Hello all, newbie poster here, I love finding forums like this to gain as much knowledge as possible before diving in to a major project such as getting a new stove........
A little background first. We live in a quad level home with the family room on the bottom floor, which is on a slab. There is a corner fireplace with gas logs installed as of now. We are in the process of getting our chimney relined because of lightening damage thru our insurance company. We are on the books to get a poured heat rated cement flue installed soon, and we would like to put a wood burning insert into this fireplace, so trying to make sure everything is done correctly to facilitate this. I have been researching as much as possible, and it looks like we have settled on the Hampton HI300. A few questions remain though. I did a search and it did seem as though one owner on this site had an external combustion kit installed, although the dealer I'm talking to doesn't think it's possible. I suppose if it is, we would have to have someone cut a hole through our chimney to the outside? (The chimney is an external one) I like the idea of the external combustion, so you're not constantly sucking cold air through all the cracks in your house, causing a draft. I also read on another site that having the air pulled in from an external combustion kit will actually do the reverse of causing a draft, it will push the heat from the stove out toward the cracks in your house, effectively combating drafts? Sounds interesting in theory at least........
Also, the Hamton seems like it is touch too small for our chimney opening, as per the specs, and it doesn't seem like this type of stove has extra panels to cover openings around it....
The Pacific Energy Summit seems to be one of the few stoves that is large enough to cover our opening, but the dealer seems to think that would run us out of the room.
We are planning on using this for nights/weekends/supplementary heat.
Thanks everyone, great site.
A little background first. We live in a quad level home with the family room on the bottom floor, which is on a slab. There is a corner fireplace with gas logs installed as of now. We are in the process of getting our chimney relined because of lightening damage thru our insurance company. We are on the books to get a poured heat rated cement flue installed soon, and we would like to put a wood burning insert into this fireplace, so trying to make sure everything is done correctly to facilitate this. I have been researching as much as possible, and it looks like we have settled on the Hampton HI300. A few questions remain though. I did a search and it did seem as though one owner on this site had an external combustion kit installed, although the dealer I'm talking to doesn't think it's possible. I suppose if it is, we would have to have someone cut a hole through our chimney to the outside? (The chimney is an external one) I like the idea of the external combustion, so you're not constantly sucking cold air through all the cracks in your house, causing a draft. I also read on another site that having the air pulled in from an external combustion kit will actually do the reverse of causing a draft, it will push the heat from the stove out toward the cracks in your house, effectively combating drafts? Sounds interesting in theory at least........
Also, the Hamton seems like it is touch too small for our chimney opening, as per the specs, and it doesn't seem like this type of stove has extra panels to cover openings around it....
The Pacific Energy Summit seems to be one of the few stoves that is large enough to cover our opening, but the dealer seems to think that would run us out of the room.
We are planning on using this for nights/weekends/supplementary heat.
Thanks everyone, great site.
