InspectionNews - Home Inspection - View Single Post - Plastic power vent to metal vent at brick chimney

Scott Patterson · #2 (**permalink**) 09-27-2007, 02:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Christopher Kovac

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post to Inspection News so thanks in advance for any and all feedback!

I ran into a 2 year old Heil furnace yesterday at an 1850's farmhouse that had a plastic power vent going to a metal sleeve into a brick chimney. The roof pitch was too steep for me to get on to see inside the top of the chimney and I couldn't view any kind of cap at any angle from the ground with binoculars. Has anyone seen this kind of installation before?

Thanks in Advance,
Chris

It is wrong. Every single Cat IV furnace I have seen requires a PVC or ABS plastic flue pipe. The reason is that the flue gas is very corrosive and cool. A metal pipe will corrode away and it will also cool the flue gas even more, so it will not vent properly. I'm betting that you will not find a pipe in that old chimney and that it is just dumping out into the chimney.