Insert - or - freestanding on the hearth ???

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I asked this same exact question about a year ago, I am happy I went with free standing stove. I was looking for heat output and visual appearance as this hearth is the center of our living room. I didnt want to have an extension cord running along my hearth and I like the dead silence of no fan running, snow falling outside and the stove burning and raditating heat. I had tight clearances as well, just managed to get the stove to fit in the opening with the short leg kit and had to create a custom heat shield for the mantel.

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/install-complete.89047/
 
There are inserts that are designed to convect well even with the blower off. Regency has a hearth heater insert H2100 designed this way. Pacific Energy inserts are also designed to do this.

At high altitude, the flue liner is going to be of key importance for proper draft. And given the state of the flue, it must be insulated. My concern is that this is a ranch house and often their chimneys are short. How tall is the current chimney and what is the throat dimension of the current flue?
 
Thanks for the cautions - the chimney has been inspected by an installer who owns a sweep business. It's not like the chimney is about to fall over, but I don't want to weaken it more by knocking a hole in it.

It is (approx) 5 feet from the lintel to the ceiling, a foot (at least) through the roof, and the chimney rises another 5 feet from the roof. The chimney measures 6 x 14 inside.
 
I would advise against connecting a rear-exit stove to such a short chimney. At 7500ft the stove will need all the draft it can get. For this reason I'd stick with an insert and definitely insulate the liner.
 
Thanks for the cautions - the chimney has been inspected by an installer who owns a sweep business. It's not like the chimney is about to fall over, but I don't want to weaken it more by knocking a hole in it.

It is (approx) 5 feet from the lintel to the ceiling, a foot (at least) through the roof, and the chimney rises another 5 feet from the roof. The chimney measures 6 x 14 inside.

Good that you had it inspected but I am worried about the length. That makes it only 11 to 12 ft of chimney length and that at over 6000 ft of altitude. Unless your house is very leaky you will almost certainly have problems with your draft. Most stove companies recommend a minimum chimney height of 15 ft. Some people can get away with less (I only have 13 ft and the stove runs fine.) but you should be prepared that the chimney will need an extension to draft efficiently. You may also have trouble putting down a 6 inch liner through a 6 inch wide chimney especially when it is not tiled but looks more like corrugated roofing material as you say (pics?). An insulated liner will not fit regardless which means you will have to use vermiculate or similar to insulate your chimney.

Overall, no one here wants to discourage you but please be aware that for your particular application things are not as straightforward as you would like them to be. If you take shortcuts you will most likely not have much fun with your new stove.
 
Well, one thing the house has going for it is that it is leaky. Very leaky. If the pipe must be extended, then so be it, but I'd be reluctant to do that since even a little higher would make the system considerably more difficult to clean.

Shortcuts... the main shortcut that occupants of this house have been doing for years, including me last winter, is to continue to burn wood in that fireplace. There are so many shortcuts in this house that shortcuts are not just a building method but an actual building material. But I digress...

So here's some photos. The flue actually does not go right up the center, but off up to the right - so as to miss the viga. It might look funny, but one could install a side-loader off-center, to the right, and gain use of the side door and a straighter shot for the vent. It's an oddly-shaped fireplace... 29 x 26, nearly square, and very deep. The smoke smudging that you see between the lintel and mantlepiece comes more from having big fires with the wood not pushed far enough back, than from poor drafting. (The mantlepiece is non-combustible). The final photo is peering down the chimney, that shows a really good look at the shortcut someone took ninety years ago. Actually, it's probably more accurate to say they were making do the best they could with what was on hand out in the middle of nowhere with no money.

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If you placed a marble on the right side of your mantle and let it go, would it run off the left side or is that just the camera angle?
Just curious, my house is far from perfect!
 
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If you placed a marble on the right side of your mantle and let it go, would it run off the left side or is that just the camera angle?
Just curious, my house is far from perfect!

LOL, that is mostly my crooked camera. But look closely at the ceiling... it looks bowed, but the plaster has not cracked, so I am thinking it was built that way. The roof on top (two or more built up layers) is not bowed.

Where your marble would roll the fastest would be the floor in a bedroom far enough away from this fireplace that it won't feel much heat. (Although this bedroom has its own fireplace; the house has SIX chimneys, 2 of which I plan to use.) Some out-of-work sheepherder -errr - architect, sloped a roof to pour off right into a garden plot of iris, right at the base of the building. No gutters, no drainage. And then people turned on the sprinkler as well. Granted, we are in New Mexico and not coastal Washington, but still, how could it NOT settle and sink.

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If I won the lottery, I'd raize the house and start over. If I were not allowed to do that, I'd put a gazillion dollars into foundation work, new roof, new windows, and new wiring. Yes, gutters too. Since I have not won the lottery, I am trying to figure how to get 20 more years out of this hundred year old house that was designed and built for fifty. It is leaky (even if it did not have six chimneys), drafty, single pane windows in decaying wooden frames, not well insulated, does not take advantage of southern exposure, and has three very thirsty 1960's propane furnaces that won't die. We are surrounded by pinon and juniper trees. I am no engineer, but I feel the solution lies in sealing up the big cracks and then kicking out lots and lots of cheap wood-fired BTU's. By the way, andirons made of rebar suck, they are only good for a few seasons before they deform and then burn up.
 
If this is a bedroom check with the local approving authority. Most stoves/inserts are not allowed to be installed in a bedroom.
 
If this is a bedroom check with the local approving authority. Most stoves/inserts are not allowed to be installed in a bedroom.

Sorry, I did not write that clearly enough. The bedroom is where the settling adobe wall is, where the marble would roll fastest on the floor. I mentioned it just as an example of some poor construction decisions that beset this house- this settling addition, with the roof that pours water onto the base of the wall, was put up in the 1930's - Great Depression, no money for highfalutin' engineering. The candidate for the stove or insert is in the living room, in the original 1915-ish part of the house. But once the living room fireplace gets its upgrade, I may just move my bed in there, it will be so comfy! In fact, 3 bedrooms here have open fireplaces already.

By the way, sincere thanks to all for the safey-oriented suggestions. I'd offer another angle to consider, whatever I do: is it safer than the status quo? Because most likely, if I use any common sense at all, safety will be increased even if it is not the ideal set up.
 
2) Cost of electricity (am I being a cheapskate? Is the cost of running the blower even significant?)

I run the blower at about 1/3 to 1/2 speed all the time and my biggest electric bill in the last year was $100 for two months. My other heat besides wood is electricity so that bill included a time or two when the electric heat kicked on while I was away.
 
I dunno, Monosperma... I think that's a damn cool house. I'm an old house nut, and I could have some real fun working on a place like that.
 
I love the adobe styled homes, especially the older ones. I'd go with a freestanding, rear venting stove if this was my setup. But, I prefer freestanding stoves. So, this is a biased opinion.

I'd also go with a cat stove like a Fireview since your location can have wild temperature swings that may not always call for a lot of heat.
 
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If the Fireview is an easy breather, that's a good suggestion. I would contact Woodstock and give them the installation specifics with a focus on the chimney height and location altitude.
 
If the Fireview is an easy breather, that's a good suggestion. I would contact Woodstock and give them the installation specifics with a focus on the chimney height and location altitude.

I honestly don't know. But, I do not know of any stove that says it will work with a 12' chimney (which someone calculated earlier). Again, if this was me, I'd probably look into extending the chimney a few feet in the most economical way possible while still looking pleasant.
 
I do love the Internet and sites like this one. Just as in life, no one person has all the good ideas. Thanks for the several suggestions, guys. I went to a couple of shops today and looked at and priced the Jotul F400 and F500, the VC Resolute Acclaim, the Regency Hearth Heater, and the PE Vista. They do not give any of them away, do they. Excellent discussion of the issues my house presents. As for the Woodstock Fireview - wow, gorgeous stove. Had I looked a month ago, I might have saved $500-$700, as they had a sale that ended August 12. I may still call them up and beg.
 
This is peak season now. Prices will be high for the next few months.
 
I'd say no, and same for the Oslo and Castine. You want a very easy breathing stove or you will be complaining about poor performance, puffbacks and smoke spillage in a month or so.
 
You are asking for failure with the VC stove with your setup. I'd avoid it for your needs.
 
I do love the Internet and sites like this one. Just as in life, no one person has all the good ideas. Thanks for the several suggestions, guys. I went to a couple of shops today and looked at and priced the Jotul F400 and F500, the VC Resolute Acclaim, the Regency Hearth Heater, and the PE Vista. They do not give any of them away, do they. Excellent discussion of the issues my house presents. As for the Woodstock Fireview - wow, gorgeous stove. Had I looked a month ago, I might have saved $500-$700, as they had a sale that ended August 12. I may still call them up and beg.

Do you have any option of increasing the chimney height?
 
Do you have any option of increasing the chimney height?

No reason I could not run a rigid pipe above the chimney a few more feet; it might take some guy-wires, which can be done. The drawback is that, at the chimney's present height, I can presently clean the to-be-installed-stovepipe by standing on the roof and inserting a brush into a pipe that rises a convenient five feet from the roof. The roof is multi-layered, but the top layer is foam with an elastomeric coating on top - in a word, delicate. So increasing the height of the stovepipe would mean every time the stovepipe needs a swabbing, someone would have to haul a stepladder up to the roof, and a piece of plywood to protect the roof surface from the ladder. The slope is gentle, so I don't think the slope makes the stepladder dangerous, but I am a bold guy. Now, I'd be willing to do that once or twice a year. But to make a long story short, it is possible that, in years to come, other people, not myself, who are less enthusiastic about home care in general, and not wood stove conneseurs in particular, might be the ones residing here for periods of time. And they may find this cleaning procedure with prophylactic plywood and balancing on uneven step ladders on a roof to be something they'd rather put off or delegate to other, even less competent persons. And so, if I can avoid that set up, I sure would like to. If I cannot avoid it, it will be one more PITA I will have to work around.
 
No reason I could not run a rigid pipe above the chimney a few more feet; it might take some guy-wires, which can be done. The drawback is that, at the chimney's present height, I can presently clean the to-be-installed-stovepipe by standing on the roof and inserting a brush into a pipe that rises a convenient five feet from the roof. The roof is multi-layered, but the top layer is foam with an elastomeric coating on top - in a word, delicate. So increasing the height of the stovepipe would mean every time the stovepipe needs a swabbing, someone would have to haul a stepladder up to the roof, and a piece of plywood to protect the roof surface from the ladder. The slope is gentle, so I don't think the slope makes the stepladder dangerous, but I am a bold guy. Now, I'd be willing to do that once or twice a year. But to make a long story short, it is possible that, in years to come, other people, not myself, who are less enthusiastic about home care in general, and not wood stove conneseurs in particular, might be the ones residing here for periods of time. And they may find this cleaning procedure with prophylactic plywood and balancing on uneven step ladders on a roof to be something they'd rather put off or delegate to other, even less competent persons. And so, if I can avoid that set up, I sure would like to. If I cannot avoid it, it will be one more PITA I will have to work around.
Buy a sooteater and clean the chimney from the bottom up. A lot of us use the sooteater. I have high and steep roofs and it would cost me $450 to have someone clean the three chimneys. The Sooteater cost me about $80 with extra extension rods.
 
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Buy a sooteater and clean the chimney from the bottom up. A lot of us use the sooteater. I have high and steep roofs and it would cost me $450 to have someone clean the three chimneys. The Sooteater cost me about $80 with extra extension rods.

Not familiar. Can a person run a Sooteater up through a fireplace insert?
 
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