Outside air for FW300010

[TreeTrunk]

I am having a problem figuring out how to bring in outside combustion air for a Century FW300010 woodstove (seems to be identical to DutchWest CDW300007 both by Vermont Castings).

Living in Interior Alaska where the temperature doesn’t only drop below -40F but stays there for weeks at a time, every little energy improvement counts. Our house is newly built, well insulated and tight.

The challenge with this stove that the air intake is located above the door as can be seen here: on the attached picture. I have not been able to find a factory made kit that works or could be modified to work, but since this is a fairly common stove, having been sold at Lowes at a very reasonable price I am wondering if anybody has found a good solution.

What I have considered;

a: Do nothing.
Problem, -40 draft being sucked in through every crack in the house.
b: Bring in a air duct that terminates in front of the air intake
Problem visually unappealing, questionable efficancy
c; Bring air in through the ash drawer at the bottom of the stove.
Problem, fire hazard?

So if anybody has knows of a solution that works for this stove or a similar one I would really appreciate some advice.

 

[InTheRockies]

It's too bad they don't offer an outside air kit for this particular model. (It is listed as an option for some of their stoves, such as the Century FW247001.) Have you already installed and used the stove? If not, is there anyway that you could exchange it for one of the models that has an optional outside air kit?

 

[KWillets]

The secondary air comes in through a T-shaped manifold that pokes through the back of the stove, at least for the models I've seen. You could feed outside air into that.

It's funny that I wasn't aware that there's a hookup for an outside air kit on the FW247001, but the instructions say there is. Supposedly it's on the bottom of the pedestal, where it would have to feed into the ash drawer box. This stove also gets its primary air above the door. The hookup may just vent outside air into the room. I'm not near it right now to find out.

 

[savageactor7]

Welcome TreeTrunk is there an 800 number that you could get advice from a factory rep?

 

[moshiersr]

I have the same stove, and I think it is probably possible for someone to fabricate an outside air kit, but it would probably require welding on some "duct" work. I would be pretty extensive retrofit. It's not as simple as other stoves that have all their air coming from one location.

I'd vote for option A or option D - none of the above, take the stove to a fab shop and have them build you some manifolds/duct work, and that still might not look too pretty since it will be on the front of the stove..

 

[KWillets]

Oops, I had my model numbers wrong. The FW247001 apparently has some ducting for outside air. Ours does not.

 

[TreeTrunk]

Thanks for the advice and welcoming to the board!

This will be my third year with the stove now, so taking it back is not an option. For most part I like it. It can give of a lot of heat and simmers for a fairly long time during those cold winter nights.

Getting advice from the manufacturer is more easily said than done. Vermont Castings / Century only list snail mail on their webpage, no technical hotline nor email support, (contact info anybody???) but instead refers you to your local dealer.

There I have two options, asking Lowes where I got the stove or going the local woodstove store.

Lowes had the same answer to this as to most other technical questions that I have tried to get an answer for, “Huh, you are trying to do what?” and the woodstove store has not carried this model and was not going out of their way to find a solution for my since I did not buy it from them.

Century FW247001 has the air intake on the bottom not on the top as my stove does. However if there is a secondary air intake on the back like KWillets suggest that would make the hookup a lot easier. I thought I had looked carefully for air intake other than the front, but it is definitely worth a second look to night.

In the meantime I was playing with PhotoShop, and came up with this rough design. Air coming up along the side of the stove, from a duct in the floor connecting, to some sort of custom made bracket connecting to the front of the stove. Wouldn’t be pretty but would probably work.