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New Flue installation / touching pressure tank -- problem?

brightblack123
brightblack123 Member Posts: 2
in Oil Heating

Hello,

I just had a very well reviewed chimney company install a stainless steel chimney liner for the exhaust of our oil furnace - at the same time, they replaced the flue to the chimney (keeping some of the old piping and barometric damper). I am concerned that the hot flue is in direct contact with the bottom edge of the pressure tank. I brought this up to the technician, and they said it was nothing to worry about. Posting here to get feedback. Thank you!

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Comments

  • EBEBRATT-Ed
    EBEBRATT-Ed Member Posts: 16,470
    edited December 8

    Probably not an issue but it would be better if it wasn't touching. Not much contact there. They could have easily swung the pipe over 1" and then it wouldn't have been an issue.

    brightblack123CLamb
  • BDR529
    BDR529 Member Posts: 310

    Got to ask, Go through relief valves with the expansion tank tank after the check?

  • PC7060
    PC7060 Member Posts: 1,443
    edited December 8

    ask them to come back and correct; is a simple fix. As Ed said, the just need to extend the vent line coming out of boiler or main line going into chimney a couple inches. May be able to move enough by reorient the 45 or 90

    brightblack123
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 23,379

    Or two 1/2” black ells and a couple nipples to swing the tank

    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream
  • pecmsg
    pecmsg Member Posts: 5,290
    https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1825557#Comment_1825557

    If he's going to do that might as well take care of that rusted vent piping.

  • Bob Harper
    Bob Harper Member Posts: 1,090
    edited December 8

    It is quite easy to move either the chimney connector or the expansion tank. This was just lazy on the part of the chimney contractor. If you want to unscrew that tank to test the pressure, charge or replace it, you would need to disturb the connector pipe. Poor planning.

    The connector is unsupported, yet you have two offsets.

    It appears they have an unlisted galvanized steel connector permanently cemented into the base of the chimney. You can cement in stainless steel but not galvanized steel.

    They did put the counterweight on the right side for a vertical application, but I do not see a test hole between the barometric damper and chimney to tell where to set the weight. This is their responsibility. Most chimney guys will leave it as is from the box and claim its the responsibility of the technician. While true, the tech should come back (for a reasonable fee) to perform combustion analysis since it has a new airway (liner) and is breathing differently, the chimney guy has a responsibility to place the equipment back into service, which includes setting the draft in the stack.

    This is a boiler fyi. A furnace makes and distributes warm air.

    Some dingdong put combustible foam between stones within 12" of the chimney connector thimble. Aside from foaming in stone being problematic on several accounts, you must maintain your stated clearances to combustibles.

    What part of the country is this?

    That furnace cement around the connector at the wall will shrink and separate leaving razor sharp edges. Be careful around it.

    The connector should have a blocked vent safety switch installed. Ask your oil burner technician.

    The connector must slope 1/4" per foot and have a minimum of 3 equidistantly spaced screws per joint. If the horizontal leg's seam is between 5-7 O'clock, ask the chimney contractor to rotate it above this zone so condensate does not settle in it.

    All the connector pipe should be new 26 gauge galvanized steel or stainless steel if this is 6" diameter.

    You should not have 'soot' in the throat of that barometric damper. It's an indication of venting failure, which is one reason for the liner. So, how will you know if the liner is venting properly? One way is to clean the damper of soot or replace it. This will reveal new soot or cooking of the porcelain mouth should there be a backdraft. The damper should be set level. Once leveled. there should be an indicator mark on the snout of the tee so it can be lined up should the damper be removed. The band clamp is better than nothing but you will want screws placed in the upper portion above the pivot rods. This is so in the case of a hard ignition or backpuff, the damper will not shoot across the room.

  • brightblack123
    brightblack123 Member Posts: 2

    @Bob Harper Thank you Bob for your insight.

    This is in upstate NY — (looking for any recommendations to have someone redo this properly if you know anyone — Columbia County, NY)

    Regarding the foam, I was incredibly disappointed by this as well — apparently they were vacuuming and there were ants and so they thought it best to fill the gaps of my nice stacked stone foundation with combustable foam. I am headed back to the property tomorrow to do my best to remove it.

    This was a chimney specific company and I have already scheduled a call with our oil service company (who services boilers, separate business) to do a combustion analysis. I have also asked them to redo and reroute this flue as I don't trust the previous company to handle appropriately.

    I will ask them about the blocked vent safety switch. Thank you

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