Hdmstng
Member
We have a 50 gallon gas water heater that vents out through a 3" double walled pipe that Y's into a 6" (single walled from what I can tell) horizontal run, then takes a 90 degree turn up from the basement into a double walled pipe, and then up out the roof, ~30'. What I believe happened was the previous owners had the furnace vented through that 6" pipe and they had the water heater also venting out via the Y connection. The furnace was replaced with a high efficiency model that no longer uses that exhaust.
1) Single to double walled can't be right.
2) Going from 3" to 6" doesn't seem right either, in that we may not be getting proper vacuum to exhaust the gases. Do have a couple of carbon monoxide monitors in use just in case, but don't know of any issues currently.
3) On a bit of a side note but possibly pertinent, we will be adding a powered bathroom vent in the near future. I'm worried the vacuum it may create could cause new problems with the current exhaust.
In the coming weeks we are getting a new roof installed, so figured if venting needed to be changed, this would be a good time to do so. I'll be calling a professional to do the work, but wanted to get an idea of the options out there. Here are a few I came up with...
A) Remove the 6" pipe (it is in a vertical chase) and run 3" in its place all the way to the roof.
B) Run the 3" double walled up through the 6" pipe, remove the last section of the 6" pipe and out the roof.
C) Can you retrofit a gas water heater to be power vented out the side? Would be nice to eliminate the roof vent and free up the space where the vertical chase is located. Would be able to add a couple of new closets to the house.
Any other options?
1) Single to double walled can't be right.
2) Going from 3" to 6" doesn't seem right either, in that we may not be getting proper vacuum to exhaust the gases. Do have a couple of carbon monoxide monitors in use just in case, but don't know of any issues currently.
3) On a bit of a side note but possibly pertinent, we will be adding a powered bathroom vent in the near future. I'm worried the vacuum it may create could cause new problems with the current exhaust.
In the coming weeks we are getting a new roof installed, so figured if venting needed to be changed, this would be a good time to do so. I'll be calling a professional to do the work, but wanted to get an idea of the options out there. Here are a few I came up with...
A) Remove the 6" pipe (it is in a vertical chase) and run 3" in its place all the way to the roof.
B) Run the 3" double walled up through the 6" pipe, remove the last section of the 6" pipe and out the roof.
C) Can you retrofit a gas water heater to be power vented out the side? Would be nice to eliminate the roof vent and free up the space where the vertical chase is located. Would be able to add a couple of new closets to the house.
Any other options?