Condar air supply ventilator location???

I tried bringing fresh air up thru the fireplace cleanout underneath the insert. I realized that it slightly improved draw in my woodstove, but created a cold draft in the room when the insert wasn't running. Disconnected the fresh air and haven't looked back. I still occasionally open a window if I feel a downdraft in the stove, before I light the fire. Once the draft reverses, I light the fire and close the window.

I think pulling the fresh air from the garage would be a bad thing (think exhaust and gas fumes) and lightly totally contrary to your local building code. The spot that you are talking about under the window (or beside) would be good assuming there is sufficient clear space to put the 4" pipe thru the wall, without cutting any studs.

I'm not sure that I can give you a reliable answer on the best place to put the air supply (it's definitely not into the garage though - regardless of how it is currently being used). It doesn't sound like you have an air shortage problem (which would justify the outside air supply), but rather you have a draft problem. Maybe there is some sealing/caulking/insulating that you can do in the playroom/garage area (like doors/windows/seals/thresholds etc.).

I have the reverse setup to you. My living room (with the Montpelier) is sunken down 3 steps from the rest of the house. So the warm air rises out of the living room and cool air from the upper space comes down the steps across the living room and into the fireplace - so, a constant cool draft at your feet in the living room. A lot of the air movement is caused by the blower in the Montpelier. So, to make things more comfortable when I am sitting in the living room, I will turn the blower off or at least down to it's lowest level. That helps a lot with draft reduction and provides more radiant heat in the immediate area of the stove (the stove and the brick get much hotter).

Aaah, looked at one of your other posts and realize that you are concerned that it isn't drafting well enough. You are correct, that by adding a fresh air supply, it should improve draft. You could try leaving a window open a crack for a while to see if it helps (before putting holes in your walls). I find opening a window isn't instantaneous, it takes a while for pressure levels to stabilize. Adding the flue extension kit should help as well, assuming that you have a short chimney.

My Montpelier does not draft very well either. But, I only have 14 feet from the hearth to the top of the chimney, and it should be 15-35 ft. I added a special "anti-downdraft" cap a few years ago that may have helped a little. Also colder temperatures help a lot. Anything above freezing is not good for drafting.

Is your chimney high within spec? Is it direct connect 6 inch stainless steel pipe from top to bottom?

One of the problems that I experience is smoke in the house if I try to open the door too quickly to add wood. I try to wait until it's mostly down to coals before adding wood. I recently read the manual for another insert and it recommended that when your refuel, you open the door a crack for a full minute. Then open about an inch for another full minute and then slowly open the door, allowing the chimney to maintain the draft, not pulling the smoke into the room. It seems to help. But it is a pain in the butt and 2 minutes seems like an eternity. Once my fire is going, it burns well and no complaints - issue only occurs sometimes when I refuel at the wrong time.

Good luck. Hope it works out.

I looked back at your other post a bit more....

You don't get smoke in your house when you open the door. And your glass and brick are clean after you have a fire. I don't see that you have a draft problem.

You had a concern that you weren't getting secondaries, but now that is working. They are usually only going to run for a short period of time (30 mins), from my experience and then there won't be much.

You were concerned that all the coals didn't completely burn down on an overnight burn. That happens a bit to me as well, but typically only if I totally shut down the air supply. Usually there there are other red coals available in the morning and I pull the unburnt and burning coals together into a small pile to start the morning fire.

You felt that you had to wait too long for the fire to fully engage in the morning, that if you closed the door tight, too soon, the fire would die. I leave my door open a crack for 10-20 mins, then close the door and leave the air supply fully open for another 20-30mins and then start shutting the air supply down.

I think that you are comparing this stove to your old stove, and expecting them to operate the exact same way. They don't. Maybe this stove is a little tighter than the last one and you'll get longer burns, which is what you were looking for. The Montpelier has a bigger firebox, but it is still a "medium" sized stove, so has some limitations on that objective.

It is good that you are fixing up all these things like gaskets, fans, hinges, seals etc and restoring the stove to its original state. This will go a long way towards getting better performance out of the stove. Hopefully in the long it will meet your expectations.

What is your moisture content?

Wow! You get things done fast! Hope you get some cold weather soon, so that you can test things out.

How did the condar work for you? I am on the fence about installing one too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk