Water Heater Venting

[rbaake]

Hi Guys,

Any comments on the venting of this water heater would be appreciated.

Besides sharing a masonry chimney with a wood burning fireplace on the other side and questionable slope it seems a wye connector may be needed to vent it above the boiler. No evidence of back drafting but venting is newly installed.

Thanks again,

Roy Baake | Interspec, LLC

Download Attachment: Photo X.jpg

87.56 KB

[Jim Katen]

The wood burning fireplace venting through an adjacent flue has nothing to do with the venting in this flue. Ignore it.

That set up has several problems.

* Since this is a garage in a cold climate, the vent connectors should all be insulated, double-wall material.

* Either the vent connector before the water heater is oversized or the one after the water heater is undersized. A properly sized vent connector will step up in size where a second appliance joins it.

* Unless that's a really tall chimney, the horizontal portion of the vent connector is too long.

Personally, I think that there's no advantage to a wye vs a tee in this application. The gases are being *sucked* out not *pushed* out. Tees work fine.

[rbaake]

Thanks Jim,

The fireplace and gas fired appliances both vent into a single clay lined flue. Two flues were noted at the chimney however, one is abandoned. Photo included below.

Thanks

Download Attachment: Photo 34.jpg

105.22 KB

[Jim Katen]

Thanks Jim,

The fireplace and gas fired appliances both vent into a single clay lined flue. Two flues were noted at the chimney however, one is abandoned. Photo included below.

Thanks

Download Attachment: Photo 34.jpg

105.22?KB

Then it's wrong. You shouldn't have gas appliances venting into the same flue as a wood-burning appliance unless the equipment is designed that way.

By the way, they must never have built a fire in that fireplace. I've never seen a fireplace flue liner that clean.