any hope for an old slammer?

[billz]

Hi
here's my question.
This house was built in 1989 and has a brick frieplace. (two story house) urning insert. Plus, I see ads all the time for free fire wood.
What do you think? I don't wont to burn down the house or wreck my chimney.

 

[BrotherBart]

I burned one that way for 21 years but I would never do it again. You are going to be looking down that chimney a lot more often than once a year. Fortunately all of the small chimney fires I had never burned the joint down.

At a minimum put an adapter on top of the thing and a chimney liner in the chimney. The liner will work with the next stove when you get really tired of messing with that one and it eating tons of wood. And burn the driest wood you can get your hands on.

 

[billz]

how do I figure what size linner to use. The chimney is 13x13.

 

[cmonSTART]

What exactly is a "slammer?"

 

[BrotherBart]

What is the brand and model of stove we are talking about here? It will be on a plate attached to the side or back of the insert.

 

[BrotherBart]

What exactly is a "slammer?"

A "slammer" is one of those mistakes they made in the late 70's and early 80's. The exhaust is just an open hole in the top of the insert and you just push it back into the fireplace and seal the front fascia plate to the front of the fireplace. It wasn't long before they figured out that the things coat the smoke chamber and the flue with glaze creosote and then with a hot fire flame comes out of the top and sets the creosote in the smoke chamber off.

 

[billz]

I burned one that way for 21 years but I would never do it again. You are going to be looking down that chimney a lot more often than once a year. Fortunately all of the small chimney fires I had never burned the joint down.

At a minimum put an adapter on top of the thing and a chimney liner in the chimney. The liner will work with the next stove when you get really tired of messing with that one and it eating tons of wood. And burn the driest wood you can get your hands on.

-+

ok what size liner? Here's a pic of the opening on the insert. I

 

[begreen]

What's the stove make and model? There are some adapters out there that might work with the stove, but downsizing to 6" may give you a bit of grief.

Did you know that there are some good medium sized inserts out there for about $1000? FWIW, I'd do it right the first time. The payback and satisfaction level will be much quicker.

http://sutherlands.com/products/product.php?item=6805733

 

[JotulOwner]

[quote author="BrotherBart" date="1223610504"]I burned one that way for 21 years but I would never do it again. You are going to be looking down that chimney a lot more often than once a year. Fortunately all of the small chimney fires I had never burned the joint down.

How did you know when you had small chimney fires?

 

[BrotherBart]

How did you know when you had small chimney fires?

When one time you look down the chimney and say "Well, that isn't really bad yet." and the next time you look down it it is clean, ya know. Believe me ya know.

Then when you pull the insert at the end of the season to clean everything and you find a pile of stuff that looks like shiny popcorn behind it, ya know. Believe me ya now.

 

[JotulOwner]

How do you know when a small chimney fire is occuring?

 

[BrotherBart]

How do you know when a small chimney fire is occuring?

Don't know. We never knew when one was happening.

 

[JotulOwner]

Well, that seems to be a good subject for further discussion. What conditions do you suppose would precipitate a small chimney fire? I know that I had about a coffee can of black granular debris when I had the stainless chimney cleaned this year. How would I know if I had any small fires during season?

 

[begreen]

maybe start a new thread on the subject for better focus.