Hi all. Long time reader, first time poster. My wife and I purchased a house last year that came with the stove insert in the photos. We didn't really know too much about it, and really still don't, but these forums have helped a bunch. Anyway, this was originally set up as a "slammer", but due to some chimney repair work we were required to have a liner installed. Unfortunately, when they did that they removed the damper in order to connect up the pipe, and we've been running without one, only having the air controlled using the front air intakes. As one would imagine, we're going through a lot more wood this year than we did last year when we still had a damper. On the other hand, having the liner has made it MUCH easier to create a draft when it's cold, so it's not all bad. It's in a well insulated finished basement, and can heat the house really nicely on its own when it's 20 outside, and keeps the furnace off most of the time when it's below that.
So here's what I'm thinking. First, I need to get a damper back in the chain. Is it possible to do this considering that the liner comes out of the stove at an angle in order to make it up the chimney? Also, not sure if it comes across in the photos, but there's some fire brick in the back of the stove, and 4 other bricks that can be moved around as needed. Would it help if I put some bricks along the sides above the air channels for the blower?
The next step would be adding a baffle and then maybe introducing secondary air. I was thinking of modifying the design pen used on the Grandma bear fisher stove, as I imagine that would allow for much better combustion before everything goes up the chimney. However, I don't exactly know someone who could weld that up, so I'm hoping I might be able to bolt something together instead....somehow.
After that I was thinking of maybe using some pipe as seen in this design, but without installing a cat because, you know....where would it go?
So, would this be something worthwhile to undertake? We don't really have it in the budget to upgrade to a new stove just yet. Eventually we'd like to, and while we have plenty of well seasoned wood at the moment it would be real nice to not go through all of it. We've gone through about 1 1/2 cords this month, and we only run it when the day isn't going to go above about 35 degrees.
Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks.
So here's what I'm thinking. First, I need to get a damper back in the chain. Is it possible to do this considering that the liner comes out of the stove at an angle in order to make it up the chimney? Also, not sure if it comes across in the photos, but there's some fire brick in the back of the stove, and 4 other bricks that can be moved around as needed. Would it help if I put some bricks along the sides above the air channels for the blower?
The next step would be adding a baffle and then maybe introducing secondary air. I was thinking of modifying the design pen used on the Grandma bear fisher stove, as I imagine that would allow for much better combustion before everything goes up the chimney. However, I don't exactly know someone who could weld that up, so I'm hoping I might be able to bolt something together instead....somehow.
After that I was thinking of maybe using some pipe as seen in this design, but without installing a cat because, you know....where would it go?
So, would this be something worthwhile to undertake? We don't really have it in the budget to upgrade to a new stove just yet. Eventually we'd like to, and while we have plenty of well seasoned wood at the moment it would be real nice to not go through all of it. We've gone through about 1 1/2 cords this month, and we only run it when the day isn't going to go above about 35 degrees.
Any and all advice is welcome. Thanks.
