Coalpail.com Forum

Where the stovepipe sections go together there are some gaps that must be allowing some air to leak. For example, the seam where the pipe snaps together distorts its roundness and never fits snugly when one piece is inserted into another. What can I use to seal the joints, that is not ugly? -- that is, no silver tape on the black pipe or anything like that, since it's in my living room. Ideally something that would let me take the pipes apart again for cleaning.... And speaking of that long seam where the pipe snaps together, should that be sealed also or is it generally airtight?

You would think, after several hundred years, they would have come up with something better. ... I guess, they never felt a need.

When I installed my stove I had some similar concerns but after visiting my brother's garage where he had a beat up old stove hooked up with used pipe I haven't been concerned since about any small leaks in the pipes. One the single wall pipes he used had a 3/8" hole in it. Not a puff of smoke ever came out! It dawned on me that the chimney is drawing air out of the garage... not blowing it out. All that was happening was a little bit of air was being sucked in to the hole. Now if you have a anything with a power vent that would be a problem.

Charlie.

You don't need to seal the pipes unless you are fighting a very low draft chimney then every little bit helps. I use the same kind of pipe and near the end of the burning season you can see where the small gaps have sucked air in because there is some household dust collected there.

I just bought some very pricey black stovepipe that comes perfectly round with virtually no seam, it even has an adjustable section that has a sliding sleeve for length adjust ability so there is no cutting. Beautiful stuff, makes the regular pipe look handmade.

high temp stove silicone slathered on the joints from the inside would do it.

I used furnace cement on everything. Not neat though, but that is probably more the handyman's fault (me) than the cements.

gambler wrote:You don't need to seal the pipes unless you are fighting a very low draft chimney then every little bit helps. I use the same kind of pipe and near the end of the burning season you can see where the small gaps have sucked air in because there is some household dust collected there.

I agree. The very small leaks should be overcome by the draw of the chimney anyway. Noting is coming out of those joints, but rather being drawn into the pipe. (I wouldn't want to seal the joints with anything because I like to take the stove pipe down in the spring to dump fly ash & I leave it off for the summer to fight rust & corrosion)

sharkman8810 wrote:I used furnace cement on everything. Not neat though, but that is probably more the handyman's fault (me) than the cements.

I seal my pipes with Stove Pipe sealant, after it's cured ( not that long) I paint it with my matching High Temp Stove paint...Wa La! Looks great and even with mid winter Clean-out I repeat the operation, not a big deal at all.

We could use schedlue 20 steel pipe and tig weld all the seams. Let's do it right! That shouldn't cost more than four or five hundred bucks should it? Got extra money? ...Stailess pipe and tig welded! Yaaaa.... even better for that custom look, instead of buying the wife that new Mercedes....titanium has a time honored classic hue. *grin*

But then, ... it doesn't make a lot of sense to cut a 6" hole in the same pipe, which you just sealed to be air tight, for your barometric damper .... does it?

Dallas wrote:But then, ... it doesn't make a lot of sense to cut a 6" hole in the same pipe, which you just sealed to be air tight, for your barometric damper .... does it?

Excellent point!! I had a barometric damper installed with my first stove & it never seemed to do a thing for me except to steal heated air from above the stove. Haven't ever replaced it in over 25 years & my stoves have worked fine.

Devil, Greg is waiting for me to say something .... the only thing I'm going to say is "Devil, you could be going straight to hell for saying that!"

Dallas wrote:Devil, Greg is waiting for me to say something .... the only thing I'm going to say is "Devil, you could be going straight to hell for saying that!"

Home??...You mean I could just be sent home??

Devil and Dallas,, so how do you handle this type of weather? Stay up all night and baby sit the stove,, or ignore it and go back to sleep?? Without a barometric damper, your hand feed stove would overheat, and or burn up all it's fuel in record time.

Stove pipe or flue pipe joints don't need to be hermetically sealed unless they are on a DV stove.. the pipes then are under pressure..

The only other time you want or would need sealed joints is if you have a lousy chimney or chimney location where you can get draft reversal in the chimney.. this can also be caused by a tight house with too many exhaust fans. and no dedicated outside air source for combustion air to the stove.

Greg L.