Blower or no Blower Morso 5660

We moved into a house with a huge Russian Fireplace which didn't seem to heat the house like we wanted and took up a lot of real estate. We are now taking out the Russian fireplace and are looking at the Morso 5660 wood insert. We have a 2500 sft home with only two kids rooms and a bath on the second floor so most of the square footage is on the main level (we also only have 8' ceilings). We want to be able to have the insert as our primary source heat in the winter (Seattle area so its not extremely cold) and are conflicted on purchasing the insert with a blower or without. We have read and heard such mixed reviews that we are confused on what to do???

VTHC said:

By Russian Fireplace do you mean a masonry heater? (http://www.mha-net.org/index.htm) because if so, you may want to re-think removing that. There is an incredible amount of mass in those, and they are super efficient heaters.
I would kill to have one in my house, in fact, i'm planning on building one when (if?) i build my new house.

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Bit of background...
We bought the home fall of last year knowing we had this behemoth fireplace to test out. Fired up a few fires and never felt any heat unless we had the door propped open.
Come the fist of the year we find our newer wood floor is infested with powder-post beetles. Since the flooring is coming up we decided to shrink down the fireplace to regain some real-estate. The room is 15x32 and from the edge of the hearth we have 10' to the back wall. The unit takes up 50sf in total. The idea was to remove the unit and rebuild a much smaller structure.

After removing the 4ft on the right I ran into the liner of masonry heater. I also found that the chimney stack is supported by the front and back of the brick walls with angle iron. This prompted me to rethink this a bit and to understand exactly what I was dealing with. Come to find out we weren't burning the stove correctly and all the heat was escaping because we were not closing down the damper.

Our current situation is torn up floors, torn up masonry heater and an unhappy wife and we men know what that leads to.
Options:
1. Resurface masonry heater (questioning the reliability for a heat source) and spend the money updating the homes furnace.
2. Punch hole in liner to vent new insert, and resurface the section containing existing liner
3. remove liner completely shrink the whole surround down to minimum stove requirements and install the Morso picture frame style

All options bring more questions but looking for any and all feedback. Still would like opinions on blower vs no blower for the 5660. Understanding pro/cons or other options of a blower would help in the decision making process

Hope the pictures show... only pic I could find of the current unit before demolition.

BeGreen said:

If this is a true Russian fireplace there is a serpentine maze fluepath in the masonry. I would not install an insert in this. Perhaps you are not using dry enough wood or not burning a long/large enough blaze to warm up the system. We have a Russian fireplace in a local establishment and it works very well in our region.

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BeGreen,

I see you live in the same area. Would love to hear your take on our situation and if you have any referrals for us. We are looking for any advise to a speedy resolution. Feel free to PM me.

1 more pic

PLAYS WITH FIRE said:

I would get the blower. A few bux more and it will push heat out of the firebox and iinto the room. I would get and see what you like. Run it with the blower and with out, I bet you will run with it...
If it was freestanding maybe no need but as insert, I think this is best.

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Thanks for the feedback. The stove takes on a completely different shape and look by ordering the blower model. This would also require we build the firebox to the correct size depending on the model selected. The plans were to recess the unit into a finished ledge stone box and avoid using a large trip kit. We love the look of the standard stove with the thin 4 piece trim vs the larger trim found on the unit with the blower. Two retail salesmen said a blower would not be necessary with this unit but I'm seeing a difference of opinion from insert owners. Is this unit that good at radiating heat that a fan would not be necessary?

VTHC said:

Oh man!
I would probably cut my losses if i were you and try to get the facade back together. The internals of a masonry heater are pretty crazy.

I know nothing about how to run one properly, but i think you need to burn a REALLY hot fire a few times a day and then the mass will slowly/evenly release the heat. DO a search for masonry heater on these boards. There is lots of info and few members who know what they're doing try this one for starters: https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/12045/

Whatever you decide keep us posted, and welcome to the forum!

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Trust me... I have financial remorse often for tearing into this thing... part of me feels like i'm committed now to go all the way and the other part of me feels I should seal this baby up with some new stone and call it good.

The plus...

I've gained 4ft of wall space and now have a reason to cover the brick (neither of us are huge fans of the look)

Do you think a layer of ledge stone on the brick would take away the heating effect of a unit like this?