The house I bought in July came with an Enviro EF4 insert from the early 2000s. It has been a huge hassle from day one even after replacing countless parts. It is beginning to show its age and is starting to rust pretty heavily. Instead of spending all summer repairing, cleaning, and painting the devil stove, I am beginning to consider replacing the whole unit with a new stove. Would love a thermostat controlled one and would be overjoyed to set it and forget it between cleanings. Nothing worse than waking up at 3:00 AM to a cold house and no fire glow in the living room.
That said, does anyone have a free standing stove that they vent through the chimney? While the inserts are nice and really have a clean look, I am looking at trying to fit a freestanding unit on the hearth and vent it up using the existing 3" chimney kit. I know I will have to play around with getting the alignment correct and may have to even build out the hearth a little to fit a FS unit, but after pulling the stove out numerous times to repair a motor or adjust the damper, the ease of a FS unit's maintenance is really appealing.
The Harman Accentra or XXV is calling my name at the moment. Are there any other problems I may be overlooking other than the alignment and hearth fit? My living room is not the largest and while I would love to set it up in the corner of the room and maintain a fireplace for wood in case of a power outage, I just don't think it is in the cards. Is it possible to fabricate a liner plate to block off the fireplace opening and allow only an exhaust pipe?
That said, does anyone have a free standing stove that they vent through the chimney? While the inserts are nice and really have a clean look, I am looking at trying to fit a freestanding unit on the hearth and vent it up using the existing 3" chimney kit. I know I will have to play around with getting the alignment correct and may have to even build out the hearth a little to fit a FS unit, but after pulling the stove out numerous times to repair a motor or adjust the damper, the ease of a FS unit's maintenance is really appealing.
The Harman Accentra or XXV is calling my name at the moment. Are there any other problems I may be overlooking other than the alignment and hearth fit? My living room is not the largest and while I would love to set it up in the corner of the room and maintain a fireplace for wood in case of a power outage, I just don't think it is in the cards. Is it possible to fabricate a liner plate to block off the fireplace opening and allow only an exhaust pipe?
