Outside air kits

[Tom L]

I have a pacific energy summit wood stove, with the outside air kit,
I ran a 3" flex pipe out of the air intake thru the clean out box in my fireplace and insulated the outside opening, the kit installs under the back of the stove. with screws and some insulation
it only draws outside air into the stove and then exhausts  out the chimney

has worked very well for us , not using any air from inside the house to heat the house

[Oldman47]

My Napoleon stove draws its combustion air from the ash drawer area. That area is open to the back of the stove unless you install the OAK. When the OAK is installed, there is a close off plate that goes over the back opening and the OAK is piped into the area of that ash drawer. Other brands do things differently but all of the ones that are designed to use an outside air kit have a way of connecting it so that it actually uses the outside air. I would not call it a scam at all but I am sure that many homes are not air tight enough to actually require an OAK. I guess if your home is leaky enough you might consider an OAK a scam for you.

[John Mc]

If you home is built all that tight (as mine is) then you really should have some sort of ventilation system in it - such as a heat recovery ventilation system. If you have that and it's properly set up, there is no need for an outside air kit on your wood stove: You are getting plenty of air exchange already.

[Northern Logger]

I have a pacific energy summit wood stove, with the outside air kit,
I ran a 3" flex pipe out of the air intake thru the clean out box in my fireplace and insulated the outside opening, the kit installs under the back of the stove. with screws and some insulation
it only draws outside air into the stove and then exhausts  out the chimney

has worked very well for us , not using any air from inside the house to heat the house

If the only source of air for the fire is from the OAK for your stove, how do you regulate the draft?  Or do you not need to regulate the draft with an OAK?  I'm assuming that the draft control on the front of your stove is only for regulating the use of inside air and has no control over the OAK.  Am I wrong here?

Btw, I appreciate that you have understood and tried to answer my question.  It was a question to do with the design/engineering of stoves with an OAK and how the draft is controlled with an OAK, not whether OAK kits "work" or work in this or that kind of house, etc.

[Tom L]

the oak kit bolts onto the same place as any incoming air would come from
inside or outside the house ,the panel is open, with a kit, you put a plate with a  flange adaptor over the intake hole
the flex pipe or any other type of pipe you want to use, attaches to the flange with some sheet metal screws,
you regulate the fire by the slide control at the front of the stove as usual
with this stove design, it takes the intake air up the back of the stove, then over a perforated plate,then towards the glass front , then to the front of the fire, it always burns from front to back
when it gets hot enough, and you back off of the intake air, it re burns the gasses as they rise in the fire box.(blue flame shoot down towards the wood) so hardly any smoke comes out of the chimney

I do have an ash drawer on the bottom of the stove, the air intake hole is just behind the ash drawer and does not interfere with the drawer.

[John Mc]

A write up on the myths of outdoor air for wood stoves by the folks at woodheat.org

[isaaccarlson]

An outside air kit worked for our lopi.