Will be purchasing free standing woodstove venting into extisting fp(heatilator) in which the openin

1st timer here and I'm looking for suggestions on a woodstove that has to vent no more than 26 in. from the ground.

I am going to have it installed in the basement(partially furnished) and am more concerned with efficiency than looks. So far, the largest stove I have found is the Jotul F3 CB which seems like a decent stove but the burn time isnt quite long enough.

So, I guess what I'm asking for is suggestions on woodstoves that have a low rear vent with decent burn rates. I live in central MA so the winters can get pretty cold and I would love a stove that I could load up at night and then simply throw more wood into in the morning.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

This was hashed out recently in great detail. If you want the summery, you cant install a free standing stove leagly in a heatilator firebox. If you want to maintain the listing on the fireplace and the appliace going in the fireplace you need to buy a product designed for that purpose. What you need to install is a insert, with a liner, that is designed for zero clearacne fireplaces like you have. the second thread is a continuation of the first.

http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/2851/
http://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/forums/viewthread/2867/

Van, welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the info. MountainStoveGuy. My head is spinning from all that reading but I'm not sure my situation fits that category. The metal firebox is contained w/in a masonry chimney that has a masonry flu liner top to bottom. I'd be surprised if I cannot have a stove outside the fp but venting up into the flu.

Either way, I will have chimney sweep professionally clean the flu and inspect the situation before having anything installed.

I appreciate the info.

Thanks,
Van

Van, if thats the case, then your situation is totally unique.
To answer your question for stoves with low flue hight clearances
Jotul 3cb
Hearthstone Homestead
Quadrafire yosemite
Hearthstone Heratige

I say the Heritage, but ofcourse I'm biased

I have a hard time invisoning a true ZC box like a heatilator being dumped in a masonry flue.. is this common outside of colorado?

This sounds like a heat form, not a true ZC..

That's actually the situation I had. Full clay tile flue (big- 12x16) down to a boilerplate box that was the firebox. There was airspace behind the box, along with fans thta vented out through tubes across the top of the mantle. So the cross section looked like fire, plate steel, cerawool or something similar, about 4" of air, and then cinderblock. all vented to a conventional tile chimney. I put in a full liner for ease in cleaning and had to chop and seal a couple of the vent tubes. But it worked out fine (with an insert). Never loked intoa stove, since wife wanted insert, but I'm not sure why it wouldn't work.

The inspector seemed to think these were pretty common inthe midwest, and referred to it as a heatilator, although I saw no ID plates. A way of making a slightly more efficient fieldstone fireplace.

Steve

I should know by now, with retail experence and hearthnet, that heatilator does not mean heatilator. I saw it in the post and assummed that he realy had a heatilator. I should know better by now. Heatilator is to fireplaces as is Xerox is to copy machines. Folks looking here, Heatilator is a manufacture, actually a sister company of Heat-n-Glo and Quadrafire, all which are owned by HON industries.

in 1982 i was 9. Funny how the generic name stuck around. Learned something new today, like most days, around here.

Vermont castings Resolute Acclaim reversiable flue collar rear exit to the top of the flue collar is 25"
VC non Cat Encore is 26.5" to the top

I have new gaskets, but i havent had time to put them in! the stove has been going all weekend through today. First frost of the year this morning! 30.6 degrees

Thanks everyone for the excellent information you've all added. I should've listed more details about my situation from the get go but I didnt want to bore everyone with with mundane tidbits.. I guess when it comes to stove/fp's there are no mundane details.

My house was built in 1953 and the chimney was built along with it(centrally located, multi-flue). I bought it last fall and the home listing stated it had 'heatilator' fireplaces. I had no idea what this meant but I did notice that it does have vents on the side that are not directly connected to the firebox in any way but just tend to throw hot air when there is a fire burning. No fans, motors or anything mechanical to help push the air out but they do send out some good heat. I was truly impressed that a fireplace with glass doors could warm up my living room that efficiently.

Now, I have almost the same set-up in the basement but there is no surrounding wood mantel. It's all brick up to the ceiling and the vents are on the front of the chimney as opposed to the side. Inside the brick chimney there is a metal firebox in which I want to vent a wood stove into and up into flue using an elbow pipe.

When I had the house inspected I was told the updstairs chimney was fine but there were a couple of suspect cracks in the fire clay liner for the basement flue and that I should it have checked out. Thus, I want to have a chimney sweep clean/inspect it before I buy the stove. I used the upstairs f/p all last year but have yet to use the basement one.

However, this leads me to a follow up question. Since I explained my setup a little better, should I be worried about over-firing the upstairs f/p with a metal firebox? It has glass doors but does get some air and can get pretty cranking if I put enough small wood in there.

Again, thanks for all the info. It has been most helpful.

You should be fine. Those heat forms were built pretty thick. You also have a built in heat monitor, your glass doors. Most likely, they are tempered glass and it sounds like you burn with them closed (more radiant heat, longer residence time). Tempered glass will fail (break) from thermoshock long before you hurt your fireplace. I assume your chimney is clean and in good condition... I don't think anyone in here will deny that "cranking" is fun and why we can't get out of this silly stove business...