Englander 30 mantel clearance?

[buzcranne]

I can't find any specs on the ESW site, in the manual, or in this forum. Anyone know the mantel clearance for an Englander 30? The under side of my mantel was pretty hot last night. That sounds dirty.

Also, I've been trying to call Englander support since Friday but only get busy signal. Anyone know if that's normal or if the number on the site is wrong? (800) 245-6489. Thanks.

And, how do you use emoticons here other than normal smile? Is there a list or something? Is that information reserved for those who have attained a higher level within the order?

 

[BrotherBart]

Mantel clearance isn't listed I would dare say because they never dreamed some of us would be stuffing 30-NCs into fireplaces. So UL testing for mantel clearance probably wasn't done. It didn't come into play for me because when this house was built I knew I was going to have a stove in the fireplace and so we didn't have a mantel installed.

On the phone call thing, it is the height of stove selling and installing season right now. They are swamped with calls.

 

[begreen]

Given the prodigious capacity of this stove to heat, I wouldn't run the stove with the wood mantel over it. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the distance looks to be under 24".

If the wood mantel is staying, some serious heat protection will be needed. I suppose you could make a heat shield and mount it with 1" spacers to the underside of the mantel. Or maybe consider replacing the wood mantel with stone?

 

[buzcranne]

I'll probably be replacing the mantel and removing it in the meantime. It's ugly anyway. I've been wanting to experiment with pouring my own concrete kitchen counter tops. Looks like this will be my test project.

 

[Rockey]

Mantel clearance isn't listed I would dare say because they never dreamed some of us would be stuffing 30-NCs into fireplaces.

Don't flatter yourself. Its not much different than what my Grandpappy did:

 

[Valhalla]

Who said that engine swaps were a thing of the past!

At least the A/C is in the back seat, but harder to reach the controls while driving. Nice bolt on tail light too!

 

[buzcranne]

I tried to remove the mantle tonight and it's a little tougher than I expected. I may mess up my brickwork when pulling it off. Any thoughts on this idea? ... I could line the bottom of the mantle with duorock and then tiled the under side and the front face with slate. There would be 1/2 to 3/4 of noncombustible surface protecting the wood.

 

[begreen]

That wouldn't reduce clearances to combustibles. A heat shield is more effective.

Or, got sawzall?

 

[buzcranne]

got sawzall?

Yeah, I can get my hands on one. I'd need to get through the masonry screws that are drilled into the bricks. I can't figure out how they got the mantle fastened in place. It looks like a solid block of wood but if you look in the slight crack between the mantle and the bricks you can see there are screws holding it in place. Screwed from the opposite side of the brick? I don't get it.

 

[fossil]

We had an old wooden mantle consisting of a single huge timber. Ripped it out and had the mason who built our hearth replace the timber with a brickwork mantle. Came out very nicely. You can just see it as a couple courses of darker brick across the top of the pic. Rick

 

[begreen]

Look carefully on the top of the mantel to see if they screwed from the top, then plugged the holes and sanded the plugs flush.

 

[fossil]

Ours was fastened from behind. Not screws, but big nails. I believe how it was done was driving the nails partially into the timber, setting the timber in place on the masonry, and then continuing the masonry work, thus embedding the protruding nail heads in mortar joints between brick courses. had to wrestle the thing loose enough to get a sawzall blade down in there & just muscle it out. Wasn't pretty, but we got 'er done and it turned out OK in the end. Rick

EDIT: Here's the "before" pic.

 

[buzcranne]

I don't see any evidence of plugs in the top. After digging in (literally) I think Rick's setup is probably what I have here.

So, I can probably get the mantle off. Then I'm left with these 4 brick "brackets" (see avatar). I'll need to put some kind of mantle on them just to keep it from looking dumb. Pouring a concrete mantel seemed like a good idea until I remembered I'm lazy.

Any suggestions for a new mantel? If I buy some kind of stone mantle how to do I fasten it to the brick brackets?

 

[buzcranne]

Fossil, that looks really good. I'm wondering if some brickwork can be done by me, or by someone more skilled, to deal with my "bracket" issue.

 

[fossil]

I imagine a skilled brick mason could figure a way to incorporate the existing supports into some sort of new mantle. Kinda tough to tell from the avatar pic, but I know my brick mason would come up with something...he's that kinda guy. Loves a challenge. Rick

 

[buzcranne]

Problem is, in addition to being lazy I'm also cheap. Bad combo.

 

[fossil]

I suppose you could make the installation safe as-is with the installation of an appropriately designed & constructed steel heat shield affixed to the face of the chimney stucture above the stove and below the mantle, but I wouldn't pretend to know enough to tell you the dimensions & exact configuration required. Alternatively, you could just lose the wood, and use the brick supports every Christmas to hang your non-combustible stockings. Rick

 

[buzcranne]

I'd be perfectly happy with this solution, at least for now, as long as it's safe. I have 18" clearance, so according to the specs it should be ok. Right?

 

[fossil]

Looks good to me, but if your insurance company calls me, I'm going to have to tell them I never heard of you. :coolsmile: Rick

 

[begreen]

That's precisely what I was thinking of. Send you insurance company to Homesaver if they have questions.

 

[buzcranne]

Since I'm sure you've all been losing sleep wondering what's going on with my mantel protection.... I can't use the mantel shield linked above because it's 10" deep and my mantel is 12" deep. I've been searching for sheet metal to do my own, finding that it's pretty pricey, and wishing my mantel were smaller -- which leads me to -- hey! let's cut the mantel!

Tonight I'll be taking a circular saw to my cedar mantel, hopefully dropping its depth down to 9" and using the heat shield mentioned earlier.