Help with running liner from older Aurora insert

[photoman]

hi guys, I have been reading over this forum for a few months and searching the web, but haven't had much luck with finding an answer.

I have an older Aurora insert (can't find a model #) that came with my house when I moved in last year. The previous owners of the house didn't have any info on the stove, but they never used it.

I have gathered that since there is isn't any updraft in my stove that it probably needs a liner. So I pulled the stove out this past weekend expecting to find some sort of opeing on the top. The top actually starts to slant backwards into my original fireplace just past the part that rests against the brick. No big deal, the opening is a rectangle approximately 3" x 9" (rough guestimate), but the damper (part that controls outflow - for lack of a better description) sits above the opening, and won't lay back far enough for me to mount an adapter (I think).

So can someone with experience tell me how I can mount an adapter so I can purchase a liner. can I just remove the damper and that tab that keeps it from completely closing to mount liner?

Thanks in advance!

 

[BrotherBart]

We need some pictures of that insert and the damper/flue outlet on it.

 

[photoman]

Here are a few pics.

How it sits now

Close up on the badge

fully closed

One open view

Second open view

 

[BrotherBart]

Now THAT is an interesting stack damper setup. There are adapters available that should fit over that flue outlet and hook up to a liner. The online liner dealers have them. They cost a hundred and up. I would advise not doing it. I put an adapter on my old insert and connected a liner. On the very first burn the sucker took off and went straight up to 1,200 degrees and came close to burning this place down.

When the old inserts were designed and tested nobody ever dreamed that somebody would someday attach a twenty or so foot pipe to the top of them. So they were designed and tested using the low draft available when they were just pushed into an ordinary fireplace. When you attach a liner and create a huge draft they will just take off and suck intake air into every crevice available and the temp heads for the sky.

Invest the adapter money in a newer more efficient stove/insert that will heat better, be safer, use less wood and not scare the hell out of you. That is what I ended up doing.

 

[photoman]

thanks for the advice and the heed of warning. is there anyway to help the draft as the insert sits now? so tons of smoke won't billow out the door, or do you feel it is a lost cause?

 

[BrotherBart]

The first thing is that you have to find out what shape that chimney is in. Could be plugged up with creosote just waiting to light off. If the chimney is clean then you have to get hot fires started to try to get a draft going in the chimney. That stove has to heat a lot of mass up there before the chimney will start drawing the smoke up it instead of it coming back in the room.

Get you a stove top thermometer and work the stove up to five hundred degrees with those air screws open and then crack the door open just a little for a minute before opening it all the way. Give the draft a chance to pull the smoke. It shouldn't bleed smoke back into the room.

But the final assessment is that that stove is the equivalent of a tired old worn out car with no brakes and you would not trust your life to one of them either.

 

[photoman]

i used to be a roofer, so i checked the chimney before I even thought about lighting the stove... it is clean as can be. almost like it was never used type of clean. i'll hit home depot tomorrow for a thermometer and see if i can get it burning hot. i may have to wait another season before replacing it, money's a bit tight. thank you for all your help.

 

[BrotherBart]

Good luck with the old box. From the pics it looked like it had been burned hot and clean.