Intro and question about Meredith Woodstoves?

[Piston]

Hello all,
I have been reading this site for quite some time now and have learned a great deal. I have a Meredith Fireplace Insert in my fireplace and really don't know anything about the history of the company or other models. I'm sure they must be out of business now as I can't find anything on them. Does anyone know much about the Meredith company? I have done a search but not much came up.

It doesn't matter toooooo much anymore as I am upgrading this year. but still curious.

I just put my order in for a Woodstock Fireview after wanting one for about 2 years. I have read many of the posts about soapstone vs. cast iron and cat vs. non-cat and the bottom line came to be, I really like that stove, and the good reviews that it and the company has received from many of you members. All in all I am EXTREMELY excited about my new stove. My wife and I are going up to Lebonon to visit the factory in the next couple weeks.

Just like all of you I enjoy cutting my own firewood. I don't have much land but cut off my parents and grandparents land which is plentiful. I am one of the guilty "un-educated" wood burners who put off cutting, splitting, and stacking way too late. I only recently learned just how important it is to use such seasoned wood. I made a promise to myself to get ahead this year for next burning season. I have a lot to do! I need to build some firewood storage, get my new stove installed, and I may build a new hearth for it. I know there are plenty of posts on here for me to catch up on and I look forward to learning how to do my projects by reading on this forum.

I also love using the tractor's to get firewood and have a band sawmill that a friend of mine and I own. I enjoy about any aspect of the woods and am learning timberframing now. I love taking a tree down, milling it, using it for timber framing, and then burning the parts I can't use. My only problem now is I hate burning any straight section of trees! :lol:

Anyways I won't babble any longer, just introducing myself and I hope to start posting a lot more. I'm pretty frequent over on the forestry forum but for any woodstove or wood burning needs I am here! It would be great if anyone could tell me anything about the Meredith stoves.
Thanks for a great forum with an incredible amount of knowledge.

 

[Todd]

Don't know anything about your old stove but welcome to the forum. Maybe you can make a smoker out of it or outdoor fireplace. You will love your Fireview, wish I was close enough to take the Woodstock tour. They really have some great folks that work there.

 

[BrotherBart]

Welcome to the Forum and heating with wood.

If you can't have a steel stove, I guess one of those rock things will do. :lol:

 

[fossil]

So, you're going to rip out an insert and place a freestanding stove in its stead? Is this going to be a hearth stove installation with the stove partially into the fireplace, or freestanding in front of the fireplace? How are you planning the hearth and the stovepipe? What's the condition of the existing chimney? Got any pics you can share with us? We love pics. Welcome to the forums. Rick

 

[webbie]

I have seen and heard of Meredith stoves, but they were a small player...I think in NH, and I cannot find any literature on them!

If I come across any, I will post it.

 

[Piston]

So, you’re going to rip out an insert and place a freestanding stove in its stead? Is this going to be a hearth stove installation with the stove partially into the fireplace, or freestanding in front of the fireplace? How are you planning the hearth and the stovepipe? What’s the condition of the existing chimney? Got any pics you can share with us?

Unfortunately I only have one bad pic of the stove. I'll try to upload it.

Yes I'm going to take out the insert and most likely sell it, and then put the new woodstove in first. It will sit in front of the fireplace as I don't want it tucked in because I wouldn't be able to open the door to load it

I'm still reading up on how to build a good hearth, the existing chimney is made of brick so I would like to use brick for the hearth, I need to figure out what I can put underneath the brick or how much airspace I need or what, so that is one thing I've been reading quite a bit about. Certainly learning a lot doing some research thats for sure!

The existing chimney is in good condition, I had it inspected a couple years ago and they said the clay liner looked to be in very good shape. I will give it a good cleaning and sweep the chimney before installing this stove. I have read quite a bit about how it is good to put in a SS liner regardless of the clay liner? I still need to learn some more about that and hope that the stove would still draft just fine with the normal clay liner. If possible I would prefer to not add the SS liner because of the extra cost, but if it's a safety or efficiency issue then of course I would.

I will probably add some extra support under the floor joists as well, since I'll be adding the weight of the hearth plus the stove, plus I have 500lbs worth of dogs that will probably want to huddle up near the stove!

 

[Todd]

You definitely want to run a liner in your chimney otherwise you will have to do a direct connect up to the first flue tile and it would be a major pain to move the stove and sweep every year. A full liner with a tee at the bottom will be a maintenance breeze, safer and outlast your old clay tiles.

Oh, another great thing about the Fireview is you only need 8" clearance in front, so looking at your picture you may be fine as is depending on whats under that tile?

Check these guys out, good product, good price.

http://www.chimneylinerdepot.com/

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah, from the perspective of getting the best performance from the new stove and not having to mess up your hearth or break your back pulling the thing out to clean it every year you cannot beat a liner. It only hurts for a little while to pay for the liner and install it. It hurts every year to drag out the stove. And liner kits are available for about what most stove shops charge for a direct connect kit anyway.

 

[jeff_t]

Gotta love the mastiff. I have an add-on furnace, and the floor above the main trunk is noticably warmer, so that's where he lays. So if you have three, you definitely should take their weight into account if you need to add some support to your floor.

 

[Piston]

So a liner will really improve the efficiency of the stove?

I didn't think About the hassle of moving the stove to clean out the chimney. I guess I'll probably end uP going with the liner then because you guys brought up a some good points.
I was able to find quite a bit of very helpful articles on the Woodstock website and learned some interesting things.

I'll check out that website that was recommended for a liner, thanks for the link.

Jeff,
right now we have two mastiffs and a st. Bernard. One of our mastiffs is still a puppy and the other one just turned three. How old is yours?

 

[BrotherBart]

You will get a stronger draft with the liner and more heat out of your wood. Go for it.