New home owner - what insert do I have?

[jkoenig]

Hi all, I just purchased the home about 5 weeks ago and it has a wood stove insert. I would really like to use the stove to heat my house, its a ranch with an open floor plan.

I am having trouble getting the stove to put out much heat, room barely gets above 65.

For starters can anyone tell me what stove I have? I cant find any information on it.

 

[jkoenig]

Here is a pic

 

[webby3650]

It's hard to say what it is. There's lots of stoves out there from the 70's and 80's that were only sold in small areas. Anyone with a welder could fab some up and sell them.

It's very inefficient, and likely does not have a liner, it's probably just pushed into the fireplace. Not code compliant or safe. Have you had the system inspected by a pro?

 

[jkoenig]

Thanks for the reply! I did not have it inspected, the home inspection came up with the septic system/wet needing to be replaced so that was where most of our attention and concern went to.

I am going to pull it out this weekend and see if I can figure anything out. Also going to have the chimney inspected/cleaned. And see about a liner if it doesnt have one already.

The blower seems like it puts out a lot more air until we put it in place and then it seems like it barely has much flow coming out of the vents on top. By a lot more - if I sit the blower and point it towards me I can feel an actual breeze from 8'-10' away. But then when put in place its just a tiny whisp of air at about 20" away from the vents.

 

[webby3650]

Unfortunately a lot of these old inserts had a very large rectangular flue outlet that made them very hard to line. Often there's no room for the adaptor that's needed to make the connection.

 

[bcrtops]

Best advice to you would be to update that insert, have chimney checked & install a good liner for the new updated insert.

 

[jkoenig]

Thanks for the replies! I was able to pull it out and its just sitting in the fireplace, no liner or anything!

My wife and I have talked about it and are going to replace it, for next season though.

Other than for safety reasons, would adding a liner now help out our existing stove?

 

[zmcnutt]

The stove may burn better if you add a properly sized liner depending on whether or not your existing chimney is over sized for the stove. But safety is priority.

 

[jkoenig]

My chimney is rather large, especially considering the size I think the liner would be.
I can get the stove good and hot, but it just seems like I cant get much heat to come into the house from it.

 

[zmcnutt]

I know my old buckstove required an 8 inch round liner it seemed to draw better once I installed it. Does your stove have any damper controls? What controls the blower motor speeds if it is a multi speed set up. I would make sure your not blocking off an intake for the blower when you reinsert the stove I saw where you said it blows a lot more air when you have it pulled out.

 

[jkoenig]

Ok. There is a metal bar on top which opens the damper, I have always had it all the way open.

The fan is variable speed controlled by a knob. I have it all the way up. The fan is in a small box which sits in front on the hearth and blows under/behind/then out the top.

 

[zmcnutt]

Ok I couldn't tell too much from your picture. Are you new to wood burning or have you owned a wood stove previously? You may need to close your damper some once the fire has taken off this way you dont have so much draw and some of your heat will stay in the stove instead of going up the chimney.I would recommend a thermometer for you stove though just to keep an eye on it as to not over fire it.

 

[jkoenig]

Yes I am new to a wood burning stove. The previous owners didn't really offer up any information so I am kinda learing the tricks as I go. I will purchase a thermometer and try to close the damper some to see how that goes. What would a safe temperature be to stay around?

 

[zmcnutt]

Yes I am new to a wood burning stove. The previous owners didn't really offer up any information so I am kinda learing the tricks as I go. I will purchase a thermometer and try to close the damper some to see how that goes. What would a safe temperature be to stay around?

You might want to look up some videos on burning in an old non catalytic stove. Essentially once a fire is established you want to close your damper some but not too much to where the chimney does not draw. You will also want to close your air inlets some if your stove has them. This will keep heat inside your stove ideally heating the air box surrounding your stove which is where your hot air will come from. It takes a little to get used to when you first start with a wood stove as far as knowing when you can close air inlets and how much you can close them.There are some magnetic thermometers that will attach directly to the front of your stove. They are not exactly perfect but gives you a rough idea of your stove temp. I believe my stove runs between 350 to 500*F. I think closing the damper down some might help, but like others said there are a lot better options out there now if you really want to get into wood heating. I know it seems a little backwards but having your blower speed turned all the way up too may not put out as much heat either because you could be cooling the fire box too much before the air can heat up before exiting the stove.Maybe try to turn your blower down some unless you have a roaring fire. Learn as much as you can about operation of a wood stove and be safe. I am not an expert I can only share from my experiences.

 

[jkoenig]

Sounds great! Thanks for all the information, been very helpful!

 

[zmcnutt]

Not a problem. Good luck hopefully you will get that thing figured out.