Water Heater Venting

[jmerritt]

I Installed a high efficiency furnace that vents out and draws intake combustion air through the basement wall using 3" pvc pipe. The old furnace vented out with the water heater together through a 6" chimney. The utility room also has a 6" fresh air intake for makeup air. The problem is that with the furnace not exhausting out the 6" chimney the water heater doesn't draft out the chimney until it has warmed the chimney which can be a few minutes in the winter time. I know I can replace the WH with a new one that has a fan powered exhaust but the existing WH is only about five years old. Any suggestions.

John :-)

[DUNBAR PLUMBER]

Make sure that the flue pipe is sealed tight where it goes into the chimney.


Have a chimney sweep company come out and inspect the chimney for cracks, possible leaks in the flue chase; if there is, a flue liner would be best recommended to resolve this problem.


It is a dangerous one at that since the water heater isn't probably exhausting the burned gases outside for those few minutes in initial startup.:!:

[jmerritt]

Thanks for the reply. Somebody said that my problem is that I have that 6" pipe full of cold air falling down through a 3" exhaust from the WH. Too much for the WH to heat up with just the pilot so the flue has to heat gradually.

John:)