I finally installed my insert yesterday, in no small part to the excellent info on this site. I couldn't have done it without you guys!
I have been lurking here for probably almost a year while trying to find a cheap but good insert to "try." I didn't want to spend a lot of money to find out that it wasn't going to meet my expectations for whatever reason, but I also didn't want some junk that would be guaranteed to disappoint me. I finally found an Avalon Ranier on craigslist for $300, which has been fairly well regarded here. It is in great shape, the bricks are good, no cracks, glass and roping look good. The guy just wanted it out of his house, he was having some remodeling done. I thoroughly cleaned it, taking all the bricks out and cleaned the glass and polished the brass door. It looks almost like a new stove. I am deciding now if I want to try stove polish or black paint on a few areas that need touching up. Above the firebrick baffle there was probably an inch, maybe more, of ash and I think creosote, like maybe when he swept the chimney he never took the baffle out to let it fall into the stove to remove it. I'm not sure if the stove was used like this but if it was I can't imagine it worked very well. Glad I found it though.
I used 6" stainless (no insulation but I will get to that) from the cap straight to a stainless connector on top of the insert. My chimney is inside the house, but only about 14' from the top of the stove. The 7x11 terracotta tile starts about halfway up. I brushed out the terracotta but it was pretty clean to start. It was used as an open fireplace before but not often. Let me tell you getting the 6" flex down the hole was rough!! I think there is no such thing as "plenty of room." I was working by myself. To help pull it down, I cut a 2" piece of liner off, turned it 90* and screwed it so it was half in and half out of the end, to tie a rope to on the centerline. I attached a pulley to the top of the insert and the rope went down through that and back to me on the roof so I could pull and push at the same time.
As I said the insert was already in the fireplace. I had enough room to lay on my back on top of it and reach with both hands up above the damper to guide and bend the liner through. I actually think this position helped me - without the insert there I wouldn't have been able to reach anything. Also I got a better look than I ever did before at the smoke shelf area just above the damper. This is where I started getting worried - the area around the smoke shelf looks like it had a lot of creosote. At least I think that's what it was - looked like black fuzz. Now, obviously once the brush I used on the terracotta was in this area it was like throwing a hot dog down a hallway as they say, and didn't do much. I layed on my back with the shop vac and a brush attachment on a stick for awhile and got it a lot cleaner (it came off pretty readily) but I am still worried about it. This area is obviously pretty large and therefore far away from the liner. How big of a concern is this? I assume a fire between the liner and chimney would be the worst kind, and hard to access as there is a cap at the top and a block off plate at the bottom. Maybe I should fill/pack the whole area with roxul? Seems for $30 you can get a whole bunch of it at Lowes, plus that would serve to insulate the liner better as well.
What do you guys think about this? Do I need to tear the whole thing out? Should I do the roxul? Does it matter? I haven't fired the stove yet so I don't know if the draft is adequate. I did light a piece of newspaper and the smoke went right up with the flue "cold" so I am optimistic, but we'll see.
Thanks for reading.
I have been lurking here for probably almost a year while trying to find a cheap but good insert to "try." I didn't want to spend a lot of money to find out that it wasn't going to meet my expectations for whatever reason, but I also didn't want some junk that would be guaranteed to disappoint me. I finally found an Avalon Ranier on craigslist for $300, which has been fairly well regarded here. It is in great shape, the bricks are good, no cracks, glass and roping look good. The guy just wanted it out of his house, he was having some remodeling done. I thoroughly cleaned it, taking all the bricks out and cleaned the glass and polished the brass door. It looks almost like a new stove. I am deciding now if I want to try stove polish or black paint on a few areas that need touching up. Above the firebrick baffle there was probably an inch, maybe more, of ash and I think creosote, like maybe when he swept the chimney he never took the baffle out to let it fall into the stove to remove it. I'm not sure if the stove was used like this but if it was I can't imagine it worked very well. Glad I found it though.
I used 6" stainless (no insulation but I will get to that) from the cap straight to a stainless connector on top of the insert. My chimney is inside the house, but only about 14' from the top of the stove. The 7x11 terracotta tile starts about halfway up. I brushed out the terracotta but it was pretty clean to start. It was used as an open fireplace before but not often. Let me tell you getting the 6" flex down the hole was rough!! I think there is no such thing as "plenty of room." I was working by myself. To help pull it down, I cut a 2" piece of liner off, turned it 90* and screwed it so it was half in and half out of the end, to tie a rope to on the centerline. I attached a pulley to the top of the insert and the rope went down through that and back to me on the roof so I could pull and push at the same time.
As I said the insert was already in the fireplace. I had enough room to lay on my back on top of it and reach with both hands up above the damper to guide and bend the liner through. I actually think this position helped me - without the insert there I wouldn't have been able to reach anything. Also I got a better look than I ever did before at the smoke shelf area just above the damper. This is where I started getting worried - the area around the smoke shelf looks like it had a lot of creosote. At least I think that's what it was - looked like black fuzz. Now, obviously once the brush I used on the terracotta was in this area it was like throwing a hot dog down a hallway as they say, and didn't do much. I layed on my back with the shop vac and a brush attachment on a stick for awhile and got it a lot cleaner (it came off pretty readily) but I am still worried about it. This area is obviously pretty large and therefore far away from the liner. How big of a concern is this? I assume a fire between the liner and chimney would be the worst kind, and hard to access as there is a cap at the top and a block off plate at the bottom. Maybe I should fill/pack the whole area with roxul? Seems for $30 you can get a whole bunch of it at Lowes, plus that would serve to insulate the liner better as well.
What do you guys think about this? Do I need to tear the whole thing out? Should I do the roxul? Does it matter? I haven't fired the stove yet so I don't know if the draft is adequate. I did light a piece of newspaper and the smoke went right up with the flue "cold" so I am optimistic, but we'll see.
Thanks for reading.
