Carbon Steel for flue?

[Laku]

Re: Carbon Steel for flue?

Must be something to do with heat dissipation.

I think I read somewhere that the oxidation(rust) of the steel will form a protective layer that will in turn slow down the corrosion.

[Laku]

Re: Carbon Steel for flue?

It's not the heat alone but the acidity of flue gasses that will eat steel over time. Unless you can get it fabricated from stainless steel, I'd save myself some trouble and just buy ss one.

[david s]

Re: Carbon Steel for flue?

I bought a pot bellied stove years ago and the stainless steel flue was going to cost more than the stove so I put in a 0.55 mm galvanized flue. It was corroded by the end of the winter, so I replaced it with boiler tube, about 4mm thick from memory. It lasted pretty well, but I sold the place a couple of years later so don't know about it's long term durability. Get stainless in the first place then forget it.

[brickie in oz]

Re: Carbon Steel for flue?

The thing will rusts out after a few firings, we tried a normal steel flue some years ago and it lasted weeks.
Your being thicker it will last a while before it rusts away.

[Pompeii Nate]

Today at work I picked up a big metal box that was just going to be thrown out as garbage. I brought it home thinking I would be able to use it to fabricate into a flue for my oven. I am told that it is carbon steel and would work for fabricating a flue but I wanted some more input. Can anyone recommend if carbon steel would be good enough metal/the right type material? Will this withstand the temps that the flue will reach? (what temp is that on most ovens by the way?)? I spoke with a friend who is a welder and he thinks it should work if it is just the chimney and didn't get too hot. I mentioned "hundreds of degrees" and he wasn't totally sure. The metal is probably less than 3/8ths inch thick or maybe a bit less. Not too heavy but not real flimsy.

Ideas? Thoughts? Concerns?

Thanks,
Nate