New member and struggling to find a insert

[tdmsurfguy]

Hi there, as the title says I'm new to the forum so please if this post should be somewhere else let me know. My family and I live in an old 1915 house that we remodeled over the last two years, our last big project inside the house is the brick mantle and fireplace or insert.

We have all the brick work and mantle situation figured, I'm just having a hard time finding a insert that will fit in the firebox. It's a trapezoid shaped box with an outside opening of 29.5" Wide X 34.5" Tall. The biggest issue is the depth and width of the inserts. Most go in to far and are too wide. The only one I found that will fit without any modification is a Avalon/Lopi Small flush hybrid Fyre which quoted from my dealer is $2700 so way over our budget. We'd like to spend around $1000-1200.

I'm also not opposed to installing a freestanding stove and plumbing it through the chimney. The freestanding stoves also seem to be a bit cheaper. My local dealer carries Avalon, Osburn, Napoleon, Pacific Energy, and Quadra-Fire, Vermont Castings, and Majestic. I'd love to buy it from him and shop local but we really would like to use an insert instead of the freestanding option. Please send me any info or guidance you have.

Thanks,

Ron

PS: I'll take a picture of the stove here soon and post it.

 

[Grisu]

Welcome to the forum!

Your budget will be an issue. Very few inserts are that cheap and stoves that can sit in front of the fireplace and rear-vented through the opening are more expensive cast-iron or soapstone units. You may need to see if you can fit a top-vented stove in there. From the height that sounds possible but depth and width could make that difficult. Could you provide additional measurements? You will also need a full 6" liner for your chimney to make that stove or insert work properly and safely. How wide and tall is your chimney? How many sqft of area do you want to heat?

Do you already have several cords of dry wood? Any newer insert/stove needs wood with less than 20% moisture content to burn properly.

 

[Husky]

Liner alone will cost you around $500. You might want to look at used stoves to stay in that budget range other wise I think your going to need about double what your thinking.

 

[begreen]

We need full dimensions of the fireplace to be of help. How deep is it at the top and at the bottom? What are the width and height at the back of the fireplace? Also, how large an area is the fireplace in and how open is this area to the rest of the house? One option that will be closer to budget is to put in a freestanding stove with a full liner. Would that be ok?

 

[tdmsurfguy]

I'm waiting for my wife to send me pictures and the measurements. I also got permission to spend up to $1500 for the stove. I know I'm going to have to spend around $550 for the piping. I'm not opposed to placing a freestanding fireplace instead of an insert. During our remodel we insulated the entire house and installed a new heat pump. We're also lucky enough to have a local power supplier so our power is pretty cheap. The main living space/ kitchen area we would be heating is maybe 1000sqft. All we are really after to some of the comfort of wood heat, the ambiance, and to help heat some of the house. I've included a picture of the fireplace below along with a crude drawing and lengths.

I'm almost starting to think that it might be cheaper and easier to just get a glass front with doors and just use the fireplace as ambiance.