Hello everyone. I am new to this site, and have read many good post so far. I grew up with a wood burnign stove, mostly the free standing style. In the woods every weekend with dad cutting firewood (was our only heat) Well I am grown now with my own ankel bitters. I purchased a Fisher insert stove today. its in good shape, but needs a few items to be ready to run. I am putting it in a brick fireplace. It came with front panels to block off the sides of the stove but no top plate. Can I make my own? How do I seal them to the fireplace? do I need to mechanicaly fasten them to the brick? and what about the flue, the stoves dampner is on the top, and it is flat with no pipe or flange to attach any pipe to. Can I get parts for this or is there universal kit for the stove. Also some of the brick on the back wall are broken. where can I get some to replace them? thanks for the help, I am sure I will have more questions.
Fisher insert
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Gooserider
Mod Emeritus
Welcome to the Hearth, sounds like you have the right idea about wanting to heat with wood, but are kind of starting off on the wrong foot.
Fishers were decent units in their day, and a ton of them were sold, but AFAIK the company is long gone, and their stoves are way obsolete by modern standards. We tend to refer to them as "Smoke Dragon" class stoves. It would probably take more work, and cost nearly as much to get that old stove into shape to burn as it would to replace it with a modern EPA-II approved unit, and once you got it in shape you'd have a stove that was inefficient, made lots of smoke, burned more wood than it should, and probably wasn't up to modern safety standards.
A new EPA approved stove can be had for reasonable sums (Englander stoves start for under a grand at your local "big box" store, and represent a great value) and you get a stove that meets the latest safety standards, will either give the same heat on less wood or more heat on the same amount of wood, has a nice window to watch the fire through (and which stays clean, unlike the old stoves) and is an all around better unit.
I just made the switch from a smoke dragon as my primary burner to a VC Encore Cat stove, and with a slightly smaller fire box, I'm getting longer burns, using a LOT less wood, and feel like I'm keeping the house warmer with much less effort. I have to admit that I had some doubts about all the claims made for modern stoves before I switched, but now I believe them - I'm actually finding things are better than I was led to expect.
Gooserider
Fishers were decent units in their day, and a ton of them were sold, but AFAIK the company is long gone, and their stoves are way obsolete by modern standards. We tend to refer to them as "Smoke Dragon" class stoves. It would probably take more work, and cost nearly as much to get that old stove into shape to burn as it would to replace it with a modern EPA-II approved unit, and once you got it in shape you'd have a stove that was inefficient, made lots of smoke, burned more wood than it should, and probably wasn't up to modern safety standards.
A new EPA approved stove can be had for reasonable sums (Englander stoves start for under a grand at your local "big box" store, and represent a great value) and you get a stove that meets the latest safety standards, will either give the same heat on less wood or more heat on the same amount of wood, has a nice window to watch the fire through (and which stays clean, unlike the old stoves) and is an all around better unit.
I just made the switch from a smoke dragon as my primary burner to a VC Encore Cat stove, and with a slightly smaller fire box, I'm getting longer burns, using a LOT less wood, and feel like I'm keeping the house warmer with much less effort. I have to admit that I had some doubts about all the claims made for modern stoves before I switched, but now I believe them - I'm actually finding things are better than I was led to expect.
Gooserider
thank you Gooserider for the information. I am not looking for a stove to heat all the time, as I live in Georgia (very mild weather) The stove I bought is in great shape with just a little fab work on my part. I dont like the look of todays stoves. dont want glass front. I am sure I can make the side and upper plates. the ones that came with it are not wide enough. Cut or something. I want to make new ones. but do not know how to seal them to the fireplace front. and do I just leave the top open to the dampner in the fire place. My fire place has good draw. I have the online manual for the stove. but it has nothing in it about the insert model. And the seal around the door. is it just the normal roap typ that you find at the local hardware store? I only gave $100 for it. the guy was going to put it in a pre-fab till he found out it would not fit.
I am new to this site as well. We have a fisher insert and I have been searching for any information on the installation of it. We have it in the fireplae and there is no smoke coming out of anywhere. BUT, we have an extra piece??? about 5 in wide and 4ft or so long. Any ideas. We have called several fireplace insert companies but no one will even talk to us about it. We were told by one company that Fishers are illegal??? HELP Thank you
Gooserider
Mod Emeritus
Fishers are pre-EPA smoke dragons, as such they are illegal for new installs in many places, and even when they are grandfathered in, they are usually subject to additional restrictions such as "no-burn days" and so forth. I don't think this is an issue in GA, but it may be in CA, and I i know it is in WA and some parts of CO, not sure about other states.
Part of the issues with many of the old inserts is that there have been changes in the way stoves get hooked up in order to make them much safer and easier to keep clean. It used to be OK to do a "slammer" install, where you just stuck the insert into the fireplace with an open flue, sealed the front of the insert to the opening, and let the smoke find it's own way up. This was dangerous, it caused a lot of house fires and CO poisonings, and is NO LONGER A LEGAL INSTALL. Modern installs require at least a "direct connect" where the stove feeds into a length of approved flue pipe that goes up the chimney past the damper, and makes use of a damper blockoff plate, and preferably a full length chimney liner that runs to the top of the chimney - this is much safer and easier to maintain. Often you need to get / make adapters to allow connecting these types of flues to an old stove.
There is a definite reluctance among the members of this site to get these old dinosoars back into action, they are NOT particularly safe by modern standards, even if they look like they are in "great shape". They waste a lot of wood, and tend to smoke out the neighbors - if not properly maintained, they are also a chimney fire waiting to happen.
You will hear us talking a great deal about following Codes here on the forums - to a large extent the codes are a written memorial, as nearly every requirement is there because someone DIED from doing it in a way not in the code. The Fishers and inserts like them caused a great deal of the modern codes to be written.
BTW, I wasn't all that into the looks of modern stoves until I got one. Being able to watch the fire is a great aid in controlling the stove, not to mention the fact that it's fun. I didn't appreciate seeing the fire until I had a stove that let me do so, now I'm not in any hurry to go back.
Gooserider
Part of the issues with many of the old inserts is that there have been changes in the way stoves get hooked up in order to make them much safer and easier to keep clean. It used to be OK to do a "slammer" install, where you just stuck the insert into the fireplace with an open flue, sealed the front of the insert to the opening, and let the smoke find it's own way up. This was dangerous, it caused a lot of house fires and CO poisonings, and is NO LONGER A LEGAL INSTALL. Modern installs require at least a "direct connect" where the stove feeds into a length of approved flue pipe that goes up the chimney past the damper, and makes use of a damper blockoff plate, and preferably a full length chimney liner that runs to the top of the chimney - this is much safer and easier to maintain. Often you need to get / make adapters to allow connecting these types of flues to an old stove.
There is a definite reluctance among the members of this site to get these old dinosoars back into action, they are NOT particularly safe by modern standards, even if they look like they are in "great shape". They waste a lot of wood, and tend to smoke out the neighbors - if not properly maintained, they are also a chimney fire waiting to happen.
You will hear us talking a great deal about following Codes here on the forums - to a large extent the codes are a written memorial, as nearly every requirement is there because someone DIED from doing it in a way not in the code. The Fishers and inserts like them caused a great deal of the modern codes to be written.
BTW, I wasn't all that into the looks of modern stoves until I got one. Being able to watch the fire is a great aid in controlling the stove, not to mention the fact that it's fun. I didn't appreciate seeing the fire until I had a stove that let me do so, now I'm not in any hurry to go back.
Gooserider
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