I got a free stove! Now what?

[NCJ]

Hi. My in-laws have moved to gas, and gave us an old but excellent condition stove. Dovre 300E 60,000 btu’s.

We have 1300sf with a full basement (2600 total but the basement is unheated). There’s a ~200sf den in the basement with a fireplace. We rarely use this room. The fireplace is brick masonry all the way up with a steel lining. The fireplace opening is about 4 inches wider, and 4 inches higher than the stove, fairly close fit.

We use the room to watch a movie, or do a bit of computer work. We might be in there 3 hours at a time. The fireplace is useless. Won’t hardly warm the room in that amount of time, and we’re nervous about leaving it. So we usually just run a space heater.

Obviously, this wood stove is too much stove for the room, and maybe too big for the fireplace opening. But would it work okay for how we would use it? We would probably start a fire, watch a movie, and let it go out, safely contained in the wood stove so we could leave the room. I also wonder about using it to heat other parts of the house. A pass through vent through the ceiling of that room would put heat into the dining room/kitchen part of the house. I’m not sure how effective that would be. We’ve also thought about taking out a 10’ section of wall, which might allow heat from this wood stove to heat other parts of the basement, which is where I work, and go up the stairs to the rest of the house. These are appealing possibilities, since we heat with oil!

I would appreciate any words of wisdom. Installing the liner will involve dismantling the damper. path of no return. If this is a bad idea, I could see selling it and buying something smaller. One question I have is whether you can maintain a small fire in a larger stove?

best wishes,
Jay

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Have you priced an insulated liner to go up the chimney?

 

[NCJ]

I have. And free is not free, right? It’s a lot closer to free than it would be without the stove though.
Jay

 

[Tylervt]

Hey,
That's my stove!
Not many of these out there. I would take down the wall after you have a few fires and let the heat warm the whole basement and flow up the stairway. Mine is set up the same way in my living room in front of the fireplace. Maybe not such a good idea to cut holes in the ceiling/upstairs floor. Fire then has a path right up to you!

 

[brenndatomu]

I have. And free is not free, right? It’s a lot closer to free than it would be without the stove though.
Jay

That's how I got started...my buddy gave me his old stove after I helped him build a new hearth for his new stove...cost me $900 to get my free stove hooked up!
Its all good though...it got me started on my wood heat journey, and I do not regret it one bit!
I now say free wood stoves are like free dogs...no such thing!

 

[brenndatomu]

Maybe not such a good idea to cut holes in the. ceiling/upstairs floor. Fire then has a path right up to you!

Install a fire damper register, no issue then.

 

[NCJ]

That’s like the free oak I have to burn... once the tree is taken down, by crane, and then I spend a season splitting it.

Fire damper register. Noted. thanks.

Tylervt, sounds like you like your Dovre and that set up. I’m feeling encouraged to go for it. I’ve never seen this stove in use, but it seems very well made to my eye. I’d be curious to know how well it works.

Jay

 

[Tar12]

Is your basement insulated?

 

[NCJ]

That’sa good question. There is no insulation between the floors. In the den where the fireplace is, there is a sheetrock ceiling, without insulation. The walls in the den are paneling, though I’m not sure if they are insulated or not. But the rest of the basement is definitely not. you’re looking at floor joists and subfloor above. Are you thinking the heat would radiate through the floor? I hadn’t considered that. would it?

One downside here is it’s not just one open space outside the den. There are some interior cinderblock walls in the basement, one creating a separate room of approximately 1/4 of the total area, and another separating a one car garage. These are non load bearing, and I could see removing some upper blocks to allow heat to pass through. Both the garage and separate room are used as workshop space.

-Jay

 

[EbS-P]

Well it’s one of those free gifts that’s not a perfect fit for your use case but could be made to work. It fits inside the opening that’s good not see how far back it will sit it’s going to be a tight fit to get the liner down and hooked up. It’s a big stove. Smaller fires can work down to a point. My take is it’s not the right size but for 500$ you can have a stove. Or you could sell it for 500$ maybe?

 

[begreen]

I have seen the Dovre 300H and 300HC, but not the 300E. How is the E model different?

 

[brenndatomu]

Uninsulated ceiling the heat just goes up to the house... uninsulated basement walls you lose the heat to the earth, or outdoors...block is about R1

 

[Tar12]

I am thinking that without some serious renovation opening the area up and insulating and a stove with a blower to move air you are not going to have very good results...

 

[mellow]

I would have the stove checked out by someone qualified to do so, it shows signs of having a hard life (over firing).

 

[Tylervt]

How did your in-laws like it? Maybe that was decades ago?

 

[begreen]

I would have the stove checked out by someone qualified to do so, it shows signs of having a hard life (over firing).

I was thinking the same. The Dovre 300 is a serious heater but eventually, parts can fail. Typically this will be in the secondary burn area with a turbulator or air injector burnout. This location should be examined.

 

[mellow]

I don't know if the E has the cat option on it or not, if the OP could get pictures posted of the inside of the stove that would be helpful.

 

[begreen]

I don't know if the E has the cat option on it or not, if the OP could get pictures posted of the inside of the stove that would be helpful.

I was wondering the same thing. There is the 300H and 300HC where the C indicates the catalyst model. Maybe the 300-E is the Eco version?? I don't think it's an electric model.

 

[NCJ]

I should mention the stove was being stored in my woodworking shop, protected by layer of saw dust. Perhaps that has given it the appearance of a lot of use. I don’t see any evidence of over firing on the inside. Nothing warped. No rust. Maybe the white seals were replaced, but they look good as well, still mostly white. This was in the finished basement of someone’s mountain vacation home, with central heat.

Not sure what the E is for. Nothing about it in the owners manual. There’s no catalyst in this one.

Thanks for all the replies.

-Jay

 

[BillBurns]

Looks like a great stove to me. Free? Thats awesome. I know itll cost ya to put it in, but hey, youre ahead of the game. My stove was really cheap, free.....I traded for it. No cash exchanged. My friend didnt need it anymore. He wanted 300 for it, so I guess thats what I paid. Your stove looks sweet.....pretty big huh?

 

[mellow]

A stove that has been overfired sometime in its life once or many times will show white, that is why many people will paint stoves to sell them.

 

[bigealta]

A stove that has been overfired sometime in its life once or many times will show white, that is why many people will paint stoves to sell them.

View attachment 306460

Interesting. Learned something new here today.