Hearth.com

Can I get a guillotine style door for my fireplace

2012-02-13T06:35:51-05:00

Hi,
I’m in the middle of a new construction. The back of the fireplace is in, but chimney isn’t done yet and the finishing inside is not done at all, just masonry block. I was at a design show and saw the renaissance rumford fireplace (our fireplace is rumford style) I loved the guillotine style door and grate on the renaissance and I would like to do something like this.
Does anyone make a guillotine style door that I can add on to my fireplace?
Thanks,
Scott

Am I doing this right?

2012-02-12T19:22:03-05:00

So this is my first season burning wood. I have an Avalon Perfect Fit insert. From my experience I have to clean this stove out every three to four days or the ashes get too deep and limits the amount of wood I can load into her at one time…My question is about cleaning my stove out. I use a shovel and a small galvanized can with a lid…looks like a small garbage can. Seems like I get a lot of ash flying out of the can and into the air as I clean out. I do own an ash vacuum but don’t suck up coals with it. I shovel very gently and take my time but ash flies up every scoop. Just looking to see how experienced folks handle this task. My fires burn directly on brick so there is no screen or ash pan. Just looking to limit how much ash gets in my air as I am not looking forward to breathing in these particulates every year for 4 or 5 months. Thanks!

NC30… what to check?

2012-02-12T18:22:19-05:00

Found one! And, as if by an act of God, my tax refund showed up!

Appears to be in good condition… if i drive way the h&^% out to that end of the shore to buy it, what should I be checking?

Controlling a wood stove

2012-02-10T19:53:00-05:00

I’m on year 2 of my Englander 17 that I installed in my shop next to my home.
When I first got it, I spent a lot of time getting to know it; how it worked, how much wood to load, how hot was too hot, etc.
I would load it up, adjust the air, go in, then go back out to the shop to make sure it wasn’t over firing.
Worrisome times indeed!

I got the temps up to 90 a couple times…no danger, the stove wasn’t too hot (for safety) I just didn’t know how to operate/load/adjust it to get the temps I want.

Now, after a winter and a half of learning, I am able to control the stove with precision.

I can, and just did, place two Hickory splits (dry of course thanks to Dennis and others) on a good hot coal bed with other splits burning away (450degree internal stack temp).
Took a few minutes for the splits, which lit almost instantly, to bring the stack temp to redline/900 degrees.

Because of all the practice and experience I didn’t get worried or concerned at all, 900 degrees? No problem!
I just adjusted the intake air and within 5 minutes it has settled down to 600 degrees.

Shop temp is a very comfortable 75 degrees with outside temps of 25 and wind at 20+mph.

Life is good when you heat with wood!

Rob

At what temp do you reload?

2012-02-11T22:38:16-05:00

As I sit here and wait for my stove to hopefully come down from 560 stove top temp, I’m thinking back about what I did to get here. I reloaded at about 390 - 400, which is higher than I usually reload at, but the coal bed was at a good level, not too deep. Filled her up pretty full, say 80 - 85%, with large and small splits (not too many small ones, tho). Windy, and gotten windier. So, I have glowing wood, and blow torch secondaries and dancing flames. My draft is very close to 0. I think the stove top temp has dropped ever so slightly to 555. Hoping it continues it’s downward trend. My guess is that I shouldn’t have reloaded at that temp, should have let it drop down to 350 or so. Especially with the strong winds. Stove top now at 550. Smells faintly of what I think is paint curing - hate that smell! Stove top now at 545. We won’t discuss the heat pouring out the window…

Do stove-mounted blowers inhibit combustion efficiency?

2012-02-03T16:26:25-05:00

Gang,

I’ve been thinking about this one quite a bit lately. I have the optional blower on my quad Step top 4300, and the draft is directed downwards across the stove top. Is it possible that this is cooling the the stove to the point where it is inhibiting combustion efficiency? I can;t get accurate stovetop readings with an IR thermometer when the blowers are on because the stove is obviously being cooled. Sometimes it seems that placing a fan 20 feet from the stove and just directing the airflow towards the stove would accomplish the same goal as the stove-mounted blowers. What do you folks think? thanks,.

For those that have used perlite insulation…......

2012-01-01T02:56:07-05:00

If you have used perlite insulation around your liner inside a masonry chimney…..what do you think? Are there any negatives/difficulties with it? What size granules did you use? How is it holding up over time? Where did you purchase it? I’m seriously considering it due to some tight liner clearances that all but prevent wrapping the liner.

Rockland 550 glowing red!

2012-02-10T01:12:49-05:00

oh dear! I hope I’m not in trouble. I loaded the stove down for the night and let it burn for a bit before turning the air down. I turned the air supply back and left it to finish taxes. I just walked over to check it out and this is what I saw: center of the top plate is glowing a dull red, the temp sensor placed near the center is pegged at 900. (so i know i’m that hot and probably hotter). This is most definitely an overfiring situation? I wonder what damage, if any I might be looking at. I am typing this post about 20 minutes after the initial oh crap moment and the red glow appears to be fading, but she’s still pegged at 900. I’m not sure what to do except sit tight. I’m afraid I might do more harm than good by trying to pull all the wood out. I have some big boy rounds in there.

Has anyone experienced this situation before? With my old insert I had the sensor mounted on the front and so i never saw the ‘extreme’ temps. of course i don’t ever remember a glowing stove top either.

On the plus side she’s belting out heat and i can’t get my wife to go our bedroom to sleep because ‘it’s so warm in here’ haha.. I’m still not used to this firebox. I wonder what I’ve done wrong here. I would think i should be able to load her down at night. I dont think Hackberry is a super BTU wood. It seems that it’s on down the BTU list. The wood is bone dry, which is someting i’m not used to. Maybe i let it burn too long with the air open before choking it down for the night?

I would appreciate your wisdom

thanks
Brian

Another Progress Hybrid installation, replacing Fireview, work in progress

2012-02-05T16:40:05-05:00

Even though there are a few threads already, I want to add mine as I think all of the owners posting on-line is helping each other out. I’m in a similar situation to one of the other posters in that I have a huge area to heat, with one side of my house full of windows - facing the NW due to a nice view in that direction. Yeah, I know, I didn’t design or build the house. Regardless it takes a lot of heat to keep this house warm in the winter.

We live in a rural area and the house was built with propane as the primary heat source. After one winter of that, we decided a wood stove was for us. We’ve had a Fireview for a couple years and it has been an absolute pleasure - it heats well, burns long, and paid for itself in less that two winters. With about 3,800 sq ft to heat, we decided to up-size and order a Progress.

Attached is a photo of the Fireview installed.

Our house layout works really well for wood heat. The stove room is our main family room area, is a two story room, and is open up top to the upstairs hallway. The room to the left of the stove is our kitchen / eat in dining area. The upstairs hall is also open to the front of the house, to the heat rises, then falls in the front of the house and circles back to the stove. It works really well. If we want to heat the upstairs bedrooms, we just leave the doors open.

starting new install

2011-12-04T01:45:15-05:00

Hello all. Long time lurker first time poster. Might as well be the install right? I haven’t gotten very far yet but here it is. this will be the home of a new Timber Ridge (englander) 50-TRW35. We’ve been in this house for just over a year now and I’m about a year late doing this. Our last house, or other house (we have it rented out waiting for the market to come back a little), had a small freestanding wood stove that the brand escapes me at the moment. Anyhow it heated that 1150sq ft circular floor plan great. This house is to spread out to heat the same way so I went with a wood furnace instead and thought this one looked the best, next to a caddy but $$, to have sitting in the house. I must say a heat pump is the most unpleasant way I have ever heated. So here is the progress. The upper level will be built up more than the step. It should be about 8 1/2” when it’s done. There will be some ceiling work that will follow the same shape but set back about 12” from the outside edge of the hearth.