Hi everyone, new member and my first post. A few weeks ago I removed my old slammer (which I never used for safety reasons), and put in an Osburn 2000. After much research and a lot hearth.com searches I felt comfortable to make my order and proceed with a diy install. I am happy I decided to do this myself as everything was very straightforward, and I would have felt foolish paying somebody as it was well within my skill set. I ordered everything from rockford chimney supply, and had a great experience with them. I also ordered a soot eater and wood moisture meter. Below are the pictures I took. Sorry I did not take a lot of pictures from during the install, but I did my best to explain the procedure I took.
Pulling out the old slammer
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The original damper which I had to cut an opening in for the 6" liner. (Sorry no after pics of the cutout). The flap lifted right out. I used an angle grinder to make the cut, and it was a breeze.
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Dry fitting my DIY block off plate. It is a trapezoid shape, and was very easy to make using 23ga galvanized sheet metal. I had not yet cut the hole for the liner in this pic as I wanted to dry fit the insert to know exactly where I would make the hole first. I insulated the top of it with rock wool using spray adhesive to keep the rockwool in place during the install, secured the plate with tapcon masonry screws, and sealed off where it meets the brick with high temp silicone. I also painted it black with high temp spray paint since I had some on hand. Sorry no pics of the finished product.
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Rolling out the liner and insulation. The ONLY negative thing I have to say about Rockford Chimney Supply is they shorted me 1 foot of insulation; no biggie though, the liner has been drafting like a beast so far even in these shoulder season temps. I fed it in through the top of my chimney, and it slid down with ease through the original 13"x13" Terra Cotta chimney (no pulling cone necessary). It passed through the old damper only requiring a very slight bend. The hardest part of the install was getting the liner to seat fully into the top of the new insert. It took a lot of twisting from the top of the chimney while someone below shimmied the insert and tilted it back until the liner fully seated. Once the liner was screwed in place with sheet metal screws it hasn't budged. From that point everything was secured in place, and micro-adjustments to the position of the insert were made until it was in it's final resting position. I sealed the liner connections with furnace cement.
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I burned a few fires making each one hotter and noticed the fireplace brick getting quite warm absorbing a lot of the heat. Since I had a lot of rock wool left over I decided to put some between the insert and the brick fireplace walls (pictured below), but making sure not to block the air intake of the insert.
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My fireplace has uneven face brick, and I was too cheap to spend extra on the optional cuttable faceplate (plus I have the means to modify the faceplate that came with the insert). I had to cut the faceplate to be smaller, then I welded the trim piece out of flat bar stock to conceal the rough cut edges. Painted it with high temp spray paint which was a perfect match. It gets attached to a steel framework (seen in the previous pic) using extruded u-nuts and the square headed bolts seen in this picture.
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Seen below is my most recent, and hottest fire I've had so far. It gets the entire first floor nice and warm!
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I'm still in the phase of getting to know the unit and heating with wood in general, but so far I am extremely happy with everything. The draft is strong, burn times are long, and it keeps the first floor nice and warm. I've noticed a very efficient burn with no smoke coming out of the chimney.
My only concern is that the fan has only kicked on all of 5 times for a matter of only a few seconds, and it was turned to a very low speed. I didn't notice the fan kick on at all during my hottest and longest burn.. I have been patient in letting the stove preheat for an hour or more before expecting the fan to turn on, and still nothing. After reading up on that issue I am going to make sure the thermodisc has good contact with the insert, and I am going to do a good job of cleaning ash out of that area before my next burn.
Thanks for reading, and for being a good community which I was able to use for my own install! I am still learning the ins and outs of heating with wood from this community!
