I finally took the plunge and bought a quadrafire castile fireplace Insert from a local dealer here in central Oklahoma about a month ago.
It's finally been cool enough here to use the stove in the morning a bit and while I love the stove I hate the installation I
received from the store where I bought the stove.
My 2 year old house has one of those zero clearance prefab fireplaces that are just terrible. The only thing they do for the house
is you can say "it has a fireplace" when you decide to sell.
The installer removed the refractories, dropped metal exhaust tubing down the existing metal flue. The installation manual shows
the correct installation in this case would have had a metal plate installed at the top of the firebox with the exhaust tubing centered
firmly in the plate.
However, in my installation the installer didn't even remove the damper. He just dropped the tubing down between the open damper
and the side of the metal flue.
Now you know what is happening. The vibration from the combustion blower is vibrating the metal exhaust against the metal flue
making an awful metallic vibration that almost sounds like a whine.
Sometimes it is loud enough to echo all up and down that metal flue.
Over time, I suppose it could even wear a hole through that exhaust tubing and then I'll have CO in the house.
I am going back to the dealer this morning to demand a proper installation.
Anyone have any input on how I should deal with the store? It's a local store called The Hearth Shop that deals exclusively in stoves,
inserts and fireplaces.
It's finally been cool enough here to use the stove in the morning a bit and while I love the stove I hate the installation I
received from the store where I bought the stove.
My 2 year old house has one of those zero clearance prefab fireplaces that are just terrible. The only thing they do for the house
is you can say "it has a fireplace" when you decide to sell.
The installer removed the refractories, dropped metal exhaust tubing down the existing metal flue. The installation manual shows
the correct installation in this case would have had a metal plate installed at the top of the firebox with the exhaust tubing centered
firmly in the plate.
However, in my installation the installer didn't even remove the damper. He just dropped the tubing down between the open damper
and the side of the metal flue.
Now you know what is happening. The vibration from the combustion blower is vibrating the metal exhaust against the metal flue
making an awful metallic vibration that almost sounds like a whine.
Sometimes it is loud enough to echo all up and down that metal flue.
Over time, I suppose it could even wear a hole through that exhaust tubing and then I'll have CO in the house.
I am going back to the dealer this morning to demand a proper installation.
Anyone have any input on how I should deal with the store? It's a local store called The Hearth Shop that deals exclusively in stoves,
inserts and fireplaces.