Stove totally in fireplace--negates mantle clearance?

[Riverstone]

After seeing people toss around the idea lately, i.e:

https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/16122/

I'm just wondering: if you put a freestanding stove ALL THE WAY into a masonry fireplace, can you get around the mantle clearance for that stove? Seems to me that if a mantle is too low for any insert that it might be too low for most stoves, too?

Or does the fact that the masonry will absorb most of the radiant heat from a freestanding mean that you can just slide it back fully into the opening?

Thoughts?

 

[begreen]

If the stove is all the way into the fireplace cavity then I would expect that the masonry would act as a built-in heat shield.

 

[Riverstone]

I haven't seen this mentioned in manuals--assuming everything else was done right (block-off plate, liner, etc.), would a configuration like that meet code, do you think?