I just wanted to share my experiences on this topic. I hooked up my DW up to a fireplace back in November. Upon inspection, the fireplace was very clean. Despite having burned a cord in it as a fireplace in the winter of 07/08 and having a cast iron box stove in there for the winters of 08/09 and 09/10. The box stove did not add any measurable amount of build up due to having no baffles or dampers and burning wide open with a non airtight n/s design. I used the fireplace damper to regulate the fire and it worked really well in this way. However, it was unable to heat 1000 sq ft by itself. It could keep the upstairs in the 60's with an occasional 70's peak while chewing a lot of wood! During really low temps it struggled to keep the house comfortable. I ended up with a stove in the basement to take care of the bulk of the heating. The old Surdiac was a pretty good pre EPA sotve but it had short burn times and a tiny firebox. In February of 2010 I bought a rebuilt DW. It was originally intended for the basement, which was unfinished. The stove is rated to heat up to 1600 sq ft. But the entire space being heated was 1750 sq ft from an unfinished basement. It was a tall order for any mid sized stove in the coldest part of the winter. So the decision was made to put the stove upstairs this fall.
This is where my biggest mistake was made. I hooked it up to a block off plate with nothing above to extend to the tile lined part of the chimney. The whole on the block off plate was in the center of it , but it was not lining up with the chimney. It was too far forward. Adding to the trouble was the fireplace damper, which was so helpful wiht the old non-airtight box stove. It served as a trap for anything that would fall in there from the outside. As I stated in the first paragraph, the chimney looked really clean but what was behind the damper plate on the smoke shelf went undetected. So I recently decided to move the block off plate to see how the chimney looked. The tile lined of the chimney was pretty clean! But, the smoke chamber was full of build up. About 3/16" as an average of mixed glossy and ash like build up. What surprised me the most was what I found behind the damper. There were a couple of leaves and a pine cone as well as about three quarts of debris that had gone undetected during my inspection of the chimney. I'm glad I decided to thoroughly check the entire chimney. I removed the damper plate, after brushing it in place, by simply removing a cotter pin and lifting the entire thing out. I was only able to touch what was there after removing the damper. I brushed as much debris away from the shelf with gloves hands, then vacummed out the remaider. This to me was a major hazzard that went undetected to my untrained eye for nearly four years. I'm glad that I decided to really clean the entire thing and also add a length of pipe from the block off plate to the tile lined part of the chimney. This meant a 4.5 foot section of pipe extending above the plate. I plan on relining the entire chimney with a flex pipe by the next burning season, with a cap on top, to prevent anything from falling in there. I feel my experience needed to be shared here. It may help pinpoint problems with other's set ups. Beware of the smoke shelf in your tile lined chimney, it can be a major fire hazzard!
Here are some pictures showing the dirty smoke chaimber before the damper was taken off and pics of the final re-vamp with an added pipe and moved whole on the block off plate.
1. Old block off plate with 90 attached, this is the face that would have been visible if looking up into the fireplace.
2. Looking up the fireplace before clean up, damper still there, you can see the runny build up that had dried up to the touch, as well as build up on the slanted part of the fireplace at the bottom of the picture. The huge smoke chamber with build up. It was four feet up into the tile lined portion!
3. Looking up with damper shut. Yuck!
4. This is what the stove was hooked up to with nothing up top. It's surprising that the stove even drafted like this!
5. This is looking up into the fireplace and up the newly offset section of 4.5' pipe. It is in the fireplace.
6. Looking into the fireplace with the improved set up in place. Newly reset pipe whole and see up th 4.5' section of pipe. This was at night so you can't see daylight.
7. A new 90 in place to replace the old rusty one that was there before. Ready for the stove!
There's still a lot of room for improvement. But this is a step in the right direction and complies with the owners manual. It will eventually have a full 6" liner, cap and insullation all the way up.
This is where my biggest mistake was made. I hooked it up to a block off plate with nothing above to extend to the tile lined part of the chimney. The whole on the block off plate was in the center of it , but it was not lining up with the chimney. It was too far forward. Adding to the trouble was the fireplace damper, which was so helpful wiht the old non-airtight box stove. It served as a trap for anything that would fall in there from the outside. As I stated in the first paragraph, the chimney looked really clean but what was behind the damper plate on the smoke shelf went undetected. So I recently decided to move the block off plate to see how the chimney looked. The tile lined of the chimney was pretty clean! But, the smoke chamber was full of build up. About 3/16" as an average of mixed glossy and ash like build up. What surprised me the most was what I found behind the damper. There were a couple of leaves and a pine cone as well as about three quarts of debris that had gone undetected during my inspection of the chimney. I'm glad I decided to thoroughly check the entire chimney. I removed the damper plate, after brushing it in place, by simply removing a cotter pin and lifting the entire thing out. I was only able to touch what was there after removing the damper. I brushed as much debris away from the shelf with gloves hands, then vacummed out the remaider. This to me was a major hazzard that went undetected to my untrained eye for nearly four years. I'm glad that I decided to really clean the entire thing and also add a length of pipe from the block off plate to the tile lined part of the chimney. This meant a 4.5 foot section of pipe extending above the plate. I plan on relining the entire chimney with a flex pipe by the next burning season, with a cap on top, to prevent anything from falling in there. I feel my experience needed to be shared here. It may help pinpoint problems with other's set ups. Beware of the smoke shelf in your tile lined chimney, it can be a major fire hazzard!
Here are some pictures showing the dirty smoke chaimber before the damper was taken off and pics of the final re-vamp with an added pipe and moved whole on the block off plate.
1. Old block off plate with 90 attached, this is the face that would have been visible if looking up into the fireplace.
2. Looking up the fireplace before clean up, damper still there, you can see the runny build up that had dried up to the touch, as well as build up on the slanted part of the fireplace at the bottom of the picture. The huge smoke chamber with build up. It was four feet up into the tile lined portion!
3. Looking up with damper shut. Yuck!
4. This is what the stove was hooked up to with nothing up top. It's surprising that the stove even drafted like this!
5. This is looking up into the fireplace and up the newly offset section of 4.5' pipe. It is in the fireplace.
6. Looking into the fireplace with the improved set up in place. Newly reset pipe whole and see up th 4.5' section of pipe. This was at night so you can't see daylight.
7. A new 90 in place to replace the old rusty one that was there before. Ready for the stove!
There's still a lot of room for improvement. But this is a step in the right direction and complies with the owners manual. It will eventually have a full 6" liner, cap and insullation all the way up.