Masonry or Power Vent?

I'm getting ready to put up a chimney. I'm going to run the coal boiler in series with my existing oil unit. Which is better, cheaper for the oil unit, a masonry chimney or a power vent? I haven't priced anything out yet but I'm doing the work myself. I figure it would be just as easy to run a double flue chimney as a single. I've heard power vents for an oil burner can run upwards of 500. Just curious as to what you guys think would be the smarter move for the long term. I don't think the oil burner will get much use but I want to keep it in case we go away during the winter. Thanks

I put up my own masonry chimney. It is a bit of work, but with scaffolding, and patience,, it is a 'forever' chimney.. it will outlast you and your kids.

Greg L

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I'm looking to put up a new double flue two story masonry chimney. Even with the slow down in new house construction, I'm having a difficult time finding anyone to do the job. It's hell just to get masonry contractors to come out a look at the job. I've called a half dozen and only three came to look. One bid $4000 estimate on a time and materials contract, the second $7621, the third no bid. BTY I'm suppling the bricks, left over from previous job. Ridiculous prices! It's less that $900 worth of materials and only two or three days work. I'm going to do the job myself!

Let's put it this way.... if you get a powerventer, eventually you will replace it with a chimney. $500? Sounds cheap! 14 yrs ago I paid $400 & that was dealer cost. By the way, 3 yrs ago it got replaced with a masonry chimney.

The power venter was a pain from day one. Well, OK, not day one, for the first few months it was OK, but after a while it started to vibrate. The fins of the blower pick up soot & dust & need to be cleaned. Twice a year I cleaned that miserable thing & it was pain to do so! Also, after it was removed, my electric bill droped $10 a month.

Ouch! Those prices do seem awfully high. 3 yrs ago I paid $2,200 total for a 22 foot single flue. One piece cement block, clay tiles lined, nice brick above the roofline.

Thanks guys,
Sounds like it's a double flued masonry chimney. I'm doing the work myself so the only expense will be the additional material.

You didn't say what size chimney you have now, and if you didn't buy your coal boiler yet, you should look into the K6 keystoker. you can get the K6 with a oil burner option and you only need 1 chimney as long as it is 8".
Or you could buy the Harman VF3000 with the oil burner option and that would be a 6 or 7" chimney.
That would solve your problem.

I know alot of people say you don't get the same efficency, but keep in mind if you have you oil boiler inline with you coal boiler your oil boiler will be sitting there off most of the time and all it's plates sending the heat right up the chimeny.

I drive by a church on the way home each day that has a power vent and the whole side of the building around the vent is black with soot.

Power venters won't soot the side of a building as the exhaust is moving at a pretty high speed. They blow the exhaust well away. Direct vent boilers will. The exhast is only driven by the little fan on the burner and the exhaust just wafts out the vent and rolls up the building. If/when the boiler needs cleaning, it can make an awful mess. Also with a direct vent, exhaust will get in through soffet vents and into unheated spaces. I've known of one complaint of smelling it in the house. The cure was to block 10 feet of soffet and make "dams" so the exhaust would roll up over the eve.

Steve.N wrote:I drive by a church on the way home each day that has a power vent and the whole side of the building around the vent is black with soot.

Sounds like one of those stinky oil guns that has been mal-adjusted. Just remember, Anthracite doesn't make soot!

syncmaster wrote:You didn't say what size chimney you have now, and if you didn't buy your coal boiler yet, you should look into the K6 keystoker. you can get the K6 with a oil burner option and you only need 1 chimney as long as it is 8".
Or you could buy the Harman VF3000 with the oil burner option and that would be a 6 or 7" chimney.
That would solve your problem.

I know alot of people say you don't get the same efficency, but keep in mind if you have you oil boiler inline with you coal boiler your oil boiler will be sitting there off most of the time and all it's plates sending the heat right up the chimeny.

I have an 8" chimney now. The problem is it's location. In order to get coal I have to move my system to the other side of the house. I want to keep my existing boiler as a backup in case we want to go away for a week in the winter or the coal unit fails. I already own it so there is no additional expense. If I set the low limit on the oil unit lower than the coal it should come on automatically if the coal unit has a problem.

In the late 70's when we bought our first house I installed a bi-metal flue damper on our gas unit. Do these still exist? An automatic damper on the oil unit should help keep the cold air coming down the chimney from cooling the oil unit.

There is a kind of hybrid chimney system that combines the ‘easy’ construction of metal insulated pipe with the longevity of masonry. Isokern makes it out of pumice and designed as a modular stacking system. There are several diameters available and even a double flue design. I talked to the US reps and they are fairly DIY friendly. Here is a good link that will take you to links to most of the stove type systems.

syncmaster wrote:You didn't say what size chimney you have now, and if you didn't buy your coal boiler yet, you should look into the K6 keystoker. you can get the K6 with a oil burner option and you only need 1 chimney as long as it is 8".
Or you could buy the Harman VF3000 with the oil burner option and that would be a 6 or 7" chimney.
That would solve your problem.

I know alot of people say you don't get the same efficency, but keep in mind if you have you oil boiler inline with you coal boiler your oil boiler will be sitting there off most of the time and all it's plates sending the heat right up the chimeny.

I just need to make sure I read this correctly. Instead of having two boilers in my mechanical room and worrying about separate chimneys and such, I can get rid of my old oil boiler and replace it with a coal stoker boiler with an oil burner option for backup?

Hollyfeld wrote:I just need to make sure I read this correctly. Instead of having two boilers in my mechanical room and worrying about separate chimneys and such, I can get rid of my old oil boiler and replace it with a coal stoker boiler with an oil burner option for backup?

I would keep the old oil burner and tag in the stoker for a few reasons. The first is it will save you a ton of money, second is you will have 100% backup and thirdly, oil burner options on coal boilers are notoriously inefficient. They generally need to be changed over manually from one fuel to another, not so if you run two separate boilers together, the oil will jump in if you lose your fire.

Those are all very good reasons why not to get one with the built in oil burner. The problem I see happening with me is that I already have a masonry chimney for the oil boiler. I don't think I have any other places where I could put a chimney for a separate coal boiler. I did read the post on here about using the same chimney for both and the code issue.

What if you hook up the coal stoker to the existing chimney. The oil boiler flue would simply be pulled out of the chimney. The power to the oil burner would be off and it would be closed off from the circuit of hot water. When you decide that you are going away for an extended period of time and you want to run the oil boiler, you connect the flue back up, open the water circuit (close off the coal one) and then turn on the power. Is this a feasible option?

Hollyfeld wrote:What if you hook up the coal stoker to the existing chimney.

That is best, then just power vent the oil burner and it can run when necessary automatically, nothing to change or hook/unhook.