I think my Lennox Solana Fireplace design might be flawed, but I'm open to ideas

[PineKnot1]

I installed a new Solana fireplace when we remodeled our house 5 years ago. The install has all of the best ideas I could find at the time: insulated chase line with tile backer (inside of the house), stainless triple wall chimney exits the roof near the peak, 15' of chimney from the top of the fireplace, and so on.

The Solana is really nice. I prefer a wood stove, and have one in the basement. I have no problems with the wood stove. The Solan has always been difficult to operate. It is difficult to light. I start with kindling and newspaper, and work up slowly. It will appear to be catching fine, and if you leave the room you come back to a smoldering smoke box. The doors must be cracked to get the fireplace started, and I usually leave them cracked until it is at full temperature. I believe much of the air used for combustion comes from the small gap between the glass doors.

I have added a diagram with pictures of what the manual shows, and what I think is really going on with the fresh air. At this point I'm not sure how to proceed: fight with it another year, difficulty getting it going, smoke spilling into the room when adding wood, and general poor performance. Modify it somehow to make it work better. Or change it out completely.

I would love to hear from someone who had figured out an installation issue that caused problems, or a work around to the way it is designed. If you gave up and replaced it with something else, I would like to know what you did. And any opinions on what I could do with what I have would be much appreciated.

 

[kennyp2339]

I dont know much about zero clearance fireplace mechanics, but is there a knock out plate that should have been removed? Seems the manual indicates that the doors need to be open when starting a fire or reloading, once established you can close the doors. Also is negative pressure is an issue with competing appliances, you can crack open a near by window to see if that helps.

 

[PineKnot1]

Update: I removed the baffle (located upper back of firebox, supported on each side by angle iron) and cleaned the dilution air box inlet. Now the fireplace works much more like expected. I need to do this maintenance every year to keep it operating correctly.

The other key to using this fireplace is to only burn dry wood. Like bone dry, cut and split 2 years. With the air box inlet maintenance done, and dry wood, the Lennox is doing its job.

 

[Braxvang]

Hi there! I've been searching for people with a similar setup to what I am going to have in my house, so far yours is the closest. I will have a
Heatilator Accelerator Wood Fireplace with gasketed glass doors, circulating blower, and regulated outside air intake, very similar to your Solana fireplace setup.

What are your thoughts on the Solana over the past couple years you have used it? Does it heat up the room well and what kind of burn times do you see from it.

 

[xman23]

I'll comment on hard starting. My Oslo, for 20 years can do the same thing as you describe. Not a newbe here. My guess is, these stoves are real tight. A bit to tight to get a quick raging burn going at the start, without attention to small details. Any of the following not done right it can go out and smolder.

Mine needs the bottom wood on front to back stringers. This allows the airflow from the air inlets to go under the east west splits. This years I used 2, 1/2 " pipes. This worked well.
The starting wood needs to be a loose criss cross stacked. Dry wood, fire starter, and the side door cracked open until the first reload. And I have decent draft with a cold stove.

Smoke backing up after the stove is running, many times is a plugged up cap screen.