Opel fireplace for a new firewood guy?

That floorplan sure looks made for the full-up centered installation, as drawn. Seems like you'd be doing a lot of reworks to the detriment of the "wow factor" that'd come from having those french door pairs flanking the big center chimney.

One thing I would consider (from a builder / designer perspective) is flopping the chimney to the opposite wall, backed up against the foyer / bedroom closet. Not only would it be more central to the house, but getting the chimney off that cold exterior wall will greatly reduce your creosote condensation. If you want to keep that cost down, you could still do a plain class-A stainless chimney (exposed or built into a wall w/ proper clearances). Either way, one would envision that costing a lot less than 16 feet of vertical masonry work. Then on the far wall between the french doors (chimney loc as drawn), just do a big built-in media wall (tv, music, dvd's, books, etc.).

btw - two things:

1 - Recent thread on the Opel's: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/37267/

2 - With very few exceptions, if it's built right, working right, and you're running it right, you shouldn't get smoke pouring out into the room ever. Split and stack your wood supply now so it's drying and seasoning - you can't afford to wait!

Good luck and welcome to the Hearth!

Hey NewbieJohn, I have looked into the Opel 3 (one door instead of two) and those are running about 2500 bare, no chimney, no special facings. One thing to keep in mind is that RSF are only approved if they have ICC pipe. Make sure you check across the border, there is a dealer in Grand Falls, NB and they had better prices than that with the exchange when I looked. Check the RSF website and look for dealers in NB.
Where abouts in the other Maine are you? I'm just outside Presque Isle.

ICC is the manufacturer. ICC owns RSF or the other way. Either way it is a proprietary thing. The Wood Stove Shop in PI also carries RSF. Are you building right in Houlton? The dealer in Grand Falls has an Opel 2 installed in the shop. Nice to see one installed. The owner is really nice but since I don't speak french there was a little bit of a barrier. His english is a heck of a lot better than my french and we figured things out after a bit. Hope this helped a little.

If you're going to go through the trouble of re-working the floor plan, I would try to keep the masonry chimney and move it to an interior wall. If you're going to make a run at heating mostly with wood, you can't beat an interior masonry chimney. Once the stones / brick get warm, they stay that way for a long time.

I looked at the RSF Opel and the Kozyheat Z42. I replaced my cheap heatilator and installed the Z42 along with a class A chimney. It ran around $ 5000 total.

You have a fresh air intake and a damper. To load wood, open the damper all the way and wait for a minute or so, then open the door and tend to the fire. You will not get a back roll of smoke into the house. I load mine quick and get no smoke. If you leave the door open longer and really spend too much time messing with it, especially when you put fresh wood in, you will get alittle smoke that escapes - because the design forces smoke forward thru the reburn toward the glass to keep it washed. But it's not an issue. My house, clothes, etc, don't smell like wood smoke.

My house is 3500 sf and my z42 heats two floors (we close off the room over the garage) and the basement is not finsihed or heated. I am extremely impressed with how well my z42 heated my house. I am sure the Opel will do the same. We turned our thermostats off and saved thousands by not using propane for heat. I couldn't be happier with mine.

Good luck with your home.

quick answer- no mine does not let any smoke out...


more advice-- put the fireplace where you want it.. think about your traffic patterns... and also firewood storage if you plan to use it to really heat the house...


there are other options for surfacing the fireplace than putting stone all the way up-- see my Opel install: