Fisher Grandpa Fireplace series rebuild with bypass, baffle and secondary burn

[Dave R]

Hello All,
A little while back I purchased a Grandpa fireplace series that had an 8" top flue and barometric control on the rear. I changed the flue to 6" and removed the barometric control.I built a baffle plate that uses firebrick and incorporates a smoke bypass , then built a secondary burner. Each piece is built to fit through the front door and nothing is welded in place for future servicing or design changes. I'll have the stove hooked up tomorrow and light the first fire to cure the paint. I live at 9000 ft of elevation with about a 14' stack. I'm using this to heat a garage, so I had to add a little length to the legs to make the lowest part of the air intake at least 18" from the floor. It'll be a fun experiment to see if we can make the old boy burn hot AND clean while experimenting with secondary burn. Wish me luck!

 

[Dave R]

Hello All,
A little while back I purchased a Grandpa fireplace series that had an 8" top flue and barometric control on the rear. I changed the flue to 6" and removed the barometric control.I built a baffle plate that uses firebrick and incorporates a smoke bypass , then built a secondary burner. Each piece is built to fit through the front door and nothing is welded in place for future servicing or design changes. I'll have the stove hooked up tomorrow and light the first fire to cure the paint. I live at 9000 ft of elevation with about a 14' stack. I'm using this to heat a garage, so I had to add a little length to the legs to make the lowest part of the air intake at least 18" from the floor. It'll be a fun experiment to see if we can make the old boy burn hot AND clean while experimenting with secondary burn. Wish me luck!

More pics!

 

[coaly]

Fisher would still be in business if you could have built that in 1988 ! Then everyone else would have copied that too....

When you find one with glass doors, you can switch it over to that one !

 

[ponderosa77]

How is it working?

 

[Dave R]

Well So far pretty good. I had to pull the burner out and add more length to heat the incoming air more before it is allowed into the burn area. I did this by welding in blocker plates and making the air travel back and forth before exiting into the burn area. I know I'm getting secondary burn because I can get quite a rise in stove top temp after shutting down the primary air to just a sliver. I'm getting long clean burns on pine so I believe it's just about right. The bypass is really not needed, if I mod another one I'll probably skip that because I've left it closed and opened the door to reload and didn't get roll out. All in all really happy.