Questions about cleaning up and installing a Magnolia stove

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emorems0

New Member
Dec 30, 2022
21
Pennsylvania
We got this magnolia stove in a trade to upgrade the much older, pre-EPA wood stove. Finally got the chimney lining upgrade finished and now we are working on installing the stove itself.

I have a couple of questions as we are cleaning up this stove and getting prepped to install it. We haven't had a stove before that had this air chamber at the top, I assume this is part of what makes it more efficient, but I'm unsure how to get it cleaned out effectively. I cleaned out what I could from the top where the stovepipe connects, it was completely full, there even a mouse nest in there from when it was stored in a shed. I can't seem to get it all out with my shop vac, even with the small hose on my mini shop vac.
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I don't know if you can see anything from these photos inside the top part, but I'm sharing anyway.
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For the firebox part of the stove, we are obviously going to install new firebrick, a new door gasket, and I have a new piece of ceramic glass since this one is cracked. I just don't know how to access the top part for cleaning.

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Second question about the install... there is a hole at the back of the stove which I assume if for fresh air intake. The stove that was previously installed did not gave that and there isn't any hole through the masonry hearth to accommodate an exterior pipe. I'm not sure how to proceed there, is it no good to run a fresh air pipe up the masonry chimney? We will have a class A chimney extension up there, so the termination of the fresh air intake if we took it up the chimney would be 4ft lower than the top of the wood stove chimney pipe. What kind of pipe do you use for a fresh air intake? 20231029_161627.jpg