Tired of smoke in my house!(Picture added)

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Fuel

New Member
Jan 4, 2009
83
Nebraska
Hello everyone. It has been a while since I have been on here to talk but I am now extremly frustrated. I have a Marco Industries free air fireplace installed in my living room and the only thing that it gets in my house is smoke. It actually removes more heat than it makes i believe. My question is what fireplace could I replace this unit with so that there will be no more smoke and I will actually get some heat out of the wood that I spend my time cutting. By the way the unit I have now is installed in a corner with one inch clearances and my home is about 1100sqft on the main floor with a small second story.

thank you
 
Sorry to hear about the problems. How tall is the flue on this unit?

Kozy and RSF make some good fireplaces. But this is a small house, would you consider a free-standing stove in place of the fireplace or is the fireplace must have?
 
What would i gain by going with a stove over a fireplace. I just liked the "protectiveness" if you will of the fireplace since generaly there is only one side open to the room since my wife and I have three kids and she does daycare. Also I installed this fireplace myself in an empty corner of our living room so the clearances are kind of tight. Had I known what I do now about free air fireplaces i would have never spent my time nor money putting this unit in.
 
Picture031.jpg
 
Ah, the pictures help. You did a nice job. Have you considered putting an insert into this fireplace for better heat and efficiency?
 
Bummer :-/
 
You're pretty much screwed, unless you are willing to do a tear-out and installation of an epa fireplace
or a new woodstove. An EPA fireplace would seem to be just what the doctor ordered but they are pricy.
If you can do the work yourself, maybe it's an option for you.

My condolences. The unit that you have is for ambiance only. and there isn't much ambiance to a smoky room.
I had a similar Majestic fireplace with the same tile that you have. With dry, seasoned wood, we could heat up the
room but burned a lot of wood and cooled off other rooms in the house.
 
Exactly, so this is the problem that i am in. The fireplace that is in my house now is a 42" untit so is there a smaller airtight fireplace that I could replace it with that would help my out on clearances and also help me to heat my home?
 
northwinds said:
You're pretty much screwed, unless you are willing to do a tear-out and installation of an epa fireplace
or a new woodstove. An EPA fireplace would seem to be just what the doctor ordered but they are pricy.
If you can do the work yourself, maybe it's an option for you.

My condolences. The unit that you have is for ambiance only. and there isn't much ambiance to a smoky room.
I had a similar Majestic fireplace with the same tile that you have. With dry, seasoned wood, we could heat up the
room but burned a lot of wood and cooled off other rooms in the house.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what this unit does to my home. Also yes, that is what i am planning to do is a complete tear out and reinstall. I installed this unit and am a carpenter so the work is no problem. I just want some direction on what units would work for my type of installation clearances.
 
Are you near omaha? Lumberman's in Omaha used to carry a lot of inserts and stoves. I bought our Stove there although the sales department knowledge is alway suspect to me as I seemed to know more than they did about the stove I bought.
 
For a Kozy you can check this website out

http://www.kozyheat.com/airsealdoors.html

these two are in Ne

Capital Patio & The Flame Shop
5500 Old Cheney Road #16
Lincoln, NE 68516
Phone: 402-421-7575
Map It

Fireplace by Design
4131 South 84th Street
Omaha, NE 68127
Phone: 866-597-3473
 
We installed a child safety (gated) fence around our free-standing stove, (since the fact that you have a Day-Care going on in your home), which simply folds up when not needed.

I see that insert coming out, and a free-standing stove sitting on that hearth! You'll get the heat you're looking for. "Smoke" is not common when you have good draft, but ...........having said that...........even a top notch, new EPA-rated stove WILL smoke up the room if you don't build your fire right. I learned the HARD way about that one. It's otherwise, not common.

Wood Stoves, as I learned by experience, are not air-tight.

-Soupy1957
 
Fuel, since you plan a total tear out and rebuild, you have many more options. Seems like a freestanding stove setup would be way less work, and the gate/fence thing would work.
How old are the kids? They can get burned on a fireplace or insert, just about as easily as a freestanding unit.
Sounds like you have a potential army of helpers there. Put 'em to work! :cheese:
 
See my link where we removed a MARCO fireplace.. and did something way better.. A gate or screen is the answer, even a fence type thing can be done... We use a foldable screen, not because of children, but big, long, fluffy golden retriever tails.

BTW, most of the reason we replaced our fireplace was that, if you stoked it like a steam engine, it would just keep the house above freezing in January. During an 8 day power outage, we burned nearly a cord of wood. Kept the pipes from freezing. We now heat the house, with less than a cord of wood a month..

As someone said above "ambience" is what that is for, not heat.
 
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