they smoke more on initial startup when there is no ashes in pan.

Was it windy when you started the stove? That can initially keep the smoke from exiting properly, especially if the pipe is exiting from the side of a wall, instead of a longer vertical run.

Any stove may smoke a little until the heat causes the draft to start moving through the pipes. Gramps taught me to light a piece of paper to get the draft going which helps the fire breathe & start better. The pellet stoves are a different animal, but the principle is pretty much the same. Get it up to temperature a couple of times. Also, your pellets may be a bit damp. The heat should dry them out & maybe they'll start easier.

It isn't the pipe. Went through the same thing with mine. Red silicone and metal tape are the answer.

My stovepipe is less than 2' long, just stubs straight out the wall with a 45 turned down to fend the wind. On start up it would leak smoke if the pellets didn't ignite quickly before I sealed the joints.

Also burned it with the windows open when it was new. Took at least 6 hours of burning to fet rid of the bad odors.

Fired mine up this AM off the generator because this freak storm knocked out the power for the fifth time in 2 months. Only smoke was from residue burning off. Have mine piped into masonry chimney. Fan noise gonna take some getting used to.

I silicone the heck out of the stove exhaust pipe and taped the heck out of the 3 internal joints. There's still some noticeable smoke at startup but much less than previous.

I figured out the brand of vent pipe I have sucks. The next time I have to disconnect the pipe from the stove, I'm chucking it all and getting some better pipe that is gasketed at the joints. This pipe also has a simple stub that you silicone to the stove exhaust and then attach the Tee to that so you don't have to fight silicone every time you need to disconnect the exhaust to work on something. It may be spendy but crappy quality components just ticks me off. No wonder no one local carries this crappy pipe anymore.

And Boomhand, our old pellet stove was a bit noisy. One of the reasons we decided to upgrade. Our new stove is AWESOME! Quiet, warm, and nice to look at as well. It's a little more complicated than it needs to be, but that's the same with most everything these days.