Thread: Water heater flue pipe

This cant be right. Shouldn't this be connected to a Wye instead of being straight up.

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Originally Posted by Trent Tarter

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This cant be right. Shouldn't this be connected to a Wye instead of being straight up.

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Hard to Say.
* a picture might help .
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The pic is there now.

Trent,

Every thing I'm seeing on Gas Vent Tee Installation is done with the tee installed on a vertical not horizontal as shown in your picture.

I would it up.
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That's exactly what I thought.

Field fabricated tee, NG, no increase in size of vent at tee, NG, I guess the big question is why you have B-Vent entering a masonary chimney,there did not seem to be any clearance problems.

I would guess that is not a chimney and the pipe extends somewhere on the other side of the wall.

The plugged flue entrance below the water heater should change your guess.

That's either a 16" thimble or a capped off storm drain. Hard to tell from that picture.

Near as i can tell it's the width of one brick, not 16" The fact that the hot and cold water pipes are heading that direction also tells me thats a chimney, not a wall

It's a brick chimney and it terminates out the roof.

Is the forced air furnace equipped with an induced draft motor? If it is, this is required to be a "Y" type connector / not a "T"... as David suggested, it also looks like a fabricated type, not listed

Here's my take on the water heater vent stack.
This whole cinerio needs more information.

1. The stack from the bonnet to the T is not properly secured, no visible rivits, sheet metal screws, or metal tape.

2. Since the furnace is not always operational and there doesn't appear to be a directional damper on the T connection and there doesn't appear to be enough pipe slope to prevent the water heater CO2 from going back through the furace and into the structure, this could be a hazardous condition.

3. If this is a fireplace chimney; same situation no fire, down draft in chimney, CO 2 from water heater and furnace entering the living area??? Unless this B vent connects to a dedicated external vent in the main chimney??

Too many unknowns,

The code conflicts with itself on vent connectors. On one hand, it states the smaller appliance must enter the common vent above the larger then later it states you are allowe to manifold them as done here. There are no prescriptions on pipe layouts or angles.

First of all, the chimney should have a level I inspection. If that reveals any damage, deterioration or sizing problems, then it should get a level II inspection per NFPA 211.

Either inspection will determine if the B-vent is connected to a listed liner or if B-vent was run up the flue as a liner.

B-vent is not intended to be mortared into a wall. It may enter a thimble or sleeve, which can allow easy removal and inspection. The B-vent should have a Draft Hood Connector as the transition to single walled pipe.

The single walled connector must have adequate mechanical fasteners at each joint, generally a min. of three equidistantly spaced screws for diameters up to 6" then as needed. The connector should have some means of mechanical support such as straps or drives.

FYI, foil tape is not intended or approved for sealing vent connector joints. Moreoever, it covers the pipe from inspection, which is not allowed.

I would not worry so much about CO2 spillage but I would worry about CO spillage unless the CO2 concentrates at the floor displacing O2 which can cause the burner to make CO. That's not confusing is it? :-)

Of course, there are many other issues we could discuss such as the vent termination issues, makeup air, Worst Case Depressurization test, etc.

HTH,
Bob