Insulated my fireplace firebox and impact on PE Summit C insert

[donmac]

I have had the Summit C insert for about 6 years now. I have a 17' insulated 6" flex liner (Olympia Armor flex) and insulated block off plate. This past off season I installed an Auber flue temp sensor and used left over chimney liner insulation(white with foil face) to line the three sides of the fireplace firebox.

I have two surface thermometers mounted above the stove door on the left and right corners to reflect stove body temp. These do not show much difference in temps as compared to running stove before insulating the fireplace firebox. The flue temp sensor never goes above 550-600 and after the stove body temp gets to about 450-500, the stove body temp and flue temp are about equal during the cruising burn phase.

The outside of the stove gets much hotter than it used to. I'm talking about the lower ash lip and metal covers below the lip that house the fan switch controls. The sliding air intake control lever gets very hot as well. I have also just noticed that I think a firebrick toward the front center is beginning to deteriorate/ crumble. I run my stove blowers on high during peak burn.

Bottom line I'm concerned my insulating the fireplace firebox is causing the stove body to get too hot. I'm concerned the increased heat will affect blower motors and wiring. Possibly the firebrick issue is a coincidence but I would appreciate input from other veteran insert users and others with the same kind of stove.

 

[mellow]

I found I could run my inserts at lower temps and achieve the same heat output after insulating my fireplace.

I ran an XTD 1.5 and a Jotul c450 for a couple winters with the insulated fireplace and saw no issues to the inserts. After that I only used catalytic inserts that could burn at lower temps. I did not have to run my inserts hard after insulating the fireplace, low-med would give me all the heat I needed for 1200 sq feet.

 

[donmac]

Mellow-thanks for your response, I too am finding the stove can put out more heat with smaller loads. Thanks for sharing helps reassure I have done no harm.

 

[begreen]

There is no real need for concern here. The Summit C's convection lid deflects the hot air downward toward the floor. The ash lip and side blower housings are non-combustible and the blower wiring is high-temp.