Questions on EPA ZC Fireplace installation options, safety, feasibility, etc.

[OakNCherry]

Hello All,


I posted on here a few months ago with questions about an installation of a wood burning insert into an old (circa 1979) Majestic 36A ZC fireplace, which is currently housing a FPX gas insert. After scraping that idea (couldn't get comfortable with the safety of stuffing a 300 pound wood insert into it), we decided to pursue the installation of a modern, EPA, zero clearance fireplace instead, which would be more money, but worth it for the safety and peace of mind. Our contractor suggests looking at the Ambiance Elegance 36. After reading the manual, it looks like a pretty nice unit. I had a few questions regarding the manual and the install.

Manual diagrams

The manual shows two diagrams for installations: one for a straight “square” installation into a chase and a second for a corner installation (both on page 11 of the PDF). The corner install appears to be a 45 degree “across a corner” install which uses two 45-degree angles and a 90. What we have now is technically a corner installation, but its not a perfect 45-degree wall to wall “across a corner” install. The right side of the stone starts on a wall, but the left side of the stone meets a 16-inch-thick jutting out entertainment cabinet (see diagram and picture). Essentially, if you remove the cabinet from the sight picture, this is a lop-sided trapezoid, if we want to get technical.

Question

My question is, does the fact that we don’t have a perfect 45-degree angle affect our installation plans? The corner install diagram on page 11 suggests that in order to install this on a corner, we would need 72.5 inches across the corner, but we only have 65 inches (see my hand drawn diagram). Geometrically, I agree that if our plan was to install across a 45 degree corner and we only had 65 inches, we would be dead in the water, because its physically impossible to fit a triangle into a smaller triangle; but because we don’t have a 45 degree triangle-corner, it seems the current unit will physically fit in the space we have, especially considering the dimensions of the current fireplace (see page 2 of the Majestic manual). We also appear to be able to meet the clearance requirements.

While we plan on getting rid of the cabinet, we wanted to know if there is anything inherently wrong with installing this unit in the existing space. The “72.5 inch” requirement appears to only be applicable to a 45-degree corner install and seems to be more or less listed in the diagram for geometric purposes, rather than as a safety requirement. It seems like it is there to allow dealers/installers to quickly estimate the space needed for a customer.

Are the square and 45-degree corner diagrams included in the manual because 99% of the population will choose one of those installations? Or is the fact that they are listed in the manual mean that that ONLY those two exact installations are allowed?

Clearances appear fine

This unit has only a few clearance requirements. Sidewall clearance (page 24 of the PDF) is 16 inches, and its measured from the outer edge of the fuel door, so the way I see it, we have 65 inches, less the fuel door’s 27 inches, is 38 inches, which divided by 2 is 19 inches on each side of the loading doors, so assuming this unit fits in the space we have, we appear to have the clearances. Everything else is n/a because we don’t have a mantle nor wood paneling around the fireplace, and this unit can be pushed up against combustible materials in the chase (we would use cement board and metal studs for most of the framing).

Notes
We want to get rid of the cabinet anyway, so if space is an issue we can expand a little, but I really don’t want this fireplace taking up a larger portion of the room because the room is small enough to begin with and the current angle works with the flow of the room.

 

[OakNCherry]

Can anyone offer any insight? Thanks!

 

[begreen]

As long as all clearances are met or exceeded then it will be ok. Measure twice!.