Century Insert - New Install

Here's some photos of my parents house where I installed the Century Insert.
The top of the chimney needs some attention - but its not going anywhere.
Yes I'm slightly embarrassed to post pics of the loose morter joints...but I'm not gonna set cement in January (despite the warmer than normal temps).
And I've since placed a nice hearth board in front of the unit to protect the rug.
Previously I had temporarily placed a Upland Model 17 stove for my dad to use and he seemed to take to the burning wood idea so he decided to go for the insert.
He's using one or two BioBricks with wood splits - making for some nice cozy fires.
One thing I notice about this Century is the three secondary air tubes appear to function very well - I did a video of it - not sure how well it will show up in the vid but I'll post that to YT later today.

I dare you to find the Federal Reserve building in this shot

CJ-8_Jim said:

Looks good in living room.

But as for that chimney, it would be very wise to remove the bricks on the side and above the top cap. That is, you'll get a better draft when there are less than ideal conditions present.

How? By allowing a 360^ exposure to your chimney cap, wind can assist in increasing the chimney liner's draft.

Click to expand...

The draft is so strong - I'd wager that if a small cat or dog went near the pipe without the stove connected - you'd see them shoot out the top of the chimney.

Never seen such a strong draft....it literally locked the flu pipe to the floor of the fireplace due to suction. Then when I lifted it up slightly it sucked all the dust and debris from the floor and made perfect clean circles - I could hear the stuff flying up and out.

I actually started thinking if it would be necessary to 'limit' the draft - but what I've noticed is you can move the stoves' draft lever all the way closed very soon into the burn.

The observations above were made on a mild day with I'd say a 7-10mph constant wind.
But as you said...perhaps if the conditions are not ideal you may be right about removing the side and top brick.

I honestly didnt think the fireplace would draft as good as it has been behaving - since the house does have a oil burner and that has its own full size brick chimney - and the baro damper - which I would have thought would impact the upstairs fireplace ability to draft.

The hanging wires are from the maverick bbq monitor - sort of neat to check the temps with the two probes on either side or top.
This stove has a steel shell around the whole unit to allow the circulator fan at the bottom to suck cold air in and blow it around the steel jacket where it comes out the top.
The top of the stove was reaching temps of 350-375 in the middle.
The sides of the stove were typically 225 (measured on the jacket as well).
Ahhh...and I also got up on the roof and with the draft 1/2 open I measured with the IR gun temps about 170F (just inside the top opening) - I was simply curious.