My 20 year old quad Mt Vernon AE is being replaced. For 20 years it was vented into a chimney behind my hearth. The Quad has the standard 3 inch vent pipe that was adapted up to 8” as it exited the thimble in the wall in the hearth. The chimney is block with an 8 inch clay liner. To my knowledge this has worked well for 20 years. When pricing a new Harman absolute 63 to replaced the Quad, the dealer wants to run the 3 inch vent into a 4 inch double wall pipe thru the wall and then 4 inch up the entire chimney. The cost almost doubles the price of the stove. Is this really necessary especially since the Quad seemed to work fine for 20 years?
I'm no expert but that seems a bit overkill. I had a wood stove insert in my basement fireplace with a 6 inch liner, then bought a Harman Accentra insert. They just adapted the 3 inch into the 6 inch and off I go. Only difficult part is when I clean it its a bit difficult getting around the transition. I had a Mt Vernon AE for about 16 years in my upstairs fireplace. Good stove until it starts acting up (although I wasn't a fan of the autoclean). I ended up getting rid of it because I had the thermostat wigging out all the time and of course shut the stove down constantly. Tried a new thermostat but that didn't fix it - I wasn't going to throw a board or power supply at it guessing what was wrong.
