wood stove venting into smoke chamber?

[rawlins02]

I bought a home several weeks ago. Built in 1987. It has a fireplace in one room and an older Vermont Casting Vigilant wood stove in an adjacent room. A single chimney between the rooms. I spoke today with the sweep who cleaned everything a couple weeks ago. At the time he mentioned no major issues other than a fair bit of creosote buildup at end of stove pipe, No idea when last cleaning was. I asked today about getting a liner installed. He said to call the office and the master sweep will come out next week to give an estimate. But what concerns me is that, while there is terracotta in part of the setup (from what I was told), the sweep seems to recall that the stove vents into the smoke chamber. I've read about sizes and condensation, etc. What really concerns me is the guy mentioned that it may come to pass that I'll have to chose between using the fireplace or the wood stove. As in might as well seal off the fireplace! I saw something on the Chimney Institute of America web site about a redesign whereby the stove pipe is made to go higher into the chimney. Or something like that. Sorry I'm new to all of this. Looking forward to knowing more next week. Any of this sound familiar?

Mike

 

[NH_Wood]

Exactly my setup. I have a nice oversized fireplace in the livingroom and the stove is tapped from the opposite side (kitchen) just below the smoke shelf. The flue is oversized for the fireplace (11" square tiles). It is a central chimney. My draft is good and I have no issues running the Manny in this setup. I'm burning very dry wood which obviously helps. Flue appears to be remaining quite clean, but again, I burn dry wood and burn hot. Because of the setup, the fireplace is off limits for the winter (I burn 24/7), so I only have fireplace fires in the fall and spring when the stove is cold. I have thought about running the stovepipe straight up and through the ceiling, second floor ceiling, and through the attic to free up the fireplace and perhaps line the fireplace flue and add a second stove - but, lots of cash there and if it ain't broke, I don't want to get broke trying to fix it! Cheers!

 

[cmonSTART]

Stoves should never be vented into a smoke chamber of a fireplace. Instead, a liner stub must continue to the first flue tile of the fireplace at a minimum.

Note: Carefully inspect the fireplace flue and make sure it is defect free and all sizing requirements for the flue are met. Even under the best conditions this is the least optimal legal venting situation for an appliance. Preferably a full length insulated liner should be installed.

 

[rawlins02]

Knowing how well this house is constructed and was maintained, I'll be somewhat surprised if the setup is in fact as I believe it to be, as described above. I'm not terribly pleased that the person who did my inspection did not take the time to remove the stove pipe and take a look with a mirror or whatever else is typically used. I'm admittedly a novice here. I've been told a liner can run $1200-1600. That's one thing. But the suggestion from the sweep that the proper solution may involve choosing between whether I can use the stove or the fireplace for the foreseeable future (he said installation of liner is "reversible") seems odd. I suspect there must be some reasonable solution that will provide an increased level of safety without costing an arm and a leg (figuratively speaking..). I'll be sure to report back here what I'm told upon further inspection.

Mike