Same chimney

Anonymous-0 · Jul 14, 2012

O/T I live in southern Wis. Does anyone know of a reason why I can't use the same chimney for fueloil and wood? I know I need to findout what city code is,But is there some reason not to. It is a fairly new chimney good liner, wood furnace is a commercial add on 5 years old. Thank you in advance RickP/Wis

JDseller · Jul 14, 2012

You can not use the same chimney for two fire sources and meet any type of code. They worry about the wood fire creosoting up and blocking the fuel oil furnace. Then you would have the house fill with CO2.

I used wood heat for many years. I don't care how seasoned or how good your chimney is you are going to have creosote. The newer air tight stoves are even worse about this as they just about never have a real hot fire. They usually just kind of smolder.

I would not be able to sleep at night with both in the same flue. What I would do is vent the fuel oil stove sperate. If your stove is newer you can get a power vent kit that can then be vented just out the wall.

paul · Jul 14, 2012

It worked fine until the 1980's.

Code no longer will allow it on new installs, unless you hve a combo unit all in one furnace that is set up that way.

--->Paul

rrlund · Jul 14, 2012

I made the mistake of doing that for about two years. I quit using the wood stove and didn't think about the creasote. I dropped down in the bottom of the chimney and plugged it just above the pipe. (basement furnace and wood add on)
We were DARNED lucky we didn't die of carbon monoxide. Spent a couple of winters not knowing why we felt so crappy. Luckily the furnace repair guy found it.

dpendzic · Jul 14, 2012

the code in my area allows fuel and gas in the same chimney--the gas has to be 12 inches above the fuel flue. Wood and fuel or gas not allowed.

PJH · Jul 14, 2012

JDSeller has good advice. You know how it is - we have good intentions of keeping the chimney clean, but. That being said, we had wood and gas in the same chimney for 25 years. Gas was about a foot above the wood. Insurance company changed their spec and made me install a seperate chimney for the gas. Or lose coverage. Changed to please them (and keep coverage) but then in a couple of years they decided they didn't like wood heat period. We put in an outside boiler. So far they haven't found anything about it that they don't like, but it wouldn't surprise me for some crisis to pop up. All those years with no claim. One could almost say it was wasted money. . .

Just joking - I'm thankful for no claims.

Paul

JDseller · Jul 14, 2012

Paul part of the issue starting in the 1980s was the air tight stoves just started to really be used then. The older stoves that really burnt hot and did not smolder had much less creosote.

tjdub · Jul 15, 2012

> we have good intentions of keeping the chimney clean, but

Where I am, I can't even get fire insurance unless I have a newer UL-listed wood furnace.

I'll just say, when you make the decision to drop fire insurance to keep your 100 year-old cast iron wood furnace, the chimney stays pretty darn clean.

Same chimney

Anonymous-0

Well-known Member

JDseller

Well-known Member

paul

Well-known Member

rrlund

Well-known Member

dpendzic

Well-known Member

PJH

Well-known Member

JDseller

Well-known Member

tjdub

Member

Similar threads