Can new wood stove connect into old chimney?

DeanPk

I have a 100 year old wooden house with a brick chimney that runs from the basement right through house - it follows the rear wall of house but it is an internal chimney with just one side of the chimney an exterior wall of the house.

Currently my gas boiler and gas hot water system which are both in the basement exhaust into this chimney. Both boiler and water heater are virtually side by side and send a 6" exhaust pipe direct into the chimney.

I want to add a wood stove on the first floor - can I cut a hole into the brick chimney and exhaust this wood stove into the chimney also?

Daniel Holzman

If you want to be safe and follow code, you are almost certainly going to need a separate flue with a stainless steel liner in your chimney. We had to install such a liner when we added our wood stove to our existing brick chimney. In some cases, it is so expensive to add the liner that it makes more economic sense to install a separate double wall stainless steel exhaust pipe up through the house.

joecaption

I would call a chimmney sweep to come look at this before doing anything.
Why a wood stove and not a gas fireplace, insert, or stove?

DeanPk

Interesting maybe add a liner inside the chimney just for the wood stove. I have not looked in the chimney it might already have a liner for the gas exhausts - but investigating the possibility of adding another for the wood stove is a reasonable idea. Running a new flue is a great idea as I can then put the stove where I want it just about. I want wood as I like have a secondary fuel supply. If the electric goes off - which it does now and then - I lose all heat. So a wood stove would give me contingency.

jomama45

Simply put NO, a solid-fuel appliance CAN NOT share a flue with other non-solid-fuel appliances.

DeanPk

Got it - I thought it would be definitive. Can I put two stainless flue liners in a single brick chimney - one for the gas and one for the wood?

Daniel Holzman

This is interesting. You definitely need two flues, one for the wood stove, one for the gas furnace. I have the same situation, however my chimney had two flues in it. Curiously, the flue for my oil burning furnace is not lined with stainless steel, and apparently does not need to be, whereas the flue handling the wood stove does need to be lined with stainless steel. This may have something to do with the corrosive nature of the gases from the wood stove.

jomama45

If they both fit, I don't see why not, but it really would depend on the size of the flue liner currently in there.