New to me Osburn 1600 insert

stircrazy · Dec 6, 2011

Hi, I am new here and found the forum looking for more info on my new insert.

I was originaly going to go with a PE super, but I found a crazy deal on a older (1991) 1600 Osburn insert. I cleaned it up replaced the bricks and gave her a paint job.

I have the fireplace all preped, cleaned, cracks filled and damper removed, and sometime this week my liner kit arives.
I ended up having to go with a 5" liner, 5 out of six installers I talked to were going to use the 5" in my set up and one was going to squish down a 6" to make it fit.

I will be instaling everything this week and monday the inspector will be here to certify the set up, so all in it will cost me 600 bucks.

I think I am going to buy 2 cords of wood to start, then start chopping my own as we have lots of places to take dead fallen or standing wood up here.

My questions I do have are 1, for the first while should I be burning several small fires to cure the paint, or should I build a normal one and just run it dampered down?
and second does anyone with this insert have any tips or advice for me to make this work good?

my main purpose for this is to have a fire in the evenings during the week and maybe more on the weekends, to warm up the main living room so I can leave the furnace temp lower. I like a fire burning in the firplace, but due to some repairs I had to make in the firplace and such from a previous gas install, I decided to go with an insert and get some of the heat from it.

thanks
Steve

shawneyboy · Dec 7, 2011

stircrazy said:
Hi, I am new here and found the forum looking for more info on my new insert. Welcome to the forum !I was originaly going to go with a PE super, but I found a crazydeal on a older (1991) 1600 Osburn insert. I cleaned it up replaced the bricks and gave her a paint job. It never happened without any pics and since there aren't any attached I just don't think you are telling the truth.

I have the fireplace all preped, cleaned, cracks filled and damper removed, and sometime this week my liner kit arives.
I ended up having to go with a 5" liner, 5 out of six installers I talked to were going to use the 5" in my set up and one was going to squish down a 6" to make it fit.

I will be instaling everything this week and monday the inspector will be here to certify the set up, so all in it will cost me 600 bucks. That a pretty good deal, not that I know this stove specificly.

I think I am going to buy 2 cords of wood to start, then start chopping my own as we have lots of places to take dead fallen or standing wood up here. Relize that the wood that you are going to buy, no matter what the person selling it says, will most likely NOT be seasoned. This will make burning it a bit frustrating.
My questions I do have are 1, for the first while should I be burning several small fires to cure the paint, or should I build a normal one and just run it dampered down? You will get some strong paint odors. I personally would do three small break in fires each a bit bigger than the last. Also so you know you may, or most likely will get paint smells each time you hit a new high temp.

and second does anyone with this insert have any tips or advice for me to make this work good? Is this a Cat insert or a secondary insert or neither? Since I am not familiar with it, this info will allow someone with a similar unit to at least give you some basic pointers.

my main purpose for this is to have a fire in the evenings during the week and maybe more on the weekends, to warm up the main living room so I can leave the furnace temp lower. I like a fire burning in the firplace, but due to some repairs I had to make in the firplace and such from a previous gas install, I decided to go with an insert and get some of the heat from it. Fuel will be your most likely problem at least this year. You may find it difficult to achieve these goals without good fuel. If you find fuel is not seasoned, perhaps you know someone local who would be willing to trade non-seasoned for seasoned? 90 percent of all problems are fuel.

thanks
Steve

Welcome and read as much as you can here. If you have any questions, fire away. This is a great forum with some great people who are always willing to help.

rwhite · Dec 7, 2011

Just installed an 89 version of this insert myself. It's been about 18 degrees here and on an overnight burn I've been waking up to a 66 degree house. Heating about 1000sqft on main level and 400 on the second level. Not a big enough box to get a true 8 hr burn but I have been able to get 5-6 pretty steady. To heat the stove up quick I use a N/S burn but don't get real good burn times, for long burn times I have to pack it against the back wall E/W. I usually shut the air to 1/2 at 350 and depending on the wood to 1/4 or close to full at 400-450. I have never got the stove above 650. The blower seems to put out as much air at low speed as at high. I can set the blower to where I can barely hear it and it feels like as much heat is coming out as when it's cranking. No snap disk on blower so I need a timer or thermostat to shut it dowm before it gets to cold. I thought I'd miss the ambiance of a fireplace but the secondaries are much more fun to watch and the whole family gathers around the stove much more than the fire place. I got mine with the intention of burning during waking hours and weekends and let the furnace take over at night. That changed and I haven't turned the furnace on for a few weeks now. Enjoy! It seems to me like a good medium sized insert. I got mine for $250 used and installed an insulated liner so with some new brick and other gadgets I'm probably in about 1K.

p.s. Not a Cat stove

stircrazy · Dec 7, 2011

shawneyboy said:
stircrazy said:

Hi, I am new here and found the forum looking for more info on my new insert. Welcome to the forum !I was originaly going to go with a PE super, but I found a crazydeal on a older (1991) 1600 Osburn insert. I cleaned it up replaced the bricks and gave her a paint job. It never happened without any pics and since there aren't any attached I just don't think you are telling the truth.

I have the fireplace all preped, cleaned, cracks filled and damper removed, and sometime this week my liner kit arives.
I ended up having to go with a 5" liner, 5 out of six installers I talked to were going to use the 5" in my set up and one was going to squish down a 6" to make it fit.

I will be instaling everything this week and monday the inspector will be here to certify the set up, so all in it will cost me 600 bucks. That a pretty good deal, not that I know this stove specificly.

I think I am going to buy 2 cords of wood to start, then start chopping my own as we have lots of places to take dead fallen or standing wood up here. Relize that the wood that you are going to buy, no matter what the person selling it says, will most likely NOT be seasoned. This will make burning it a bit frustrating.
My questions I do have are 1, for the first while should I be burning several small fires to cure the paint, or should I build a normal one and just run it dampered down? You will get some strong paint odors. I personally would do three small break in fires each a bit bigger than the last. Also so you know you may, or most likely will get paint smells each time you hit a new high temp.

and second does anyone with this insert have any tips or advice for me to make this work good? Is this a Cat insert or a secondary insert or neither? Since I am not familiar with it, this info will allow someone with a similar unit to at least give you some basic pointers.

my main purpose for this is to have a fire in the evenings during the week and maybe more on the weekends, to warm up the main living room so I can leave the furnace temp lower. I like a fire burning in the firplace, but due to some repairs I had to make in the firplace and such from a previous gas install, I decided to go with an insert and get some of the heat from it. Fuel will be your most likely problem at least this year. You may find it difficult to achieve these goals without good fuel. If you find fuel is not seasoned, perhaps you know someone local who would be willing to trade non-seasoned for seasoned? 90 percent of all problems are fuel.

thanks
Steve

Click to expand...

Welcome and read as much as you can here. If you have any questions, fire away. This is a great forum with some great people who are always willing to help.

thanks for the reply, I will get some pictures up as soon as I can take a good one. the stove has secondary air and is EPA (4.4 gph)

as for the wood, I have enough fir for about 6 fires that is very dry, I also have some wood (about 10 more loads) of very dry (2 year seasons) mixed appl, cherry, plum and pear. as for wood around here I will have to check where I am going to get it from. figure I will make a fresh split and check it with a meter. but we are in a semi arid enviroment, and large fir splits tend to get below 20% in about 4 to 6 months. most people I have talked to cut there wood (dead standing pine or fir and some birch) in the spring and it is ready in the fall. but ya I will check it.

Steve

stircrazy · Dec 7, 2011

rwhite said:
Just installed an 89 version of this insert myself. It's been about 18 degrees here and on an overnight burn I've been waking up to a 66 degree house. Heating about 1000sqft on main level and 400 on the second level. Not a big enough box to get a true 8 hr burn but I have been able to get 5-6 pretty steady. To heat the stove up quick I use a N/S burn but don't get real good burn times, for long burn times I have to pack it against the back wall E/W. I usually shut the air to 1/2 at 350 and depending on the wood to 1/4 or close to full at 400-450. I have never got the stove above 650. The blower seems to put out as much air at low speed as at high. I can set the blower to where I can barely hear it and it feels like as much heat is coming out as when it's cranking. No snap disk on blower so I need a timer or thermostat to shut it dowm before it gets to cold. I thought I'd miss the ambiance of a fireplace but the secondaries are much more fun to watch and the whole family gathers around the stove much more than the fire place. I got mine with the intention of burning during waking hours and weekends and let the furnace take over at night. That changed and I haven't turned the furnace on for a few weeks now. Enjoy! It seems to me like a good medium sized insert. I got mine for $250 used and installed an insulated liner so with some new brick and other gadgets I'm probably in about 1K.

p.s. Not a Cat stove

ah, you got the first year of this model. exact same stove as I got, what kind of wood and lenght using? mine didn't have a blower, but I figure I can add one later if I want. I figure since we have so much bettle kill pin up here I will be burning a large amount of that as it is free.

Steve

rwhite · Dec 7, 2011

It will still put out some good heat with my blower off since a good portion stick out on the hearth, but the blower does really heat the house. I burn lodgepole and fir for the most part but whatever I can get. I get trailer loads (1/3 cord) of lumber trims for cheap ($10-15) depending on time of year so I burn alot of those as well. I'd check the local mills. The one I worked at in Montana sold carts of dunnage from the dimension mill for $40. I was about a cord and burned well. All the lodgepole I burn is beetle kill and it burns well right off the stump. We are also alot further west than most on this forum so a lot of the seasoning times for wood don't apply. But I can tell you that this stove don't like wet wood and the white fir I got this year will have to wait till next to burn.

Careful falling that beetle kill. It don't weigh anything and any breeze will blow it an unintended direction.

stircrazy · Dec 9, 2011

shawneyboy said:
stircrazy said:

Hi, I am new here and found the forum looking for more info on my new insert. Welcome to the forum !I was originaly going to go with a PE super, but I found a crazydeal on a older (1991) 1600 Osburn insert. I cleaned it up replaced the bricks and gave her a paint job. It never happened without any pics and since there aren't any attached I just don't think you are telling the truth.

Click to expand...

ok ok.. not the best pics but will have to do for now

this is the stove after I removed the door, brick, and gave it a light scuff for new paint.

and here it is with the paint done, door on. Bricks are still out as I will put them in after I get it installed.

Steve

project240 · Dec 9, 2011

I've got an Osburn 1600 insert as well that we used a lot last year. I found we were able to get good heat out of it for 4-5 hours burning dry pine/poplar mostly, but in the mornings I would wake up to Stove Top Temps of under 150 usually, but enough coals to get another fire going using kindling. It's a great little stove. We bought and installed a BK Princess this year, but I still light the Osburn on cold days to help bring up the temps quickly.

stircrazy · Dec 12, 2011

Ok, so I got down to work yesterday and in 1 hour I had the liner installed.

today I took another 4 hours and got the insert installed. (would have been a lot faster but the high of the insert was only 1/3rd of a inch lower than my opening, and I only had 4" on each side)

but after a good amount of cursing I got the liner into the stove top and rivited into place, bricks replaced and ready.

so first fire, three small splits to get some heat in there to cure up the paint. I checked outside no smoke at all from the top of the chiminy.

and a close up of the fire.

Steve

Search

Search

New to me Osburn 1600 insert

stircrazy

Member

shawneyboy

Minister of Fire

rwhite

Minister of Fire

stircrazy

Member

stircrazy

Member

rwhite

Minister of Fire

stircrazy

Member

project240

Member

stircrazy

Member

Similar threads