Out with the old, and in with the new...

[LYHTSPD]

Well, my last (and first) post on these forums was back in April when I was just starting my day-dreaming of putting in a new wood burning insert in our 30+ year old home.
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/73875/

Over the summer and fall the wife and I have made some major steps towards our goal of a new and efficient wood burner. Since I know everyone here loves pictures, here we go!

Here is the old Squire insert

Looking up through the old fire box

25ft of 6" FlexKing Pro liner insulated and ready to drop down the chimney

Grumble grumble grumble... this is not going to go as planed...

Eh, nothing a plasma cutter can't handle

The space is ready and waiting (yes, I know I will have to cut the liner to length)

And here is what is going in the space
Quadrafire 5100i

I am now trying to decide what to do with the "Heatalator" vents on the four corners of the insert. They are just big enough to fit an "8 inch" glass block in there. I think that would look neat tucked in amongst all the brick, but I am not sure how they would stand up to the heat. I also throught about covering them over with a stainless or copper plate with some design on it. I don't know... any suggestions?

 

[begreen]

I'd leave the heatilator vents alone and see if they still are semi-functional in delivering some more heat. If a thermometer show no heat gain out of the upper vents, then plan B.

 

[LYHTSPD]

I can't see how they would give off much heat. The firebox is 1/4" thick steel plate, and then with the insert itself... I just don't see them being all that functional with an insert. Who knows, I could be wrong.

 

[bogydave]

Looks like good progress
Glass takes super high temps to melt. I think glass would handle any temps you're going to get on them. The wiring didn't melt, the glass won't
A small light bulbs behind the glass might be neat . (already wired)

 

[Hogwildz]

The vents actually do take cold air in the bottom and send warm air out the tops.
That 1/4" double plate steel along with thew brick surrounding it absorbs a good amount of heat.
Even mine with the Summit and casing outside it still gets warm.

 

[LYHTSPD]

Looks like good progress
Glass takes super high temps to melt. I think glass would handle any temps you're going to get on them. The wiring didn't melt, the glass won't
A small light bulbs behind the glass might be neat . (already wired)

I had actually thought of putting some lighting inside the glass blocks that would respond to the air temperature (LEDs driven by a micro with a temp sensor), but depending on the temps I am not sure the electronics would hold up. I think I will just have to see what the actual temps are around those vents.

Now I just need to get rid of this old Squire 50500 insert.

 

[LYHTSPD]

Just an update...

I sold off my old Squire insert on Craigslist and had to take a little less than I wanted, but it is gone.

My new insert arrived at my work today! I may have to sneak out of work early to get it home and start the install. Pics to come soon.

 

[bogydave]

Just an update...

I sold off my old Squire insert on Craigslist and had to take a little less than I wanted, but it is gone.

My new insert arrived at my work today! I may have to sneak out of work early to get it home and start the install. Pics to come soon.

Hurry!
Winter is coming to your area soon! LOL

 

[LYHTSPD]

Just an update...

I sold off my old Squire insert on Craigslist and had to take a little less than I wanted, but it is gone.

My new insert arrived at my work today! I may have to sneak out of work early to get it home and start the install. Pics to come soon.

Hurry!
Winter is coming to your area soon! LOL

I know, highs in the low 40s the rest of the week. I don't it will be getting warmer any time soon.

 

[mellow]

Just curious, what did you get for the Squire?

 

[LYHTSPD]

Just curious, what did you get for the Squire?

I settled for $200 cash. This was knowing that the window seals and possibly the blower needed to be replaced.

 

[bluedogz]

I am now trying to decide what to do with the "Heatalator" vents on the four corners of the insert.

I've been trying to answer the same question while insert-shopping. Please post what you discover... I had thought about blocking off with steel plate too but safety became a concern.

 

[mellow]

The grates could be replaced with tile if your handy.

 

[LYHTSPD]

Well, my neighbor and I got the new insert onto the hearth tonight. It got dark before we could pull the liner up and finish the install. I do have a question about connecting the liner to the insert. The Quadrafire has a metal collar that attaches to the liner and then bolts to the insert. It has 4 pre-drilled holes in the collar, but it does not actually say in the installation instructions to screw the liner to the collar. My liner also did not come with a stainless steel band for the liner-to-insert connection. How exactly do I connect these two together?

Edit: Added a picture

How long do I have to wait before the insert walks itself back into the fire box? Holy smokes was this thing heavy! This does not have the nickel trim installed yet. I figured that will be the last thing to go on since we have already spilled blood on the insert. My neighbor pinched his finger while moving it off the shipping skid and it bled everywhere.

 

[bogydave]

How long do I have to wait before the insert walks itself back into the fire box? Holy smokes was this thing heavy!

About as much time as the wife will put up with the stove in the middle of the LR. LOL :lol:

 

[LYHTSPD]

Another update. My brother-in-law came over last night and helped me move the insert into its final resting spot and got the liner connected. I still need to cut the liner to length on the roof, but again it got dark early on me last night and had to postpone the final piece of the liner install. I did go ahead and put the nickel trim pieces on the insert and it makes it really look nice. For some reason the surround panels were not shipped with the insert, so those will have to wait.

Here she is!


I talked to the guy that sold me the insert about a block off plate and he said that what he usually does with a small flue opening is to just lay some fiberglass insulation batting (with the craft paper removed) over it to block the air flow. I am thinking this would be much easier than trying to get a plate up there. What do you guys think?

I am going to do the first burn in the insert tonight. I am going to follow the manufactures method and see how that goes. Wish me luck!

 

[kingquad]

Another update. My brother-in-law came over last night and helped me move the insert into its final resting spot and got the liner connected. I still need to cut the liner to length on the roof, but again it got dark early on me last night and had to postpone the final piece of the liner install. I did go ahead and put the nickel trim pieces on the insert and it makes it really look nice. For some reason the surround panels were not shipped with the insert, so those will have to wait.

Here she is!


I talked to the guy that sold me the insert about a block off plate and he said that what he usually does with a small flue opening is to just lay some fiberglass insulation batting (with the craft paper removed) over it to block the air flow. I am thinking this would be much easier than trying to get a plate up there. What do you guys think?

I am going to do the first burn in the insert tonight. I am going to follow the manufactures method and see how that goes. Wish me luck!

Looks really good. Don't use fiberglass insulation. Use Roxul. It can be bought at lowes.

 

[Grisu]

x1 Use Roxul instead of fiberglass. Here you can find some pictures and a further link on how to do a "cheap" block-off plate:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/84695/

 

[LYHTSPD]

Well, I did end up putting a fire inside her belly Thursday night! That was quite the fiasco. I loaded the firebox with a quater-split on both sides with newspaper and kindling in the middle. Once the fire was lit I closed the door (with all air controls open full) and watched. Pretty soon I was getting a nice rolling smoke show from the front air wash, until the smoke found its way out of the air controls and into the basement. I nearly smoked my family out of the house! I finally figured out that I needed to open the nearby window all the way to get a draft up the chimney. Then I tried to restart the fire, only to seem to starve it of air with the door closed. I then had to leave the door open on the insert until the fire was rolling nicely and the liner had warmed up enough to pull a draft. I then closed the insert door and the window and everything went fine after that.

It has been burning like a champ all weekend and keeping our house just as warm as our heat pump ever did. I did try running the HVAC circulation fan to pull the warm air out of the basement and into the rest of the house, but that does not seem to be working as well as I had hoped. I may have to figure out another way to pull the heat upstairs. We are definitely learning how our insert runs best, and how much wood we need to put in the box. We have already burned though 1/4 of a full size truck load that we got last week, but I figured we would "waste" some wood learning how it burns.

It has been a long road to this point, but watching secondary burn rolling around the firebox though the nice big window is certainly worth it.