New heater/ flue question

[jackofalltrades]

I am looking at getting a larger heater which is 2.5 inches higher out the flue opening than the present heater. I can remove the hearth stone and get down between 1.5 -2 inches lower. The guy at the heater store is telling me they can use a flex piece that will take care of the rest of that. My concern is how is that going to effect my draw on the chimney.

Actually, it would be maybe as much as an inch that the heater was higher than the flue opening through the thimble. Can that work or is it going to give me some problems with draw? The flue goes straight out the back of the heater straight through the wall to the outside. It is double wall SS pipe 6 inch inside measurements. I am in North MS and have had no problems at all with the draw all winter. It is 18 feet tall.

 

[begreen]

As long as there is a slight uphill pitch to the pipe it should be ok. What is the replacement stove going to be?

 

[jackofalltrades]

I am looking at the 3610 Morso. Actually, I could go back with anything but the only dealers around here have Morso, Vermont Casting, and Avalon basically. So if I buy something else it will not be local which may not be a bad thing but it bothers me somewhat. I think I want to stay away from a cat stove though; that may be just because I am not fully educated on them but I like the idea of simplicity and nothing to wear out in anything. I don't want to be replacing cats or anything like that.

 

[bogydave]

Since it's going thru an outside wall, can you just make the hole bigger on the top side & use the 8" double wall - thru wall fitting? Adaptor from 8" back to 6"
Or: Cover the old hole, make a new hole where it needs to be.
I learned many times, to take the time & "do it right" _--- if at all possible,--- "the first time". & sometime do it right when impossible. "Impossible" just take a little longer.

1 more thing ***** The "Heater store guy"-- IS NOT, usually, the guy to ask! *****

Pictures help, if you get a chance.

 

[jackofalltrades]

I dont really have the option of moving the hole at all since it would require stone work on the inside and hardiplank on the outside and cutting the flue pipe and moving it up and all that stuff. I am looking at taking up my hearth stones as the best option. That will get me within half an inch. The stove would be a half inch higher than the flue going into the thimble.

 

[begreen]

Will you still be able to maintain the insulative rating for the hearth? The 3610 wants R = .8.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If I understand this correctly, your horizontal section would have a drop and not a raise. It is recommended to have 1/4" minimum raise per foot of horizontal. Having said that I will admit that one time we did have a stove where we had to install with a slight drop in the horizontal (short section). It worked.....but was a pain in the neck because almost every time we opened the firebox door we would get some smoke or gasses that would pour out the firebox door. That gets old hat really fast, but we made it work. I will say we kept a lot of plumbers candles on hand and used them a lot!

 

[begreen]

Yes, not a great solution. What about taking the hearth down to the subfloor? Or maybe consider replacing it with a Fireview or the new larger Woodstock stove?

 

[jackofalltrades]

I can remove the 2 inches of hearth stone from the concrete floor easy enough. That would effect my look but I can do it. As I said I do have a concrete subfloor so I would just put a hearthpad down on the floor level. I am looking at the Fireview Soapstone heater. It has a flue exit of 22.75 inches my present flue is 23.5 inches so I would have .75 inches upward angle going into the thimble. I would entertain any other suggestions on stoves to look at as well that have close to that same height exit. I would also like some folks talk to me about the Fireview Woodstock.

 

[begreen]

Many posts here on the Fireview. It's a good stove from a good American company. They have a 6 month return policy which is hard to beat. Hopefully Dennis or Todd will link you to their reviews of this stove shortly.

How large an area are you trying to heat?

You might also enjoy this blog post:
http://greenacresmama.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2010-10-24T20:27:00-04:00&max-results=7

 

[jackofalltrades]

The room the heater is in is 720 sq ft with a vaulted 15 foot ceiling. The rest of the house is perpendicular to that room and has just over 850 more sq ft. So all together we are looking at a little under 1600 sq ft but the vault does make some difference in that.

 

[begreen]

I think the Fireview would handle that well. It may take a fan located in the other part of the house, blowing air from there towards the stove room to even out the heat.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Jack, if you haven't already, I'd pose this question to the good folks at Woodstock. Perhaps the height problem can be solved with a different set of legs under the stove?!