Stove Installed

[kevinmoelk]

Merry Christmas everyone!

Well, following in Hogwildz footsteps, I was up until 1:30am installing my stove. Got it done, double checked everything, triple checked everything, then lit a small fire last night and quadruple checked things.

I'll post more details with pictures later, but for now I'm not crawling inside my attic again to take pictures today, sorry guys. I should pass inspection quite easily I suspect, but would like the forums input for sure... I know I shouldn't have lit a fire, but the excitement overwhelmed me and I couldn't help myself.

I'm very impressed at the stoves control and heat output, very glad folks here talked me into getting a newer stove and tank my old unlisted one.

Well, enjoy, I sincerely hope everyone has a happy holiday!

-Kevin

 

[Elderthewelder]

Looks nice Wrench, good job on the hearth.

 

[begreen]

Wahoo! Merry Christmassss Kevin. She looks great. Congrats, all you need is a nice comfy rug alongside for the dogs and it will be done. I'm looking forward to hearing how the stove works when you really get it fired up. With the winds howling and temps below 20, I think you're going to love that stove.

 

[kd460]

Looks good. Nice X-mas present to self.

Might be the pic and not trying to rain on your parade, but that nice brass finish on the door looks like it has finger prints on it? If so, clean it off with rubbing alcohol so the smudges don't set with heat.

According to my owners manual, if that happens, it will be very difficult to remove. Good luck with it and the inspection, looking forward to more pics, KD

 

[kevinmoelk]

Thanks guys. Elder, the hearth... I decided not to add the quarter round trim along the back edge as previously planned, I cut a piece and didn't like it, so it will live just going back to the wall. I might experiment with some tile border there in the future, but was spending too much time messing around with it and decided I needed the stove!

BG, the dogs have already taken to the stove, lol. I thought the puppies might be apprehensive, but they are just fine with it. Not a roaring fire just yet, still in the break in period, so maybe late tonight or tomorrow I'll really load the heck out of it and see how she does. By the way, I do like the OAK quite a bit, the control is great.

KD, thanks for the tip on the fingerprints... yes those were indeed fingerprints, though some glare too on the photo. There looks like there are some old ones too... I wonder if that stuff used to clean exhaust pipes on motorcycles would work well for the door?

-Kevin

 

[kd460]

Probably the chrome polish/cleaner will work, but, be very carefull with any abrasives or anything that will leave a residue. You don't know how thick the plating is. Probably once in awhile won't hurt, but don't take my word for it. Perhaps your manual says something about it. I know mine just mentions to clean it with rubbing alcohol before firing it up (to remove fingerprints). If it were solid brass, then I would say go for it. Check out a product called "NevR Dull":

(broken link removed)

It works great, does not seem to be abrasive (cotton wadding), and then follow up with the rubbing alcohol. I think ACE or ACO has it. This stuff brings back memories from my Navy days. Good luck, KD

 

[begreen]

That looks more like nickel plating from the picture. If yes, then motorcycle exhaust polish might work. But I would try a good buffing with a soft rag first.

 

[stoveguy2esw]

nice kevin, looks like its burning well in the pic.good clean install at the stove , i like that you have the outside air hookup. it can make a difference in tighter houses. looking forward to seeing rest of install. looks like you made a nice choice on the unit too, country makes a pretty good line.

 

[Rich M]

Looks great, nice job. Now you need to change your signature!

 

[kevinmoelk]

Good point Rich, will change here in just a minute.

Stoveguy, thanks for the kind words. The oak is required by my state, I may have gotten a waiver considering my house is old and leaky, but I didn't try. I did take off the oak temporarily and the performance of the stove fell. It seemed more smoke spilled out into the room, and I swear you could feel the cold air being sucked in around my cruddy windows. Reattached the oak, and both problems were solved. The rest of the install isn't that clean, lol, but I think it will be okay, if not I'll have to make the changes... not a big deal.

BG, you are correct, that is a nickel finish. Soft rag did clean it up quite a bit, but it seems there may be some indelible marks too... at least marks not able to be removed with a soft cloth. Regardless, it looks great walking by the stove, I doubt anyone would stare at the nickel plating trying to find flaws... except maybe me, lol.

KD, haven't looked in the manual for cleaning, but I'm not terribly worried about it at the moment. The stove and double wall both need a paint job, but it's too cold to do outside and too smelly to paint indoors. I'll probably just keep an eye on things and see how it goes. Thanks for the link.

Still have a lot to learn in terms of loading, what size splits to put on, air control, etc. At least I'm on my way now!

-Kevin

 

[begreen]

WM, before you paint the stove pipe check with the manufacturer as to acceptible paints. The installer gave me some Stove Brite which promptly destroyed the DVL pipe finish. Duravent recommends Krylon BBQ black which doesn't contain any acetone. And be sure to have the house wide open when painting. Or better yet, paint it outside. That stuff will burn out a lot of brain cells.

 

[ourhouse]

Looks good,nice job

 

[Roospike]

Nice looking stove Kevin and very good looking install , the modern stove should serve you well.

 

[elkimmeg]

Well kevin how did my tip work with the flashing flange? and did you have to cut out the ridge pole and block it off?


Man you did a lot of work looks good

 

[Elderthewelder]

WM, before you paint the stove pipe check with the manufacturer as to acceptible paints. The installer gave me some Stove Brite which promptly destroyed the DVL pipe finish. Duravent recommends Krylon BBQ black which doesn't contain any acetone. And be sure to have the house wide open when painting. Or better yet, paint it outside. That stuff will burn out a lot of brain cells.

Per the Country C160 owners manual
"Spray can touch ups should be done only with Forest brand paint, avaliable from all Country stove dealers"

btw, another S160 (without the fancy door and legs) just showed up on craigslist in Marysville, about 20 minutes from me
(broken link removed to http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/for/253336391.html)

 

[CountryGal]

Welcome to S160 Striker Country!!

 

[kevinmoelk]

BG, thanks for the painting tip. On the same note, Elder, thanks for reference to the correct paint for the stove. I have no idea who manufactured the double walled pipe, but I'll spot test before painting the whole thing. No plans to paint until the weather gets nice. The interior pipe looks a little funny as the telescoping portion is in a longer extension, hence it goes from that weird metalic color to flat black... Ugly, but oh well.

Thank you Earthharvester, Roospike and CountryGal for the kind words.

Elder, saw the S160 today on craigslist as well, lol. A good deal, but the leg on the left front (the stoves right front leg) looks to be bent inward a little don't you think? In any case, a very fair deal at $300 and with the hearth pad.

Elk, the way the install turned out was pretty ugly frankly. Thinking about it now there are definately things I want to change to make it a little cleaner. The flashing ended up being about 2" away from the ridge from the center of the chimney, it rolled over so easily, I didn't even need to use your trick, but I'm putting it in my memory banks for future reference. I know the flashing is incorrect at this point, I encountered a layer of roll roofing that was tarred down also, and I put the brackets right on top of that rather than fight peeling it down to the underlayment. It's a little siliconed up and fubar, but the important thing... maintaining my 2" mimimum clearance was my main concern. What can I say, it was dangerous up on my roof with 4" of snow, at night, and with snow falling. I did the quickest thing I could do and got my butt off the roof. Hopefully the snow will melt again and I can get back on the roof to clean things up a little.

The chimney may also be a few inches short of being above by 2' from my furnace chimney which is the only thing within 10'. I didn't pull a string level across to check, but it's going to be pretty darn close. I'm definately 3 feet above the exit of the roof.

For the attic insulation guard I simply framed (pretty sloppy but sturdy) up from the ceiling joists to the roof truss above in 4 spots around the chimney. This not only resupported the roof, but served to create the box for the attic insulation guard. The spacing is roughly 7" from the OD of the chimney. I then used wonderboard left at 3ft and cut into panels to form the box. I used some aluminum furnace tape for the little gaps just to keep the dust out, and because I have some blown in insulation and didn't want that creeping through unfettered.

That's about it I suppose, I'll try and get some pictures posted of everything and do a better write up of the process in a few days. One thing is for sure, I could not have done it without all the help and support I received here at hearth. Thanks everyone.

-Kevin

 

[Hogwildz]

Nice work Wrenchmonster. Its amazing how motivated and how much energy ya get, when you want to get a project finished. Even when towards the end and running out of steam , we still find the energy to push on and get it done. Looks like a very nice job, and looks like you will enjoy many fruits from your labor.
Congrats, hope she performs many years of good service for you.

 

[MrGriz]

Congratulations Wrench! What a great Christmas gift to yourself. Looks good, I hope you will post more pictures of the install and the work in the attic.

 

[kevinmoelk]

Thanks Hogwildz. You're absolutely right on the motivation aspect. You get this "do or die", "mind over matter" mentality and whatever obstacles come... you just keep on pushing. It was pretty crazy for me to be climbing around on an icy/snowy roof in the dark. I had already cut the hole in the roof from inside the attic. I could have patched a piece of plywood from the inside and called it quits or just finish the damn job. In the end I was very tired, sore, dirty as hell, itchy from fiberglass, etc. But yesterday we received some freezing rain, and today it is snowing, so I'm glad to have gotten it in when I did. The upside is my oil furnace has only come on twice since I installed the stove... only while I'm sleeping and unable to re-load it. The downside is that I have a cold now and feel like crap. Oh well, at least I have a nice warm fire and some hickory farms to keep me.

MrGriz, thanks. Pictures and a write up to be coming when I'm feeling a bit better. The OAK is still not done really... just a 3" galvanized pipe sticking out of the side of the house, need to figure out a way to finish that and make it look nice. Regardless, yes, more detail to come as I get around to it.

-Kevin

 

[stoveguy2esw]

hey kevin, best part of the unit is you can throw the feet up and cozy to the stove , clear up the sniffles in a flash, looking forward to seeing the pic's myself , but get over the sniffles before getting the camera back out

 

[Hogwildz]

Thanks Hogwildz. You're absolutely right on the motivation aspect. You get this "do or die", "mind over matter" mentality and whatever obstacles come... you just keep on pushing. It was pretty crazy for me to be climbing around on an icy/snowy roof in the dark. I had already cut the hole in the roof from inside the attic. I could have patched a piece of plywood from the inside and called it quits or just finish the damn job. In the end I was very tired, sore, dirty as hell, itchy from fiberglass, etc. But yesterday we received some freezing rain, and today it is snowing, so I'm glad to have gotten it in when I did. The upside is my oil furnace has only come on twice since I installed the stove... only while I'm sleeping and unable to re-load it. The downside is that I have a cold now and feel like crap. Oh well, at least I have a nice warm fire and some hickory farms to keep me.

MrGriz, thanks. Pictures and a write up to be coming when I'm feeling a bit better. The OAK is still not done really... just a 3" galvanized pipe sticking out of the side of the house, need to figure out a way to finish that and make it look nice. Regardless, yes, more detail to come as I get around to it.

-Kevin

Not sure what your siding consists off, but heck your a siding guy, you are sure to have many ideas in mind. The plus side is, being its a cold air intake, you have many more options than you would for an exhaust. The only thing I can think to point out, and I am sure you already know this, is to have some kind of flapper or way to close off the outside air, if/when the stove is not in use. I keep hearing about bad cold drafts from the outside air when not in use. Plus as others recently mentioned, it can also be invaluable in case of a runaway stove. Certainly worth the small investment.

Sorry to hear your feeling under the weather. But in your heart I am sure your saying it was all worth it. Theres nothing like the feeling of accomplishing a major task. And finishing the "next" day is kind of like coming in second place for me. LOL yes I am stubborn, and I have stayed up 2 or more days to finish a "project". Only thing is, to know when to quit if you start feeling like f'it, good enough etc, when ya know its not. Thats when I quit for the night, Cause at that point all the time & effort put in can be turned to crap real quick with a tired less caring decision.

Looks like you did a thorough well laid out job, and that alone takes hours of thinking over at times. You put alot of time and effort in, now you can enjoy the rewards of accomplishment & a job well done. Congrats again. Hope ya feel better soon.

 

[kevinmoelk]

Thanks SG and HW. I'm feeling a little better right now, but maybe it's the drugs, lol.

Good point on the shut off Hogwildz. I do need to put that in line somewhere, probably near the stove would be convenient, huh? I could not find any 3" gates at home ripoff, but haven't done an exhaustive search either. I'm wondering however, just looking at the OAK, where it connects to the stove isn't exactly what I would call sealed. The entrance is created by the bottom heat sheild, the OAK channel is in the center, you can clearly see a gap along the whole plate where it meets the stove body, maybe 1/16" gap. Without it being perfectly sealed I wonder how effective it would be to have an extra shut off, beyond shutting off the air control on the stove itself.

-Kevin

 

[Hogwildz]

Thanks SG and HW. I'm feeling a little better right now, but maybe it's the drugs, lol.

Good point on the shut off Hogwildz. I do need to put that in line somewhere, probably near the stove would be convenient, huh? I could not find any 3" gates at home ripoff, but haven't done an exhaustive search either. I'm wondering however, just looking at the OAK, where it connects to the stove isn't exactly what I would call sealed. The entrance is created by the bottom heat sheild, the OAK channel is in the center, you can clearly see a gap along the whole plate where it meets the stove body, maybe 1/16" gap. Without it being perfectly sealed I wonder how effective it would be to have an extra shut off, beyond shutting off the air control on the stove itself.

-Kevin

Is this 16th inch gap something you could make a slide plate that in emergency situation could be slide & held into place in that gap? would this effectively kill the outside air if needed?
Or am I not picturing this in my head correctly?

 

[kevinmoelk]

HW, I think you have the right image in your head. Awesome idea! I just looked at it and it's a little tighter than I thought. I tried to slide the flat side of a sawzall blade in there and it wouldn't fit pretty damn close though, I may be able to get a thinner piece of sheet under there. It wouldn't take much, maybe taking the plate off and using a hand file to ease the edges would create enough room for the plate to slip in. I could also maybe modify the adapter piece I made to incorporate a sliding plate. Hummmm. (thinking)

-Kevin