Hearthstone Tribute in Existing Fireplace

[sesro1978]

Hi-

I've been offered a Hearthstone Tribute free standing wood stove (for free).

Our current setup is that we have a pellet stove insert installed into our existing brick fireplace - I'm at my wits end (for various reasons) with this pellet stove and would like to take it out and put the Tribute wood stove in its place - not all the way in, but probably 1/2 to 3/4 of the way in the fireplace. I know I'm going to need to reline the chimney flue (clay) with 6" (sized up from the existing 4" pellet liner), insulated flex pipe and put on a new chimney cap, but what other considerations should I be thinking of here?

I'm not sure if it matters, but the floor in the room with the fireplace is slate (as is the hearth itself), so no wood or combustibles in front of the fireplace itself. Additionally I've contacted out town's codes department to find out if there are any code restrictions/inspections/permits that I should be aware of.

I know this type of thing must have been done before, so any info. that can help would be appreciated!

 

[Woody Stover]

Get as much of the stove out of the fireplace as possible to get the most heat. It may not be as much of an issue if you have an interior chimney, but my exterior chimney was sucking a ton of radiant heat off the stove. I'm sure there must have been small furry creatures warming their toes on the exterior brick.
As far as the slate floor, it may be fine depending on the requirements listed in the manual. I think slate applied directly on a wood sub-floor would be considered combustible....
You don't have a straight shot up the chimney? If you do, you could go with rigid liner.

 

[sesro1978]

Thanks for the reply. Since the chimney is on an exterior wall, I was thinking of throwing some type of reflective surface over the inside of the chimney to help alleviate the radiant heat draw - not sure if that would work?

As far as the slate is concerned, we installed it over the existing concrete pad so no combustible material.

The chimney is a straight shot - just looked to me like the flex liner was easier to install...but then again, I've not done it before so maybe the rigid would be less of an issue than I think...

 

[Woody Stover]

With flex, you don't have to fasten sections together. With a lightweight liner, it's pretty easy to just drop it down the chimney. I prefer the thicker rigid chimney but I had to go with flex, and got the heavy stuff for its durability. I put insulation on it and then my nephew and I pulled it up from the bottom with a nose cone, rather than try to carry it up and then get it to go down the chimney. We put rigid in at his place. We had a rope with a 2x4 on the end, fed the rope through the first section, then lowered it as we riveted on the 4' sections and applied insulation sleeves. The clay liner portion of the chimney was straight but we had to use two 15* elbows and a short section of liner to get through the damper area and over to the fireplace. About 20' there.
I think if you search the site you can find some good info from guys that have done many more installations than I have....

 

[sesro1978]

Hi-

Thanks for the feedback on this! Now I just found out that I was mistaken about the model of this stove - it's not a Tribute, but a Hearthstone II. I'm not sure how this changes the game for me in terms of liner install, etc.

Anyone have one of these? Are parts still available or would I need to have them made (I'm fairly handy, but fabricating stove parts is beyond my skill-set and tool supply)? From talking with the guy who is giving it to me, the stove is in good shape - probably needs a good cleaning and one of the glass pieces is cracked a little, but he says it's been like that for several years and he's heated his home with it with no issues.

Thanks for any help!