Bricks on top of wood stove insert...

[Emoticon]

2 months ago I removed an old 4.0cu ft wood stove insert out of a house that was about to be demolished (free!). I've since put a little money into it re-doing it, getting the rust off accessorizing etc . Anyway when I got the wood stove it only had 6 firebricks along the bottom of the firebox. I've since added 12 bringing the total to 18 and have another 6 on order. I made my relatives pay for their thanksgiving dinner by heaving this thing up on to the hearth so I could install it. Anyway the 18 bricks only line the inside of the firebox about half way up the inside of the firebox vertically. In this configuration I've not been able to get this stove over 550F going full bore while burning 1.5yr old Cherry. In general it seems to be running between 300-400F on average. I have a lot of experience with these insert type stoves from one my parents had when I was a kid so I know how to operate it such that it gets hot. I'm thinking the primary reason it isn't getting super hot is because there are no firebricks lining the top of the firebox and that a lot of the heat is escaping right out the top. The old stove my family had was completely lined by comparison.

I have more bricks on order however there is no hardware inside the firebox to hold the bricks to the top of the firebox. Would it cause a problem or provide any benefit if I just laid the new bricks on top of the outside of the stove behind the surround just leaving a little patch in between them so they don't block the damper rod instead of inside the box? Or is there some other way to mount them to the roof of the firebox? I could in theory weld some angle on myself, but this thing is a bear and a half to move and I really don't want to fill my house with the smell of burnt metal.

Also does anyone have any idea who makes this stove? It seems fairly old, certainly isn't EPA certified, but it has no markings on it anywhere. Here is a picture:

I've done some things to it so that it no longer looks "stock" the way it did when I got it which may cause it to be misidentified:

-I added the coil handles myself and the damper handle
-I replaced the steel plate in the door with glass.
-I put new screening on the blower
-Originally the surround was welded to the stove itself in two places.

 

[bholler]

do you have a liner? if not hook one up and it will make a huge difference and make it much safer and to code

 

[BrotherBart]

What kind of glass did you put in that door?

 

[Emoticon]

What kind of glass did you put in that door?

3/16ths neoceram.

The primary reason why I'm concerned with going over 550 is because around that temp the buildup on the glass starts to get flaky so it comes off easy. Otherwise it's a bear, but I cant get the lower part of that window that hot enough to get it to that level, just the top. No I do not have a liner. It might be something I might do later on down the road, but for now the chimney is a fairly short straight shot and it's at the end of my house and the way the roof is designed it doesn't make much contact with the framing members of the house, most of the surface area of the chimney is exposed to the elements where the chimney gets hottest so I'm not overly concerned about chimney fires since in addition to that I pop the cap and take a look down the chimney about every other month with a flashlight during the winter to gauge any build up. The previous insert we had was also "slammed" and I never had much trouble getting it to ~600 degrees with any kind of hardwood I'm thinking that it has to be due to the lack of bricks on the upper half more than anything else.

Just for fun here's a thermograph I took of what the chimney looks like after an 8 hour burn.

 

[BrotherBart]

If that top plate has air space under it, where are you measuring the temperature? The temp on top of that would not be the temp on the top of the firebox itself.

 

[bholler]

Well it will be just as hot if not hotter where that chimney meets the structure of the house on the other side and that is with a normal burn not a chimney fire which is way hotter but as long as you aren't concerned about a fire i am sure it wont happen right?. And by the way most slammer installs i have worked on have very little creosote up in the flue it usually doesn't get far out of the smoke chamber so checking from the top in my experience wont tell you much on most slammers.

 

[fossil]

A chimney liner isn't so much to do with keeping you safe from chimney fires as it is with the performance of the appliance and ease of proper maintenance/cleaning. With a full-height stainless liner, a top plate and cap, and block-off plate...assuming the chimney height is appropriate...that thing would probably be a heating monster. Rick

 

[bholler]

A chimney liner isn't so much to do with keeping you safe from chimney fires as it is with the performance of the appliance

I think they are equally important but i totally agree it will act like a totally different stove with a liner