How to choose the right tube according to our installation

Posted by neelconsteel on December 12th, 2019

The choice of the flue outlet pipe of a wood-burning stove or fireplace is not a matter that should be taken lightly. Although not in all cases it is necessary to be demanding in terms of the quality of these, there are examples that should not be spared.

Tube assembly inside the housing

Ideally, each home would have a cannon-like pre-installation inside the house with a roof flue. In this installation you can use a Hardox 600 Plate, since it is isolated by the house and the chimney cannon, which will prevent us from generating condensation. The different simple tubes that we can find are:

• Simple stainless steel tube.

This material is very durable and resistant to corrosion, its name "stainless" says it all. It is a little porous material, a fact that will influence the soot to cost more to adhere to the walls of the tube, which will impact on spacing more times of chimney sweeping. This type of Hardox 550 Wear Resistant Plate is ideal for the entire installation, although it can be complemented with galvanized steel tube to reduce costs. The price of stainless with respect to galvanizing is three times more.

• Simple galvanized steel tube.

This type of pipe is of lower quality than stainless, although well installed we can achieve a durable and economical installation. What we should never do with this type is to install it immediately after the stove or fireplace (this would be the first tube that comes out of the stove). The material it is made of is steel with a high temperature bath of liquid galvanized. The manufacturing process of this one is very simple, which consists of submerging the steel in a bathtub We can then say that a coating has been added to the tube. Although this galvanized protects the tube from corrosion, if we place it just after the stove, the high temperatures that are generated at the exit of the stove (400 or 500 degrees Cº), will cause the galvanized bathIt is scaled or cracked, and will go through a process in which the tube will end up losing this protection. Once the Hardox 450 Wear Plate is in raw steel, it will begin to rust and chop (for example with the moisture of the water vapor coming from the firewood). In what case can we use the simple galvanized steel tube? The correct thing would be to put one or two meters of stainless steel first, and the following in galvanized steel. From the second meter the heat arrives more dissipated, and when it reaches the galvanized tube it does not suffer. Another drawback of the galvanized steel tube is that it is made of a more porous material, which means that soot costs less to accumulate in the walls of the duct. Here in this case we would need more maintenance.

• Simple black vitrified steel tube

This conduit is also raw steel with a bath at high temperatures, but in this case the bath is glazed (vitrified) and the finish is a gloss black, which makes it ideal for installations where the tube must be seen (wood stoves and metal fireplaces seen). It can also be used as a substitute for the stainless steel tube, since the price is very affordable (it is between galvanized and stainless), and its durability and resistance has nothing to envy to the high-end.